Rickshaw art capital
Dhaka
Hundreds of thousands of cycle rickshaws carry hand-painted panels of film stars, birds and flowers.
Why Dhaka is rickshaw pink
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has more cycle rickshaws than any other city. Each is a moving painting. The folding hood is stitched with coloured plastic and tinsel, and a tin panel at the back is painted by hand in bright enamel. Subjects include film stars, peacocks, village scenes, the Taj Mahal and animals behaving like people. The style took shape from the mid 20th century and is passed on in small workshops in the old city. In 2023 UNESCO added the rickshaws and rickshaw painting of Dhaka to its list of intangible cultural heritage. Motorised vehicles are slowly pushing rickshaws off main roads. Old Dhaka also has the Pink Palace, Ahsan Manzil, on the river.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Dhaka
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Dhaka" on Wikipedia. If you know Dhaka and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇮🇳 The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.
🇮🇳 Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.🇸🇬 Singapore's Peranakan pastelsJoo ChiatRows of early 20th-century shophouses in soft pink, mint and blue, trimmed with plaster flowers and tiles.
🇮🇷 City of the Pink MosqueShirazA mosque tiled in pink roses, where morning sun through coloured glass paints the carpets.
🇦🇲 The Pink CityYerevanArmenia's capital is built of volcanic stone in shades of pink, rose and orange.
🇩🇿 Pastel cubes of the M'zabGhardaïaA Saharan hill town of flat-roofed houses in sand pink, ochre and pale blue, crowned by one plain minaret.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Jaipur In: Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Vrindavan In: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source
- Shiraz Ir: آرش (Arche), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Yerevan Am: Սէրուժ Ուրիշեան (Serouj Ourishian), CC BY 4.0, source
- Ghardaia Dz: Camille Gillet, CC BY-SA 4.0, source