Fading colours: Bangladesh's threatened rickshaw art

A bicycle rickshaw adorned with colourful artwork depicting film actors is seen on a street in Dhaka. Photo: AFP

Vibrant greens and swirling yellows, film stars, birds and architecture: Bangladesh's bicycle rickshaw drivers have for decades used their transport as a unique moving canvas of urban folk art.

But many fear that despite being added by the United Nations cultural agency this month to its list of intangible cultural heritage, the colourful craft is fading in the face of faster, modern motorised rickshaws.