Historical Place of Comilla

Shalbon Bihar

Shalbon Bihar is situated in the western site of Comilla town. It is about 6 mile away from the town. As like the neighboring village “Shalmanpur” this place is also surrounded by “Turnip tree” (Shal) and for that reason this place was named by “Shalbon Bihar”.

Shalbon Bihar is one of the ancient Buddha Bihar (Buddhist or Jaina temple) of Bangladesh. Its length is 12 miles and width is 3 mile. It is 50 feet high from the surface. Shalbon Bihar was established in 7 to 8th century in the reign of deity of Buddha dynasty.

A large Buddhist temple was discovered as a result of an excavation here. Every side of this temple is 550 feet long and there are 115 habitable chambers for the Buddhist mendicant. These chambers were students’ boarding house. The entrance of this Buddha Bihar is only one. After passing the stair case of the entrance was we can see a large (33.23 feet) hall room. If we take a few steps in front of the hall room we can see another hall room and through this hall room if we take another few step of the stair case we can see the way to the central temple. This temple is as like as a cross in the middle of the Buddha Bihar and the length of per arm of this cross is 170 feet. There was a Buddha shape made of bronze in the pavilion of the main place of those arms or sides. This Bihar is surrounded by 16.5 feet thick wall.