Praying Facing West: The Variety of Mosques Part 2

This post and its companions (Praying Facing East and Praying Facing South) have been developed from the November 2011 post ‘Three Favourite Mosques’. The world has many fine mosques we have yet to visit, but we have now seen more than enough to make ‘Three Favourites’ a very limited ambition – indeed the 'favourites' now fill three posts.

Islam is the world’s second largest religion with 1.9 billion adherents. It is the majority religion in 49 countries, centred on the middle east but with a vast geographical spread. In 2005 we visited The Great Mosque in Xi’an in China. Some distance away an English-speaking person with an overloud voice (his nationality was immediately obvious) was giving his Chinese guide the benefit of his knowledge of Islam. ‘They have to pray facing East,’ he announced.

This map comes from Wikipedia. It is the work of Tracey M Hunter, the figures are from Pew Research Centre
It is reproduced un changed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike

Muslims, of course, pray facing Mecca, the city, now in Saudi Arabia, that was home to the Prophet Muhammed. To make sense of my collection of mosques I have split it into three, depending of the (rough) direction of Mecca. The mosques I have selected are old or beautiful or quirky or have an interesting history, or any combination of those four.

I should also point out I am not a believer, in Islam or any other religion, but I do like religious buildings.

For ease of access and because I have occasionally broken my own rules, countries are allocated as follows

Facing East	Jordan, Oman, Egypt, Libya, Portugal	Arab Countries (with one obvious exception!)
Facing South	Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina	Countries wholly or partly in Europe
Facing West	Iran, India, China, Malaysia	An ethnic mixed bag

9 of the 18 are Muslim Majority countries, the others have or had an indigenous Muslim population.

Iran

In 2000 we followed the green line anticlockwise from Tehran to Tehran
The featured mosques are in Shiraz, Isfahan and Tehran
Thanks to Encyclopedia Britannica for the original map

Iran is the land of my birth, but in 1951 the Iranian government nationalised its oilfields and had no further use for British engineers, or their families. I left before I had taken my first step. In 2000 Lynne and I took a journey through Iran to find my place of birth (that story is told in Finding my Way Home and two subsequent posts) and to see the country.

The Iranian regime can be difficult, particularly when Western governments flail around with no concept of the society and culture they are dealing with, but the people are open and friendly.

For a country with Islam at the heart of both its government and the lives of its citizens we saw surprisingly few mosques, but the following is a small collection of truly memorable buildings.

Nasir-ol-Molk Mosque, Shiraz

The ‘Pink Mosque’ in Iran’s ‘Rose City’ was built between 1876 and 1888 on the orders of Shirazi aristocrat Hassan Ali Nasir ol-Molk, whose endowment foundation still funds the mosque.

Nasir ol-Molk Mosque, Shiraz

Shah Nasir al-Din (reigned 1848-96) was an enthusiast for European culture. During his reign coloured tiles depicting landscapes and European architecture instead of the traditional geometric patterns were imported in large quantities from Europe. Some were used at Nasir ol-Molk along with brightly coloured stained glass, to give the interior a particular glow.

Nasir ol-Molk Mosque interior, Shiraz

My photographs do not do the mosque justice and all the tiles they show have geometric patterns. With no digital cameras in 2000, every press of the shutter used up precious film and there was no instant feedback. I would do better now (I hope).

The elegant city of Isfahan has a wealth of architectural gems, including three of the finest mosques in Iran.

The Friday Mosque, Isfahan

The first mosque on this site was built in 711. That burned down in the 11th century during the time of Turco-Persian Seljuq Empire and was replaced by the basis of the current building consisting of four iwan (vaulted open rooms) facing each other across a central courtyard.

The Southern iwan of Isfahan's Friday Mosque indicates the direction of Mecca - so it actually faces south west. The outline of a brick dome can be seen to the left and above.

The brick chambers behind the southern and northern iwan have the largest domes built in the period. Squinches are the architectural devices which permit circular based domes to be built on rectangular buildings. Elegant and often highly decorated they are a feature of many mosques.

Intricate brick squinch beneath the brick dome, Isfahan Friday Mosque

The iwan are connected by prayer halls, and hypostyle areas with cupolas and piers. The Mongol, Muzzafarid, Timurid and Safavid rulers who followed the Seljuqs all contributed to their construction, so the mosque displays a history of 700 years of Iranian architecture.

Elaborate carved stucco mihrab commissioned in 1310 by Mongolian ruler Oljaytu, Frday Mosque, Isfahan

Imam Mosque, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan

Shah Abbas moved his capital to Isfahan in 1598. A kilometre southwest of the old Friday Mosque he built the magnificent Maidan-e Naqsh-e Jahan (Image of the World Square), now also known as Maidan-e Imam (Imam Square). The 560m by 160m square is framed by rows of two-storey shops. Among these he built the Royal bazaar on the north side, and the great Shah Mosque – now Imam Mosque - on the south, and oversaw the powers of commerce and religion from the Ali Qapu Palace on the eastern side.

