Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It sits on the Bay of Bengal and shares most of its borders with India. A small part of its southeast border touches Myanmar. The capital city is Dhaka, and the country became independent in 1971.

Bangladesh is one of the flattest countries in the world. Most of it is a huge delta, which is land built up by rivers dropping mud and sand. Three great rivers meet here: the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. Together they form the largest river delta on Earth. Much of the country sits less than 30 feet above sea level.

This flat, watery land is both a gift and a danger. Rich river mud makes the soil perfect for growing rice and jute, a plant used to make rope and cloth. But every summer, heavy monsoon rains cause floods. In bad years, a third of the country can be underwater. Cyclones from the Bay of Bengal bring huge storm surges that can sweep far inland.

Bangladesh has a long history. The region was once part of ancient Bengal, a place known for poetry, trade, and fine cloth. In the 1700s and 1800s, it was ruled by the British Empire as part of India. When British rule ended in 1947, Bengal was split in two. The eastern half became part of a new country called Pakistan, even though it was more than 1,000 miles away from the western half. After years of tension and a short, painful war in 1971, East Pakistan became the country of Bangladesh.

Most people in Bangladesh speak Bengali, also called Bangla. It is one of the most spoken languages in the world, with over 250 million speakers across Bangladesh and eastern India. About 90 percent of people in Bangladesh are Muslim, and most of the rest are Hindu. The country is famous for its poets and writers, especially Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize in 1913.

In the south, along the coast, lies the Sundarbans. This is the largest mangrove forest on Earth, a tangle of salty swamps and tidal rivers. It is home to the Bengal tiger, which can swim for miles between islands. Only a few hundred tigers live there today, and they are one of the most protected animals in the country.