Wender·Vista
Dhaka
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileBangladesh
on the Buriganga, in the delta of the Ganges

Dhaka

— the city that wakes before the river.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The capital of Bangladesh, set on the slow brown bend of the Buriganga. Old Dhaka holds its narrow lanes the way a hand cups water: Mughal walls at Lalbagh, the pink river-front of Ahsan Manzil, the painted rickshaws moving in their thousands before first prayer. The light here is humid and gold, and nothing in the city is ever quite still.

from the studio
Dhaka
— bring it home

Dhaka, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Dhaka

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the country's largest city, set on the north bank of the Buriganga River in the Ganges Delta. The metropolitan area holds roughly 22 million people, among the densest urban regions on earth. The historic core, Old Dhaka, traces to the 17th-century Mughal settlement of Jahangirnagar; the city has been a regional capital under the Mughals, the British, Pakistan, and independent Bangladesh since 1971. The climate is humid subtropical with a long monsoon from June through September.

— informed by Wikipedia — Dhaka
— the stone

Two Mughal-era buildings anchor the old city. Lalbagh Fort, begun in 1678 by Prince Muhammad Azam Shah and left unfinished, holds the tomb of Pari Bibi beneath a flat dome of black basalt and white marble. Downstream, Ahsan Manzil, the Pink Palace, was built in the 1870s by Nawab Abdul Ghani as the residence of the Dhaka Nawab family and now serves as a national museum on the Buriganga waterfront. Both are protected sites under the Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh.

— the visit

The city is reached through Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, about 17 kilometres north of the centre. Old Dhaka is most easily walked at dawn before the rickshaw traffic thickens; the Star Mosque on Armanitola Road and the river terminal at Sadarghat sit within a kilometre of each other. Sadarghat is the busiest inland port in the country, with launch ferries leaving south down the Buriganga toward the delta districts. The cooler months, November to February, are the practical season for a visit.

— informed by Wikipedia — Sadarghat
— where
Bangladesh · Dhaka, Dhaka Division
— position
23.8103° N · 90.4125° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km W
Lalbagh Fort
Mughal fort
1 km S
Ahsan Manzil
palace museum
2 km N
Star Mosque
mosque
1 km S
Sadarghat
river terminal
N
Dhaka
Lalbagh Fort
Ahsan Manzil
Star Mosque
Sadarghat
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Dhaka — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh, set on the north bank of the Buriganga River in the Ganges Delta. The metropolitan area holds roughly 22 million people, among the densest urban regions in the world.

Old Dhaka is the 17th-century Mughal core of the city, north of the Buriganga waterfront. It holds Lalbagh Fort, Ahsan Manzil, the Star Mosque, and the narrow lanes of the rickshaw trade.

Dhaka's cycle rickshaws are hand-painted in dense layered murals, with film stars, birds, mosques, and flowers. Estimates run into the hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the city, and the painting trade is recognised as living folk art.

November through February, the cool dry months between the end of the monsoon and the start of pre-monsoon heat. Daytime temperatures sit around 25°C and humidity drops well below the summer range.

The Buriganga, a distributary of the Dhaleshwari River in the Ganges Delta. It forms the southern edge of Old Dhaka and meets the busy launch terminal at Sadarghat, the country's largest inland river port.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a thoughtful gift for customers with family roots in Dhaka or the delta districts. The painted rickshaws and the Buriganga light carry the city's texture. A Small with a handwritten studio note travels well.

The piece reads well in Maximalist, Jewel-tone, and South Asian Modern rooms, anywhere saturated colour is welcome. The painted-rickshaw palette also lifts a quieter Mid-century or Bohemian-modern wall as a single statement tile.

A single Large reads cleanly above most consoles; above a full sofa, a 4-tile Mural carries the field, and a 9-tile Mural lets the rickshaw-line detail breathe at room scale.

Yes. For wet rooms and splash zones we recommend the Dura Satin or Matte finish, soft sheen or no sheen, both scratch-resistant. The Glossy finish suits framed wall pieces in dry rooms.

A soft microfibre cloth with water is enough. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, beneath a thin glossy finish, so the image will not lift or fade with cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista tile is original studio work by Reid Wender, the curator. There is no licensing and no third-party imagery. The atlas is built one place at a time, slowly.

— if this one stayed with you

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