Imam Mosque, Isfahan

The Imam Mosque has taken over the functions of the old Friday Mosque, but when we were there it was undergoing extensive repair work. It was a little difficult to appreciate the ‘pinnacle of Safavid architecture’ when peering through scaffolding at decoration removed for conservation.

The Sheik Lotfollah Mosque, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan

The Sheik Lotfollah Mosque on the west side of the square was one of the original ‘Three Favourite Mosques'. Built a little later in Shah Abbas’ reign it was completed in 1618, and is a little gem.

Sheik Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan

It has no minarets as it was intended for the private use of the Shah's hareem. Allegedly connected to the Ali Qapu Palace (from which the photo above was taken) by a tunnel under the square, the entrance was guarded from prying eyes. It is now open for all to enjoy.

The inside of the dome, Sheik Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan

The Mausoleum of Ruholla Khomeini, Behesht-e Zahra, Tehran

Strictly speaking this a mausoleum not a mosque, but let’s not be picky.

Behest-e Zahra (The Paradise of Zahra) is a vast public cemetery on the southern edge of metropolitan Tehran containing 1.6 million graves. By far the most noticeable is that of Ruhollah Khomeini. Ayatollah Khomeini was the guiding hand behind the revolution that overthrow the Shah in 1979 and when he died ten years later the authorities immediately started building this mausoleum.

The mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, Tehran

Much as the Shah deserved overthrowing, Khomeini was not an easy man for outsiders to like - if he was not dogmatic, humourless and unempathetic, he did a good impression of it. His mausoleum is not an easy building to like either – it looks tastelessly ostentatious to me. On the other hand, foreigners (without their cameras) are welcome inside where the atmosphere is remarkably peaceful. After a more than routine frisk the guard asked where I came from. ‘You are welcome!’ he said when I told him, and gave me a beaming smile.

India

14% of Indians are Muslims, but India has such a vast population that 14% means 189 million people. Hindu majority India has the world’s third largest Muslims population after Indonesia and Pakistan. There are, therefore, a lot of mosques and I am choosing four; not because they are typical – typicality means little in a country of such diversity – but because they caught my eye.

India with Kerala ringed

Mappila Mosques, Kozhikode (formerly Calicut), Kerala

Kerala faces the Arabian Sea in India’s southwest corner and has traded across that sea for millennia. More diverse than most states, Hindus are only just a majority (56%) and there are substantial Muslims (26%) and Christian (18%) minorities.

Mappilas are the Muslim descendants of native converts, some with part middle eastern ancestry from the earliest trading days. Most Mappilas live along the northern part of the coast and are so integrated into Keralan society that their mosque look more Keralan than Islamic.

Mappila Mosque, Calicut

The overhanging eves and slatting were designed to keep interiors cool in the days before air-conditioning. They are remarkably effective and admit more light than you might expect.

Minaret of Mappila Mosque, Calicut

The interiors of Mappila Mosque are usually plain.

Interior of a Mappila Mosque, Calicut, Kerala

Mosque in Madikeri, Karnataka

Karnataka is ringed,
Madikeri is in the south west, near the Kerala border

Neighbouring Karnataka is overwhelmingly Hindu (84%), while Muslims (13%) are a small but historically important minority. The tiny Kingdom of Kodagu (or Coorg) in south west Karnataka sought British protection in 1790 to protect itself from the aggression of the Muslim Tipu Sultan of Mysore. At independence Kodagu’s strong identity led to it briefly becoming a state in its own right, but now it is one of the 30 districts of the State of Karnataka. Its capital is the pleasant small town of Madikeri (pop:33,000).

There is nothing special about this mosque in Madikeri, I just liked the way the minarets are echoed by the telephone masts behind – both are structures designed for communication.

Mosque in Madikeri, Karnatika

Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Northern India

Asafi Mosque, Bara Imambara, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow (pop:2.9 million), capital of the northern State of Uttar Pradesh is very different from Madikeri. It was the centre of the 1857 ‘Indian Mutiny’ which destroyed the East India Company and the Mughal Empire and ushered in the British Raj. Previously, it had been capital of the Kingdom of Awadh, which emerged in 1722 and accepted British control in 1764. Awadh was one of many princely states where a Muslim nawab or sultan ruled an overwhelmingly Hindu populace

An Imambara is a hall where Shia Muslims gather on the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet, at the Battle of Karbala (680 CE).

Lucknow has several imambaras, but this is the largest and its mosque is as fine any in northern India. It was built by Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula between 1784 and 1791 as a workfare project after a series of bad harvests had threatened famine.

