On a quiet October afternoon, Mary Teresa Biswas kneels beside a weathered gravestone at Dhaka’s Wari Christian Cemetery. With a wet cloth, she carefully wipes away the dirt covering her grandson’s name.

“He was only five months old,” she says softly. “My parents, grandmother, and sister’s husband also rest here. I come several times a year to clean their graves, light candles, and pray. This is where my family lives.”

The cemetery, one of Bangladesh’s oldest European-era burial grounds, is both sacred and sorrowful. Its cracked tombs, moss-covered crosses, and crumbling walls bear witness to centuries of Christian history — and to years of neglect.

Yet for Mary and others like her, faith endures where care has faded.

Nestled in the heart of old Dhaka, the Wari Christian Cemetery dates back to the late 16th century, established during the Mughal era for European settlers — the Portuguese and the Dutch, and later British officials, merchants, and soldiers who made Bengal their home.

Among its most famous monuments is Colombo Sahib’s Tomb, a 17th-century mausoleum believed to hold the remains of a European trader who arrived in Dhaka from Colombo, then under Dutch Ceylon.

Over the centuries, the cemetery evolved into a shared resting ground for Catholics and Protestants. Today, it is jointly managed by St. Mary’s Cathedral under Dhaka Archdiocese and the Church of Bangladesh, a union of various Protestant churches  — a rare example of ecumenical unity.

But time, pollution, and indifference have taken their toll. Amid the faded colonial masonry, weeds and waste have crept in, threatening to swallow what history built.

Standing under the shade of an old tree, Father Albert T. Rozario, vice chairman of the Cemetery Committee Board, watches workers sweep fallen leaves ahead of All Souls’ Day.

“A few grants came from the Commonwealth Fund of London, which allowed some renovation,” he noted.

The fund crunch 

The previous government of Sheikh Hasina had promised a budget, but it got stuck in the Planning Ministry.

“The current interim government is giving us hope, but no real work has begun,” the priest added.

“From there,” Rosario pointed toward a nearby settlement and said, “a lot of garbage is thrown in there. The hospital next door used to do the same. We’ve talked to them, and it’s improved, but waste dumping continues. We plan to build a shed to contain it,” he said.

Maintaining the 26,000 square-meter cemetery is proving an uphill task, as expenditure exceeds income.

“But faith drives us. We do what we can, within our limits,” Rosario said.

Father Ujjal Linus Rozario, parish priest of the Holy Cross Church located near the cemetery, said the cemetery’s “condition is deplorable” because of years of neglect and the dirt that has accumulated.

The city has barely 100,000 Christians, and the cemetery is “too large for us to manage alone,” said the priest.

Immanuel Mithu Mallick, a Church of Bangladesh pastor and a member of the cemetery committee, said the place lies “unprotected.”

“A lot of garbage is thrown in. A family lives inside the cemetery land without permission. There are antisocial activities at night,” he says.

The priest said they have appealed to authorities and they have “listened to us, but we’re waiting for real action.”

The cleaning volunteers 

With little help from the government, it’s left to ordinary Christians, and like Mary Teresa Biswas, many families tend their loved ones’ graves with quiet devotion.

Eva Lucy Marak, a Catholic teacher at St. Francis Xavier School, has visited the cemetery every month for nearly four decades, she says.

“My mother was buried here in 1986 and my father this year,” she says. “I come once a month to clean their graves.”

Nearby, Richard Gomes, a teacher at St. Gregory’s High School, repaints his parents’ headstones.

“My father has been here for 11 years and my mother for two months,” he says. “We pray, offer flowers, and light candles.”

Each October, ahead of All Souls’ Day, students from Notre Dame College and Narinda Technical Institute come to clean graves and repaint crosses.

Arnav Chiran has been part of the initiative for two years.

“We clean the entire cemetery…but after we leave, no one continues the work.”

Atul Rozario, a security guard at the cemetery, says the site’s size overwhelms their small team.

“There are four of us — we guard, dig graves, and clean. It’s hard,” he says. “The place stays dirty most of the time. But before All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2, we’re trying to make it clean again.”

Ray of hope 

Amid despair, some help came when the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) and the Commonwealth Heritage Foundation funded the renovation of two historic structures within the cemetery — Colombo Sahib’s Tomb and the Moorish Gateway. The renovated structures were reopened last September.  

During the September event, Archbishop Bejoy N. D’Cruze of Dhaka, who chairs the Cemetery Board, said the cemetery, “is part of Bangladesh’s spiritual and cultural heritage” and “it deserves care, protection, and recognition.”

British High Commissioner Sarah Cooke, who was present at the event, called the restoration “a symbol of shared heritage.”

“Through preservation, we honor those who rest here and the stories that connect our nations,” she said. 

Back at the far end of the cemetery, as the sun dips behind the Moorish arch, Mary Teresa Biswas finishes arranging flowers on her grandson’s grave.

Around her, other families are lighting candles ahead of All Souls’ Day.

“I know the cemetery is broken and dirty,” she says, looking at the cracked marble beneath her hands.

“But this is where we come to remember our loved ones. Our faith is what keeps it alive.”

As evening falls, the small flames flicker against the darkness — each a quiet testament that faith, even amid neglect, still endures.