Armenian Church, Dhaka (original) (raw)

Dhaka's Armenian Church (1781) -- remnant of a bygone era. The caretaker is a Bangladeshi Hindu.

The following info is courtesy of armenianlectionary.

The Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection was built in 1781 on the same location of an earlier, wooden chapel which served the cemetery. The church was consecrated by Bishop Ephraim, who later became the Catholicos of the Armenian Church in Echmiadzin in 1809. The name of the little hill is Armenitola. The steeple was originally constructed in 1837, but collapsed during the terrible earthquake of June, 1897. It was subsequently rebuilt. The oil paintings inside the church are attributed to C. Pote, and date to 1849. The original church was paid for through the beneficence of the Armenian merchants (jute trade) Michael Sarkies, Astwasatoor Gavork, Magar Pogose, and Khojah Petrus. The grounds for the cemetery were donated by Agah Catchik Minas. Two of the eminent Zemindars of Dacca's Armenian community were Agah Arathoon Michael, and Nicholas Pogose who founded the Dacca-Pogose School, later named Juggernath College.

See Mesrovb Jacob Seth's "Armenians in India" for more details.