Asifi Mosque, Bara Imambara, Lucknow

see Lucknow (1) City of Nawabs(2013)

Delhi (ringed) the capital of India

Majid-i Jehan Juma, Old Delhi

If Awadh was just one of many Muslim ruled Hindu states, the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) to which all eventually became vassal states, was the ultimate case of Muslims ruling Hindus.

The Empire had several capitals before settling in Delhi in 1648 once Shah Jahan had completed the Red Fort. An indefatigable builder Shah Jahan started on the Masjid-i Jehan Numa (Mosque of the Celestial Sphere), also called the Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque), in 1650 before completing the Taj Mahal (1653). The Taj was built as a tomb for his beloved first wife Mumtaz and he was buried beside her in 1666.

The Masjid-i Jehan Numa is one of the largest mosques in India. The prayer halls either side of the iwan are relatively small, but local weather usually allows worshippers to pack the courtyard and stand six deep along the tops of the walls. Allegedly the mosque accommodates 25,000 worshippers at Eid and other festivals.

Majid-i Jehan Numa, Old Delhi

The weather is not always good. When we visited in February 2013, Delhi was cold and drizzly.

Lynne in the drizzle by the Eastern Gate wearing the dressing gown given to all potentially immodest western women

see Delhi (1) mainly Old Delhi, but some New Delhi, too

China

China is the only country in the world with more people than India and 3% of its 1.4b citizens (42 million) identify as Muslims. I dislike the way India’s Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has goaded and marginalised India’s Muslims, but he is a paragon of virtue compared with China’s President Xi who is determinedly leading China backwards to the bad old days.

Xinjiang in Red

25 million of China’s Muslims are Uighurs, one of the 55 official minorities. Of all the ethnic minorities I have encountered or read about the Uighurs and Tibetans are, in different ways, the least like the majority Han population, in religion, looks, diet, language and script. Each has a homeland, Xizang for the Buddhist Tibetans and the huge Xinjiang Autonomous Region for the Uighurs - but there has always been distrust between the Uighurs and the Han.

Officially encouraged Han migration means that the Uighurs are no longer a majority (45%) in their own homeland and are only 12% of the population in the capital, Urumqi.

The Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar

Kashgar in the far west of the region - closer to Beirut than Beijing – has 500,000 inhabitants, 90% of them Muslim Uighurs. Id Kah Square is the heart of the city and Id Kah Mosque, originally built in 1443, though much altered since, was when we visited (2008) China’s oldest and most active mosque.

Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar

Non-believers are welcomed but we found the interior disappointing. I doubt it was ever an architectural gem and after so many refurbishmentsit has lost all sense of antiquity. Two outdoor pulpits and a large, plain central prayer hall - spoiled as a place for meditation by the guardian playing music on his mobile phone - sit beside a rose garden. Ten thousand regularly attend Friday prayers but Sunday morning was very quiet.

We liked Id Kah Square in the evening when the locals gathered to watch television on a big screen in one corner….

Watching TV, Id Kah Square, Kashgar

….while elsewhere children played and families strolled.China has one time zone, Beijing time, but most Kashgaris work on unofficial local time two hours behind. Maybe this accounts for the large number of children out well after 10pm.

Id Kah Square in the evening

• Kashgar (1) The Sunday Market and the Former Britsh Consulate (2008)
• Kashgar (2) Upal, Abahk Hoja and the Old Town (2008)

Emin Mosque, Turpan

The Turpan depression is a huge oasis taking up the north-eastern quarter of Xinjiang. It lies below sea-level and the city of Turpan at its centre is the hottest city in China.

The largely Uighur populated city is surrounded by vineyards, famous for their intensely sweet green raisins. Beside the vineyards on the edge of town is the Emin Mosque. The region was taken from the Dzungar Mongols and incorporated into China during the Qing dynasty. The Uighurs had sought Chinese protection from the Dzungar Mongols and the mosque, completed in 1778, honours Emin Khoja, a Uighur general who had fought alongside the Qing

The Emin Mosque, Turpan

I love the clean, simple lines of this building, which was another of the original ‘three favourites.’ The huge pepper-pot minaret - at 44m the highest in China - recalls the great mosques of Samarkand and Bukhara.

Corridor Inside the Emin Mosque

seeTurpan: Ruined Cities of the Silk Road (2008)

The building is government owned and no longer functions as a mosque; so I expect it is still there. I am less certain about Id Kah.

The endless niggling security we encountered in 2008 wound me up, never mind the traditionally rebellious Uighurs. Having provoked more trouble Xi Jinping – a man of very fixed ideas - used the excuse to stamp his heel onto the Uighur throat and keep it there relentlessly. Bulldozing mosques while detaining over a million Uighurs in 're-education centres' is a Crime against Humanity but no one has the will to challenge him, let alone the ability to stop him.

