I Really Want to Visit These Mosques

I always enjoy seeing new places, especially those off the beaten track and if you know me, you'll be so surprised when you read the title of this post. You might think that sleep deprivation finally takes its toll on me, making me talk irrelevant nonsenses. Hello, what's going on here? I want to visit some unknown mosques?

Honestly, what I said is very very true. If I have to be brag about my religious education, it would be the fact that I have never associated Islam exclusively to neither the sandy deserts of Arabian Peninsula nor the creepy bearded guys calling themselves "purists". Instead, I have a strong interest in the multiculturalism of Islam. With more than a billion muslims, spread over this crowded planet like butter over bread, there's bound to be differences: positive enriching differences.

In Indonesia, we know that Islam has adapted into local cultures; hence the rapid increase of muslims back in the ancient times. Islam came and hugged native Indonesian cultures like what the Wali Songo had done. Apparently, the real Islam does promote multiculturalism everywhere it goes without any of those Arabic "fetishes".

One country I'd like to highlight now is not located anywhere near the cradle of Islam, and some would think that it's not even remotely close to Islam. It's the People's Republic of China. Here's some fast facts you might want to know: Islam has contacts with China since the times of Prophet Muhammad, now there are more than 20 million muslims there, and some researches claim that it was the Chinese muslims who spreaded Islam in Indonesia. The claim makes sense since we know that China had many great explorers, one of them is a muslim of Hui ethnicity named Zheng He or Cheng Ho.

Here's the main topic that I want to share. I love Chinese-style mosques. I've never been there, but I really like the pictures I've seen on the internet. You know, "like" like "I-like-Hawaii-like": not everybody in the world has gone there yet if you ask any random human, he/she would agree that Hawaii is beautiful. Anyway, I really admire how our muslim brothers in China manage to embrace Islam and not abandon their own rich culture.

This is the Great Mosque of Xi'an and you can see that it's built according to Chinese architecture. It was built in year 600-to-700ish and renovated in later periods. When you look at the picture, you might have the biggest doubt if it is really a mosque. Well, get over your Arabic mosque mindset and accept that our place of worship comes in different styles and colors.

This second picture is of the Niujie Mosque in Beijing, built in 996. Once more, note the unique Chinese characteristics in the mosque. It's been renovated a number of times, including some by the Municipality of Beijing.

See, these mosques are unique so I think they are worth a visit someday. It'd be fun to see a new colour of Islam in other countries. I'm not allergic to standard mosques, but these Chinese mosques are a pearl in the rich sea of Islam (why am I making this metaphor?) which deserves a lot more attention, especially if muslims are to change how the world think of us. Btw, these pics are taken from Wikipedia and I guess I'm allowed to use it in my blog since I don't really do anything to it. Thanks to anyone who contributed the picture.

Post-posting thoughts: with ridiculously huge number of mosque in the country, Indonesia ought to have lots of these cultural jewels too. One of them which stuck on my mind from history lessons is the Kudus Mosque, which has a local style minaret instead of the standard bland minarets you see everywhere. Let's see if Visit Indonesia Year 2008 got a hold of this opportunity to attract tourists.