ARABIC-STYLE MOSQUE IN CHINA LOSES ITS DOMES, REPLACED WITH PAGODA ROOFTOP

Sun 26 May 2024:

After radical modification and what is being called as “sinicisation”, China’s last major mosque – which once had Arabic-style architectural features – has now lost its domes and minarets, according to a report published in The Guardian.

However, in the latest photographs, the dome appears to have been replaced with a Han Chinese-style pagoda rooftop, as per the report.

Also, the heights of minarets have been decreased and they have been converted into pagoda towers. It has also been reported that there is a faint trace of the crescent moon and star tiles.

China’s ‘Sinification of Islam’

Nearly 100 miles from Shadian, another landmark mosque of Yunnan was also renovated recently and its Arabic features were removed.

The Chinese government in 2018 published a five-year plan on the “sinification of Islam”.

A part of the plan was to resist “foreign architectural styles” and to promote “Islamic architecture … that is full of Chinese characteristics”.

In a leaked memo of the Chinese Communist party, it was seen that local authorities were asked to “adhere to the principle of demolishing more and building less”.

Speaking to The Guardian, Anthropologist at Cornell University Ruslan Yusupov said, “Sinification of these two landmark mosques marks the success of the campaign. Even if there are small mosques left of Arab style in villages, it will be difficult for local communities to contest their sinicisation”.

Meanwhile, a historian of Islam in China at the University of Plymouth Hannah Theaker said that the mosque sinicisation campaign was moved ahead “province by province”, with Yunnan being the farthest province from the capital.

“By 2023, there was a sense among communities that architectural sinicisation would reach the famous Yunnanese mosques, as the last major unsinicised mosques in China,” Theaker said.

The Grand Mosque of Shadian was first built in the Ming dynasty and destroyed amid the cultural revolution in an uprising which was called the Shadian incident.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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