The Great Mosque, Xi’an

Not all Chinese Muslims are Uighurs; the Hui are another group over 10 million strong. Although one of the 55 recognised ethnic minorities, the Hui are the only Muslim group with no language other than their local Chinese dialect. They are indistinguishable from the Han majority except for the women’s headscarves and men’s white hats.

Young Hui chef pulling us some fresh noodles, Huizhou, southern China

Although more frequent in the north-western provinces, Hui live throughout the Han heartland. Xi’an, right in that heartland, has a Hui Muslim quarter and a Great Mosque built in the 14th century, though much changed over the centuries. This is the mosque where I heard that individual giving loud and confident voice to his ignorance.

The mosque has a prayer hall….

Prayer Hall, Xi'an Great Mosque

…and an ‘Examining the Heart Tower’ which I took for a minaret.

Examining the Heart Tower, Xi'an Great Mosque

Most mosques show some level of Arabic influence, but some, like the Mappila mosques in India and Xi’an’s Great Mosque are entirely in the local vernacular.

I will look at mosques in Malacca (Melaka), Kuala Lumpur
and Kuala Kangsar further to the north

Malaysia

All Malays are, by law, Muslims, but Malays only account for 55% of the population. A further 14% are from other indigenous groups, about half of whom are Muslim, half Christian bringing the country’s Muslim population to about 61%. 23% of Malaysians are of Chinese origin mainly followers of Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese folk religions. A further 7% are of Indian origin, mainly Hindus.

Malaysia is complicated. There are tensions between the groups at political level, but to the traveller the Malay Peninsula presents a gloriously harmonious diversity of ethnicity, religion, tradition and cuisine.

Kampung Kling Mosque, Malacca

Jalan Tukang Emas in Malacca showcases Malaysia’s diversity. Almost side by side are a Buddhist Temple, a Taoist temple, the Kampung Kling Mosque and a Hindu temple. Christ Church is in Dutch Square at the end of the street.

Jalan Tukang Emas. Malacca, photo taken from the Buddhist temple

Originally built in 1748 and extensively restored in 1872, Masjid Kampung Kling, like the Indian Mappila Mosques and Xi’an’s Great Mosque shows little Arabic influence. It is, I read, Sumatran in style, but I have not been there (yet) so I have seen nothing like it.

Masjid Kampung Kling, Melacca

The wudu for washing before prayers features Portuguese and English tiles and a roof supported by cast iron Corinthian columns. An eclectic mixture that is typically Malaysian.

Wudu, Masjid Kampung Kling, Malacca

Unlike churches, mosques rarely have a graveyard attached, but Kampung Kling does. Elaborate memorials are not the Muslim way, a simple stone marker is enough – your status in life no longer matters, all are equal in the sight of God.

Graveyard, Masjid Kumpung Kling, Malacca<

The Jamek Mosque, Kuala Lumpur and the Ubudiah Mosque, Kuala Kangsar

Kuala Lumpur means ‘muddy confluence’, though today the confluence of the Gombak and Klang Rivers is tidily canalised and mud-free. The confluence is the site of the Jamek Mosque, KL’s oldest functioning mosque (it opened in 1909 - KL is a young city). Now dwarfed by the surrounding buildings it can accommodate 5,000 worshippers and was the national mosque until the Masjid Negara, was built in 1965. The design, variously described as a Moorish, Indo-Saracenic or Mughal, was by English architect A. B. Hubback.

Jamek Mosque, Kuala Lumpur

Hubback was responsible for several other buildings in the city and the Ubudiah Mosque in Kuala Kangsar, the royal capital of Perak State 240Km to the north. In 1911, Idris Shah I, Sultan of Perak, was taken ill and vowed that should he recover he would build a mosque. This is the result.

Ubudiah Mosque, Kuala Kangsar

It looks to me, from his mosques and other buildings, that Hubback had swallowed the myth of the ‘mystic orient’ and was attempting to capture a romance that only ever existed in European minds. But Idris ordered it and Idris liked it (as far as I know) so perhaps I am wrong. Another interesting question is how did this Liverpudlian brother of an Anglican bishop come to design two of the most important mosques in Malaysia?

See also

See also

The Variety of Mosques (1) Praying Facing South

The Variety of Mosques (2) Praying Facing West

The Variety of Mosque (3) Praying Facing East

Images of Mao

The Cultural Revolution Made Images of Mao Problematic for the Chinese State

Although the Communist Party remains very much in control, China today is Communist in name only. Unlike the Russians, who have never really embraced capitalism and will often express nostalgia for the Soviet Union, the Chinese are natural entrepreneurs and too busy prospering to ever glance backwards. Most Russian towns still have a Lenin Street and a Karl Marx Street, and their statues are easy to find, but for the Chinese, Mao Zedong is more problematic.

