Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses that an ethnic-religious minority’s use of a public space is as much a claim to distinct ethnic culture as it is a claim to national belonging.

Paper long abstract:

Rakhaing people of Cox's Bazar, southern Bangladesh, have "Htama-baung" (picnics) on every Friday between the full moon days of May and July, on a shady area of the world longest beach. The development in tourism from the late 1990s has transformed the beach areas, making Rakhaings to shift one place to another for their collective picnics. On Friday, Rakhaing in their friendship groups gather on the beach to drink alcohol, sing and dance, while both males and females dressed in western cloths. Htama-Boung, which involves activities not common in majority Bangladeshi community, can be seen as Rakhaings, the Buddhist minority, are claiming a public space through an enactment of ethnicity against the tourism infrastructures, as well as political and cultural dominances of Bengali majority. In this sense, Htama-Baung is Rakhaing's claim to a public place to conduct cultural activities, against the forces of domination, which include the state, economic interests, and Islamic conservatives. At the same time, an ethnographic study of the picnics also reveals that Rakhaings see Htama-Boung as an act of expressing their belonging to the nation-state of Bangladesh. It is a claim of their rights to use the beach for their distinct cultural activities, as much as the domestic Bengali tourists have their claims to a territory of Bangladesh. Htama-Boung is the appropriation of a space by Bangladeshi Rakhaings to express their ethnic distinction and national belonging.