Kurmun

Kurmun has two old temples, the Ishaneswar Shiva temple with a lingam in the shape of a trishula and Kalachand Dharmaraj temple in Buri Gachtala. Earlier, Kurmun used to celebrate two Gajan utsabs – Ishaneswar Gajan in the Bengali month of Choitro and Kalachand Gajan during Buddha Purnima. Now there is a combined Gajan festival in Choitro, celebrated by all castes in the village. In the earlier days there used to be a dance with a nara mundo (severed human head), that was collected from a dead body and painted in bright colours, this tradition still continues.^[5] In the Ishaneswar Shiva temple there is an old stone idol of Saptamatrika Indrani. It is a rather unusual combination of Shiva and Shakti worship.^[6]

In Kurmun, there is one Church at Arachiya More, where Christmas is celebrated by Christians.

In Palashi (also called Sonapalashi), an adjacent village, there is a Buro Shiva temple, constructed in 1872. It has an attractive terracotta façade. Lal Behari Dey, of Bengal Peasant Life (earlier named Govinda Samanta) fame was born at Palashi.^[6]

Kurmun block primary health centre at Kurmun (with 10 beds) is the main medical facility in Burdwan I CD block. There are primary health centres at Baghat (with 4 beds) and Jamar, PO Korar (with 10 beds).^[7] In 2012, the average monthly patients attending Kurmun BPHC were 4,880 and average monthly admissions were 112. It handled 799 annual emergency admissions.^[8]

See also - Healthcare in West Bengal