Jung Chang and Jon Holliday’s lengthy biography Mao: The Untold Story presents a man without ideology, without vision and without charisma. It is easy to accept that Mao’s attitude to his people was inhumanly callous, and he was indifferent to the mass starvation caused in the 1950’s by his Great Leap Forward, but it is hard to believe that a man with absolutely no personal qualities beyond a certain low cunning could have attained the pre-eminence he did.

The Chinese do not readily talk politics with foreigners, but anyone will happily tell you that the Cultural Revolution, unleashed by Mao in 1966, was a disaster. The current leadership has no truck with personality cults and are perhaps conscious of Mao’s shortcomings, but they cannot bring themselves to ditch him completely. Officially he is not even to blame for the Cultural Revolution, the aging leader was led astray by the Gang of Four.

Image of Chairman Mao on Banknotes

Nobody in China brandishes Mao’s Little Red Book any more, but everybody carries his portrait with them, indeed several portraits, as his face appears on every banknote from 1 Yuan up.

Mao on the 100 Yuan note

Chairman Mao outside the Forbidden City, Beijing

He also smiles down on Tiananmen Square from the entrance to the Forbidden City – no longer forbidden, provided you can afford the entrance fee. I have no idea who the other man in this photograph is, but he is in my holiday picture, and I am in his. Good luck to him.

Mao, me and another bloke, Tiananmen Square, Beijing 2007

At the other end of the square Mao lies embalmed in his mausoleum and we paid him a visit in 2004. Since then we have seen Lenin in Moscow and plan to visit Ho Chi Minh next month [Update: We saw Ho, read about it here. And in 2013 Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in North Korea]. I might produce a single ‘Embalmed Leaders’ post one day.[still waiting for that one].

The queue for Mao's Mausoleum, Tiananmen Square

China is a huge country and there are large parts of it we are unfamiliar with, but in our Chinese travels we have encountered only three statues of Mao.

Chairman Mao
Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region August 2008

Kashgar is as far west as you can go and still be in China; it is due north of Pakistan and as near to Beirut as it is to Beijing. Kashgar is in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region where the inhabitants, are largely Uighurs, a Turkic people of Central Asia. They do not look Chinese, they do not eat Chinese and they do not speak or read Chinese - the Uighur language is written in Arabic script. The purpose of the colossal statue is to remind the often rebellious Uighurs exactly who is in charge. His clothing might be appropriate for the harsh Kashgar winter, but we were there in July when the temperature was nearer 30, and he looked distinctly overdressed. As a sculpture it seems crude (and why is he staring at his hand?) but the message is obvious. That was written in 2012. Now, under President Xi, it has been decided that oppression by statue is not enough.

Mao in Kashgar, wrapped up warm and staring at his hand

Chairman Mao and Kurban Tulum
Hotan, Xinjiang Uigher Autinomous Region August 2008

Driving a couple of hundred kilometres east with the Taklamakan desert to our north and the foothills of the Tibetan plateau to our south, brought us to the ancient silk making city of Hotan. Much of the old Uighur city was redeveloped in 2004 but its centrepiece remains this statue of Mao with a man called Kurban Tulum.

Mao, Kurban Tulum and me, Hotan

Born near Hotan in 1883 Kurban Tulum had lived his life under the yoke of the Qing emperors and then under a series of warlords, so was delighted when Mao won the civil war and established communist rule. To show his pleasure he loaded his donkey cart with fruit as a gift for the Chairman and set off for Beijing. Only at Urumqi, 1500 km later, did he encounter his first paved road. His efforts so impressed the local party chief that he wired head office and Kurban was promptly flown to Beijing to meet Mao. Whether they forwarded what must by then have been his rather wilted fruit is not recorded.

To the Chinese Kurban Tulum is the model Uighur, to the Uighurs he is a model traitor. To a neutral, anybody from Hotan who sets off for Beijing with a donkey cart full of fruit sounds a sandwich short of a picnic.

This statue in Hotan, and a smaller replica in Kurban Tulum’s home village, are, reputedly, the only statues in China where Mao ever shared a plinth with another human being.

Chairman Mao
Chengdu, Sichuan Province Aug 2005

The statue in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, is the only one we have encountered in a Han dominated city. It was retained when the city centre was remodelled and Mao stands rather aloof, ignoring and being ignored by the circling traffic. He is probably being eaten away by pollution, which may be symbolic, but I am sure he will stand there for many years yet.

Mao in Chengdu

Urumqi, A By-word for Remoteness: The Chinese Silk Road Part 8

!8/08/2008

At Urumqi, Rana greeted us like old friends. Her driver, too, looked a lot happier than at our tentative  first encounter at Turpan..

Urumqi, First Impressions

As we drove to our hotel, Urumqi appeared cool, clean and green, with wide boulevards and well ordered traffic. I suspect our first impressions were somewhat skewed by having spent the previous weeks in the desert.


