Rickshaw Art

History

Cycle rickshaws appeared in the region in the 1940s and were at first undecorated. From the late 1940s, painters began adding pictures, including the faces of film stars, to the metal boards at the back, and distinct styles grew up in Dhaka, Rajshahi and other districts. Early masters of the form include R. K. Das, P. C. Das, D. C. Das, Alauddin and Ali Noor.

The pictures follow the times. After the Liberation War, rickshaws showed both the suffering and the triumph of the war years. When political imagery was restricted, painters turned to animals behaving like people, singing, dancing or playing cards. Floral patterns, birds, rural scenes, fables, national heroes, film stars and lettering all appear, and red has long been a dominant colour.

In 2023 UNESCO inscribed Rickshaws and rickshaw painting in Dhaka on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, describing the decorated rickshaws as urban folk art that gives the city a shared identity.

How it's made

Building and painting are separate trades. Rickshaw craftsmen, all of them men, work in teams in workshops to build the vehicle. Painters, both men and women, are commissioned to create the decorations, often working from home. Skills pass on through apprenticeship and within families.

• The backboard: the most elaborate painting goes on the rectangular metal board at the back, between the two wheels.
• Other parts: hoods, seats, the frame, wheels and handles are decorated too, and hoods often carry appliqued cut-outs.
• Paint: painters mostly use enamel paint for its durability, low cost and bright colour, thinned with turpentine or kerosene.
• Brushwork: designs are laid down in bold, smooth strokes of red, orange, blue, green, white and yellow.
• Trimmings: tassels, tinsel and plastic flowers complete the look.

Decorating a whole rickshaw by hand can take several days, while a digital print can be made in hours for far less money. That gap has pushed many painters to put their art on trays, boxes, cups, kettles, glass and tin ornaments instead.

Where it's made

• Dhaka is the heart of the tradition, especially the workshops and painters of Old Dhaka.
• Shops around Bangshal in Old Dhaka sell rickshaw art and decorative items.