countries

Countries

A brief cultural overview of the AA Countries is provided below.

Star Mosque in Dhaka

Bangladesh is a strikingly lush and beautiful land with a rich history and a variety of attractions. Tourist attractions include visits to archaeological sites dating back over 2000 years, the longest beach and the largest littoral mangrove forest in the world, and the grand mansions of 19th-century maharajas.

Rural Bangladesh feels relaxed, spacious and friendly and travelers from India have been surprised to find border officials offering them cups of tea rather than reams of forms to fill in.

Bhutan is an extraordinary place hardly touched by the hands of time. Nestling in the heart of the great Himalaya, it has mesmerized visitors: the environment is pristine, the scenery and architecture awesome, the people are hospitable and charming, and the culture unique in its purity. Attractions include sublime mountain monasteries and imposing dzongs.

Bhutanese art, dance, drama and music is essentially influenced by Buddhism. Paintings are produced for religious purposes, festivals are living manifestations of a national faith, and almost all art, music and dance represents the struggle between good and evil. These traditions are enshrined in their religious festivals called tsechus.

Bhutanese Dzong

Parliament building (India's Capitol Hill)

India sideswipes anyone with its size and diversity. India's social and religious structures have defined the nation's identity and kept it intact for over 4000 years despite invasions, persecution, European colonialism and political upheaval. So resilient are its social and religious institutions that it has absorbed, ignored or thrown off all attempts to radically change or destroy them.

India is a birth place of four religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. India's major religion, Hinduism, is practiced by approximately 80% of the population. Buddhism and Jainism were founded in northern India in about 500 BC. Jewish colonies settled in the Malabar region in the first century AD followed by the introduction of Christianity around that time. Mogul rulers established Islam around the middle of the last millennium. Traditional Indian art is religious in its themes and developments. India has eighteen official languages, but over 1600 minor languages and dialects are spoken across the country.

Resorts in the Maldives woo tourists with promises of 'the last paradise on earth', and offer a pristine tropical island with swaying palm trees, pure white beaches and brilliant turquoise lagoons. It's also a major destination for scuba divers, who come for the fabulous coral reefs and the wealth of marine life. The Maldives is a chain of 26 coral atolls south-west of Sri Lanka. The 1192 low-lying coral islands are so small that dry land makes up less than 4% of the country's total territory. Most of the time the lagoons are a brilliant blue, with amazing coral reefs and abundant marine life. A strong and adaptive contemporary Divehi culture adorns the Maldivian cultural landscape.

Maldives's pristine tropical islands

A Himalayan mountain

Draped along the greatest heights of the Himalaya, the kingdom of Nepal is a land of sublime scenery, time-worn temples, and some of the best walking trails on earth. It's a country rich in scenic splendor and cultural treasures. The kingdom has long exerted a pull on the Western imagination and this is why so many travelers are drawn back to Nepal, armed the second time round with a greater appreciation of its natural and cultural complexity, and a stout pair of walking boots.

Religion is the lifeblood of the Nepalese. Officially it is a Hindu country, but in practice the religion is a syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs with a pantheon of Tantric deities tagged on. The remainder of the population that isn't Buddhist or Hindu are either Muslim, Christian or shamans.

Pakistan is the site of some of the earliest human settlements, home to an ancient civilization rivaling those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the crucible of two of the world's major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism. The pleasures of Pakistan are ancient: Buddhist monuments, Hindu temples, Islamic palaces, tombs, pleasure grounds and Anglo-Mogul mansions - some in a state of dereliction which makes their former grandeur more emphatic. Sculpture is dominated by Graeco-Buddhist friezes, and crafts by ceramics, jewellery, silk goods and engraved woodwork and metalwork.

Pakistan's flotillas of mirror-buffed and chrome-sequinned vintage Bedford buses and trucks are dazzling works of art. Traditional dances are lusty and vigorous; music is either classical, folk or devotional; and the most patronized literature is a mix of the scholastic and poetic.

Quaid-e-Azim's Tomb

The Temple of Sacred Tooth Relic, Kandy

Sri Lanka is one of the finest islands of its size in all the world, and the country's fabled delights are a treat for any explorer. The coastal stretch south of Colombo offers palm-lined sandy expanses as far as the eye can see. Art forms include the the Kandyan dances, a procession of elephants or the masked devil dances. Sri Lanka has ancient and inspiring architecture in the cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.

Sri Lanka is renowned for its natural wealth where the hill country provides a recluse for people trying to escape the heat of the plains, and where the coast fades away to reveal gorgeous rolling hills often carpeted with tea plantations. The entire island is teeming with bird life and exotics like elephants and leopards are not uncommon. People are friendly and the cuisine is delicious.