Our hotel was in the city centre, on the twenty-sixth floor of a block that was part hotel, part shopping mall and part nightclub. Getting to our room took some time as a massive wedding party was blocking up the lifts, but it was worth waiting for. We had a corner room, but instead of a corner, a floor to ceiling window afforded a magnificent view of the traffic wheeling about the roundabout below and the night market beside it, the barbecues firing up for a 9 pm start.


Urumqi from our hotel window

We took a walk to establish our bearings, replenish our stocks after the Hotan airport episode and get a second, perhaps more realistic, impression of the city. Urumqi is, without doubt, a place of contradictions: its name is a by-word for remoteness, yet a city of over two million can hardly feel remote; it is further from the sea than any other city in the world, yet every corner seemed to sport a seafood restaurant; it is the capital of the Uigher Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, yet the population is 90% Han Chinese. The architecture is Han too; Urumqi is built entirely in the style I think of as ‘Chinese brutalism’. It is also the gateway to Kazakhstan, and for the first time in China we saw signs in Cyrillic and heard Russian spoken in the streets.


'Chinese Brutalist' architecture
Urumqi

The day finished with barbecued pigeons and draught beer in the night market, and then a nightcap watching the flashing neon and whirling traffic from our glass-plated eyrie.

Tian Chi, The Heavenly Lake

Next morning our trip east to Tian Chi, the Heavenly Lake, took just over an hour. We drove through the residential and industrial areas of the city and then out through the agricultural belt until we seemed to be returning to the desert. Turning off the main road, we rose quickly into the mountains. The air became colder and the surroundings greener, and we passed several outbreaks of yurts, the homes of Kazakh nomads – another of China’s vast selection of ethnic minorities. Unlike the well-spaced gers of the Mongolians, which are almost randomly pitched wherever their owners fancy spending the summer, these were substantial organised encampments, each tent standing on a circular concrete base.


Kazakh yurts

We made our way upwards through Alpine scenery until we arrived at a commercial village that might have been in Switzerland or Austria, but for the curly Chinese roofs. Here we left the car and braved a metal detector (Lynne’s bag was carefully passed round the outside) before boarding a bus for the next stage of the journey upwards. At the terminus we transferred into a ten-seater electric buggy for the final short pull up to the lake.


Tian Chi - yes this is China, even if there are no curly roofs in shot

 Heavenly Lake is the most beautiful teardrop of water.


Tian Chi - a most beautiful teardrop of water

Tamed for tourism and swarmed over by hundreds of Chinese trippers, each group following its flag-waving leader with ovine dedication, it easily retains its picture postcard perfection. The lake lies in a bowl in the mountains and we found ourselves looking down on cold, blue green water that lay like silk gently riffling in the breeze. Beyond the lake, the mountains rise behind a series of interlocking spurs to soaring snow covered peaks over 4000 metres high.


Obedient Chinese tour groups, Tian Chi

We made our way down to a landing stage where boats sat ready to take the hordes for a cruise. There was no metal detector here, but it was deemed necessary to search Lynne’s handbag. Either the Chinese authorities believe terrorists use different techniques for attacks on buses and boats, or the main purpose of security is to give the appearance of doing something.


Boats at the landing stage, Tian Chi

Rows of seats had been set out on the roof of the boat and we sat in the scorching sunshine waiting for the other chairs to fill up. In due course we cast off. The coolness of the slight breeze and the drop in temperature as the boat’s superstructure placed us briefly in the shade were sharp reminders that we were at a almost 2000 metres.


Our first stop was at a Taoist temple on a low rise at the corner of the lake. It is much visited, we were assured, by Taiwanese pilgrims coming to pray. Clearly there were few Taiwanese about that day as only one person got off and nobody got on. The rest of the trip was merely a trip around the lake; a simple and elemental pleasure that crosses boundaries of race and temperament with ease.


Taoist temple, Tian Chi

We returned to Urumqi for lunch. ‘Would you like Uigher or Chinese?’ Rana asked. We thought we might give lambkind a rest for a day and opted for Chinese. ‘Veggies!’ said Rana with a distinctly Un-Uigherlike enthusiasm for green food.

Urumqi Museum, The Loulan Beauty and other Exhibits

Later, full of veggies, not to mention chicken, peanuts, tofu, chillies, mushrooms and rice we made our way to the Urumqi museum.


A queue outside was waiting for the museum to open. I expected the car to drop us off so that we could join it, but instead we drove straight up to the expanding gates blocking the entrance. One word from Rana and the gates folded themselves up and we swept into the courtyard and right up to the doors of the museum, leaving everybody else standing in the hot sun.

I try to enjoy VIP treatment on the rare occasions it happens, but I cannot quite ignore the nagging little egalitarian socialist sitting inside me fuming about the privileged classes and demanding I get back in the queue immediately. Even deeper inside is the voice of my Cardiganshire ancestors, a people renowned for depth of pocket and shortness of arm, saying ‘You’ll have to pay for this, you know. They’ll want money; they will, they really will.’

