01 TheyAsk_EatFrogs Ch 1

During a brief visit to Bangladesh, in December 2005, I spotted a recent edition of the national encyclopaedia (the Banglapedia), in the showcase of a professor of history at Rajshahi University. I eagerly searched for a reference to the Garos, among who I had carried out research between 1993 and 2000, and to my satisfaction, discovered four whole pages devoted to their history, culture, religion, and habitat. To me this meant they have a place in the national representation of Bangladesh. My pleasure, however, at once gave away to disappointment, as I discovered one more image frozen in time; one that might as well be found in a nineteenth-century colonial report on Garos or another tribe. The Banglapedia described the Garos as follows: