Honduras is a country in Central America. Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Most people of Honduras speak the Spanish language (while English has mostly widely spoken). 7,483,763 people live in Honduras and it is in size. It is next to El Salvador. To one side is the Caribbean Sea and to the other in the Pacific Ocean.
The ethnic makeup of Honduras is 90% mestizo, 7% amerindian, 2% black, and 1% white.
Honduras has the world's highest murder rate.
Honduras is divided into 18 departments. The capital city is Tegucigalpa in the Central District.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (officially called People's Republic of Bangladesh) is a country in South Asia. It is next to the North-east Indian provincial regions of India, which converges with Southeast Asia to the east. Its full name is The People's Republic of Bangladesh. The capital and the largest city is Dhaka (formerly "Dacca"). Bangladesh is surrounded on three sides by the Republic of India (Bharat), and Myanmar (Burma) on the south-eastern corner. It is near the People's Republic of China, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal. The Bay of Bengal is situated to the south of the country.
It declared itself as independent in 1971 from Pakistan after a liberation war in which over a million people died. After Indian military intervention, the provisional government returned from exile in Calcutta, Bengal (India). After the Instrument of Surrender, the Bengali peoples became a sovereign nation. Its founder was released from political imprisonment in 1972. Present day Bangladesh has an area of 57,320 mi² or (142,576 km²). It is slightly smaller than the Indian state of Orissa. It ranks 92 out of 195 sovereign countries by area.
Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country.
The currency is called Taka. The official language is Bengali.
There are two main rivers in Bangladesh; the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers are holy to Hindus. There are often floods because of these two rivers.
Bangladesh is a new country in an ancient land. Like the rest of South Asia, it has been described as continually challenged by contradictions, marred by inconsistencies to say the least. It is neither a distinct geographical entity, nor a well-defined historical unit. Nevertheless, it is among the 10 most populous nations; a place whose search for a political identity has been protracted, intense and agonizing.
The word Bangladesh is derived from the word “Vanga” which was first mentioned in the Hindu scripture Aitareya Aranyaka (composed between 500 BC and 500 AD). Bengal was reputedly first colonized by Prince Vanga, the son of King Bali and Queen Sudeshna of the Lunar dynasty. The roots of the term Vanga may be traced to languages in the neighbouring areas. One school of linguists maintain that the word “Vanga” is derived from the Tibetan word “Bans” which implies “wet and moist”. According to this interpretation, Bangladesh literally refers to a wetland. Another school is of the opinion that the term “Vangla” is derived from Bodo (aborigines of Assam) words “Bang” and “la” which connote “wide plains.” The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang/Banga that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Vanga (bôngo), which came from the Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. According to Mahabharata, Purana, Harivamsha Vanga was one of the adopted sons of king Vali who founded the Vanga Kingdom. The Muslim Accounts refer that "Bong", a son of Hind (son of Hām who was a son of Prophet Noah/Nooh) colonized the area for the first time. The earliest reference to "Vangala"(bôngal) has been traced in the Nesari plates (805 AD) of Rashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of Dharmapala as the king of Vangala. Shams-ud-din Ilyas Shah took the title "Shah-e-Bangalah" and united the whole region under one government for the first time.
The West Bengal assembly has passed a resolution saying the Indian state of West Bengal will, henceforth, be called Pashchim Banga. Will Bangladesh follow too? No one will tell you what ‘Bang’ in Bangladesh means, except some bold joiners of the dots in ancient history. Bangladesh is old Banga or Bangla with a history as old as 1,000 BC. Does it originate in the Tibetan word ‘bans’ which means wet or moist? Banga (Bengal) is a wet country, criss-crossed by a thousand rivers and washed by monsoons and floods from the Himalayas. The Chinese text Wei-lueh (3rd century AD) referred to Pan-yueh (i.e. Vanga) as the country of Han-yueh (Xan-gywat) or the Ganga. Some others believe that the name originated in the Bodo (original Assamese in North Eastern India) ‘Bang La’, which means wide plains. One of the tribes which emerged from the Indus Civilisation after its demise had entered the plains of Bengal, while others went elsewhere. They were called the Bong tribe and spoke Dravidian. We know from many ancient Aryan texts of a tribe called Banga.
Anciently, Sri Lanka was Singhal, home of lions, which changed to Sihala (sic!) in 543 BC. (We have our Sihala near Islamabad.) The Portuguese called it Cilaon probably from Sanskrit Sri Lanka, which the Sri Lankans prefer today. The Portuguese are funny. They changed Arabic ‘mausim’ to ‘monsaon’, which has given us the word ‘monsoon’. In Punjabi, the word ‘aal’ is found in two words: ‘aalna’ (diminutive) for nest and ‘aalay-dawalay’ for ‘that which surrounds’. The name Gujranwala was formed from Gujran-aala. ‘Him’ in Sanskrit means ‘frozen’, from where we have the word Himal or Himala. ‘Shivala’, used by Allama Iqbal in Urdu, means home of Shiva.
From the sense of ‘surrounding’ we get the Hindi word ‘aali’ which is the root of our Urdu word ‘sahaili’ meaning ‘friend of the bride’ because girlfriends sit ‘around’ the bride. ‘Sa’ is the prefix for ‘good’. This could be cognate with ‘saali’ (sister-in-law) and ‘saala’. The home of the father-in-law (sassur) is called ‘sassur-aal’. Lovers too are included, as in the bhajan ‘angana main ayay aali’. Here ‘aali’ is master (of home). In Sanskrit there are dozens of words for home, many of them indirect like ‘aal’. In the Urdu word ‘ghonsala’ (nest) there is ‘ghun’ (concealed) and ‘shala’ (home). A whole lot of them come from the sense of being ‘cut off’. Of that next time. Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back four thousand years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro – Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word “Bangla” or “Bengal” is not known, though it is believed to be derived from Bang, the Dravidian-speaking tribe that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. The same is applies to the naming of Bangala desh or Bangadesh. There are various logic presented by various people of various disciplines.
The Banga-desh is a land of the two mighty rivers of India, one flows from east and other one from west. The area covered jointly by these two rivers were probably known as “Ganga Lohit Desha”, which gradually became Gangalo Desh and Gangal Desh and then to Bangal Desh or Bangla desh or Bangadesha. Bangalo in place of Gangal is probably used to differentiate from the land of Ganga, i.e., from Hardwar onwards along the route of Ganga.
”Banga” means a place located near to river in Sanskrit, which fits with both the parts of Bengal.