Urumqi museum is a fine ethnographic museum, devoted to the life of the Uighers and all those who made Xinjiang their home before them. What makes it exceptional is the mummy room containing bodies and treasure unearthed from the lost settlements that pre-date even the Silk Road. The bad news was that the mummy room was closed, the good news was that it would be opened especially for us and there would be a personal guided tour by a member of the museum staff. ‘I’m warning you,’ said a Cardie voice in my left year.

Sterile desert sand is a wonderful preserver of human remains. Unlike the Egyptian examples, those of the Taklamakan were naturally mummified and did not undergo the processes Egyptian corpses were subjected to. Those that survive are remarkably well preserved.

The best known is the ‘Loulan Beauty’, a slender, flaxen haired lady some four thousand years old. Her ‘beauty’ is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, but her clothing is so well preserved it is possible to say that she was not rich, as they are her everyday clothes, and that her shoes have been repaired not once but twice.


The Loulan Beauty
As they did not allow me to take photographs this one comes from Cultural-china.com

Another woman, buried in new clothes and a pointed felt hat decorated with feathers, is deemed less beautiful, but richer. What is clear about both of them, rich or poor, beautiful or plain, is that they are not Chinese. ‘Look,’ our Chinese guide said, ‘they are European,’ and she turned to Lynne, ‘she has a big nose, like you.' I said nothing about the guide’s eyes.


Their DNA suggests these people may have originated in west Eurasia, possibly from what is now Ukraine. The weaving has been compared to that found on the mummies of Austrian salt miners of roughly the same period. If this merely led to a twinning arrangement between Kiev, Salzburg and Urumqi everyone would be pleased, but the mummy’s ethnicity is politically charged. The Chinese are reluctant to admit that anyone other than them has ever ruled in what is now Xinjiang, but even they cannot explain away the round eyes and yellow hair. The Uighers claim that Xinjiang has always been theirs and these mummies prove it, but they are clearly not Uigher either. Claiming eternal sovereignty based on the earliest known inhabitants is, surely, a futile game. Except for a few families in the Rift Valley, we are all migrants and it seems that Bronze Age Xinjiang was a melting pot; some of the early inhabitants were Eurasians, others Indian and some Chinese.

The museum authorities try to play a straight bat by displaying all their mummies together. Alongside the Caucasians is a high ranking Chinese army officer, his bowed legs suggesting he spent much of his life in the saddle. There is also the reconstructed burial pit of a wooden effigy; archaeologists speculate the actually body was, for some reason, unavailable for burying.

Afterwards our guide took us into a back room. ‘All the articles in here,’ she said 'are less than a hundred years old and the government has given us permission to sell them.’ It is strange how Chinese museums always seem keen to sell their exhibits to casual visitors.

‘This is where you pay,’ whispered the Atavistic Cardie. We sat down with several members of the museum staff and drank tea while they showed us a selection of resistible jade jewellery. ‘Actually, I’d quite like a silk top,’ Lynne said, pointing at the racks of clothing. ‘Now they’re ganging up on you,’ AC hissed.

Lynne found a top she liked, and the museum curator, turned salesperson, named a price. It was too small a number to be Yuan, so the next job was to discover which currency she intended bargaining in. It seemed the Euro was her coin of choice so we haggled for a while in a currency I did not have and anyway she could not accept. Eventually we agreed on a figure, and then on an exchange rate into Yuan, and soon Lynne became the proud owner of a deep pink embroidered blouse of real silk. I had to admit it was very attractive and, considering we had a personal tour of the mummy room, good value for 30 Euros. In West Wales the sound of rotating corpses filled several graveyards.

We spent the rest of the afternoon happily looking round the ethnographic section and the evening looking through the night market for something appetising.

Urumqi Night Market

Disappointingly, the most wholesome offerings were the inevitable mutton kebabs, but eventually we settled for a fish on a stick - a charred-looking but pleasant tasting bass-shaped creature with firm white flesh - along with some aubergines, mushrooms and bamboo shoots.


Barbecued fish, Urumqi night market

19/08/2008

Visiting the Kazakh Nomads, Urumqi

In the morning, we headed north to visit the Kazakh nomads. If the road to Tian Chi had been mercifully free of security hassles, this trip made up for it, with a succession of officials keen to write down the registration of every car that passed. The final check point seemed rather different and money changed hands. I realised that we were paying the Kazakhs to visit their village.


A selection of more than fifty yurts stood in a compound next to the main road. After some negotiation with an older woman, Rana led the way into the compound and then into one of the yurts. Although of similar design, there were several obvious differences, apart from the concrete base and the mains electricity supply, between the yurt and Mongolian gers we had stayed in previously. The two supporting poles of a ger divide the space in three, the left for men, the right for women, and the centre for Buddha. All the furniture is placed around the edge and Buddha’s space contains the stove, its chimney rising through the central hole. A yurt manages to stand without the supporting poles, allowing the space to be divided in two. The back two thirds containing a raised wooden platform for sleeping and eating, whilst the front contains the cooking equipment, the chimney going through a second opening in the roof. 


