Shankar Yadav – the Hindu caretaker of the Armenian Church in Dhaka

Siranush Ghazanchyan

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Shankar Yadav, a practicing Hindu who prays five times a day, takes care of the Armenian Church in Dhaka today, according to an article published by The Wire.

His family moved to Dhaka from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh in the 1930s to look after this Church, Yadav told Neha Simlai, an international consultant on environmental sustainability and conservation management.

Shankar Yadav said he was the third generation in his family to be looking after this church, that sadly nobody visits any more.

The Armenian Church of Holy Resurrection is situated in the Armanitola area of old Dhaka, Bangladesh. The church bears testimony to the existence of a significant Armenian community in the region in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The church was built in 1781 on Armenian Street in Armanitola, then a thriving business district. The site was an Armenian graveyard before the church was built, and the tombstones that have survived serve as a chronicle of Armenian life in the area.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2018/08/21/shankar-yadav-the-hindu-caretaker-of-the-armenian-church-in-dhaka/