Kazakh yurt village

In the yurt a girl in her late teens was being plagued by a couple of smaller boys. The boys were persuaded to remove the overloud, depressingly westernised pop music from the CD player, and then they brought bowls of sweets, a heap of what seemed to be fried dough balls and bowls of tea. The tea was very like Mongolian tea, a touch of salt, a great deal of tepid milk and virtually no tea.


Inside a yurt

There was some conversation between the girl and Rana and then the three Kazakhs disappeared. I asked Rana what language they were speaking. She said she was speaking Uigher and the girl was speaking Kazakh. ‘And you understand each other?’ I asked. Rana pulled a face, ‘sort of’ she said.

With that she left us, perhaps to clarify a point in the conversation. We were left alone for rather longer than it takes to drink a bowl of milky tea and discover the fried dough balls were blandly unappetising. We would have liked to have a poke around, but we were in somebody’s home and it seemed rude, so we just sat and waited.


Me and a rather pensive Rana, some milky tea and fried dough balls

In time Rana reappeared with the girl who had slipped Kazakh national costume over her jeans and tee-shirt. She put on a CD of traditional music and danced a couple of folk dances. We were a small audience, but she threw herself into the performance, and earned as generous a round of applause as six hands can manage.


Dancing Kazakh

Walking back to the car we watched two large hawks flying just above head height, quartering the area in a search for mice, voles or small Kazakh children. Down by the road a few stalls supplied daily needs and several battered snooker table supplied entertainment. A group of boys were pushing balls around with bent cues rather than playing a proper game, but it was nonetheless a somewhat surreal sight.


Snooker among the Kazakhs

Last Uigher Lunch

Lunch back in Urumqi would be our last meal in Xinjiang, so it had to be Uigher fare and Rana was determined that we would have every Uigher delicacy on the table at once. There was laghman (mutton with noodles), pilaf (mutton with rice), pie (mutton with pastry) and kebabs (mutton with skewers). No messing with green food here, though some pumpkin dumplings provided light relief.

Back to Shanghai

After that there was nothing else we could do but leave. We were well prepared after the Hotan airport incident and this time had no difficulty with the x-ray zealots. That was not true of a Chinese man at a nearby check-in desk. As the altercation went on his voice became louder and shriller. He clearly had no level-headed wife telling him to shut up and the last we saw he was being marched away by the police, still shouting and now struggling as well.


We were starting our journey home, so we flew back to Shanghai, five hours in the wrong direction. Approaching the coast we skirted a dramatic thunderstorm but by the time we had landed and the doors were opened it was right on top of us. There was a minor passenger revolt as we refused to disembark until the rain had eased.

Such rain cannot last long and by the time we were through the airport it was eleven o’clock and a warm, dry Shanghai night. The taxi queue would have stretched halfway back to Urumqi had it not been wound around metal barriers. A taxi tout approached us and offered his services. He was scornful of our refusal, ‘well if you want to queue all night…’ he said and stomped off. In fact, the queue moved quickly, the taxis were arriving five abreast and a group of men with the inevitable armbands were marshalling proceedings with efficiency. As we left the airport we saw the line of incoming taxis stretching several miles down the road. We were right to ignore the tout, if he was prepared to cheat his fellow drivers then he would have had few qualms about cheating us as well.

Last Day in Shanghai

We spent the next day in Shanghai doing a little shopping. A fair part of it was spent in a teashop, tasting and buying. Tea in China is like wine around the Mediterranean, it is plentiful and most of it is cheap but the rare and special cuvées demand special prices. Like wine there is almost no upper limit to what you can pay, so a little preliminary tasting is well worthwhile.


Tasting tea in Shanghai

It was strange, but after the wilds of Xinjiang, Shanghai seemed comfortable and familiar. We wondered what London would feel like.

and finally....
Thanks are due to TravelChinaGuide who supplied drivers and guides and made all the land arrangements from Xi'an to Urumqi. Their efficiency and their ability to reply to every email within 24 hours regardless of the time of day or week they are received is awe-inspiring.

The Chinese Silk Road

Introduction: The Silk Road in China

Prelude: Shanghai

1 Xi'an

2 Jiayuguan: A Total Eclipse and the Last Fortress under Heaven

3 Dunhuang: Dunes in the Gobi

4 Turpan: Ruined Cities of the Silk Road

5 Kashgar (1):  The Sunday Market and the Former British Consulate

6 Kashgar (2): Upal, Abakh Hoja and the Old Town

7 Hotan (or Khotan or Hetian): City in the Desert

8 Urumqi: A By-word for Remoteness

Postscript