The Grand Mosque of Xi'an

Grand Mosque - Xi'an

My visit to the Grand Mosque of Xi'an began in a strange way... on my way to Beijing from Sydney I made a very boring stopover in Kuala Lumpur (the things we do to save money!). People drifted towards the boarding lounge for the Beijing leg of the trip. A very attractive, dark-haired woman caught my eye and we started to talk. Almost her first sentence informed me that she was married AND that both her and her husband worked in the American Embassy in Beijing. I had the curious feeling that this lady knew more about me than she ought to as she sounded me out on the standard anti-Chinese issues (Taiwan, Tibet and the Uighurs of West China). I gave the standard responses, we didn't argue and the conversation turned to my plans for this trip. I mentioned the 1000-year old Buddhist temple near Beijing (Tanzhe Temple) and the Terracotta Soldiers. She urged me to see the 1000-year old Mosque in Xi'an.

The Grand Mosque of Xi'an, near the Drum Tower (Gu Lou) in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, is the oldest and one of the most renowned mosques in China. It is also the largest and best preserved of the early mosques of China. It was first built in the Tang Dynasty (China's Golden Age) and renovated in later periods (especially the Ming Dynasty). It remains a popular tourist site of Xi'an, and is still used by Chinese Muslims (mainly the Hui people) today as a place of worship. Unlike most mosques in Middle Eastern or Arab countries, the Great Mosque of Xi'an is completely Chinese in its construction and architectural style, except for some Arabic lettering and decorations, for the mosque has neither domes nor traditional-style minarets.

The day I visited with my guide Liao Yun, worshipers far out-numbered the tourists. I confess I was a little wary at first - religious muslims having such a fierce reputation - but if we were noticed at all it was with a friendly smile as the ladies prepared a meal and the men prepared for prayer. We were left to wander freely around the beautiful old complex (although the prayer hall was clearly out of bounds

The Mosque was built primarily in the Ming Dynasty, synthesizing Chinese architectural elements were into mosque architecture. In fact it is said that the mosque resembles a fifteenth century Buddhist temple with its single axis lined with courtyards and pavilions. The Great Mosque of Xian is thought to have existed as early as the seventh century. The mosque that stands today, however, was begun in 1392. Since the fourteenth century, the mosque has undergone numerous reconstructions. Most of the buildings extant today are from the Ming and Qing Dynasties of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The mosque was constructed on Hua Jue Lane just outside the city walls built by the Ming Dynasty, in what was once the jiao-fang neighborhood for foreigners to the northwest of the city. Today, this neighborhood is part of Xian proper, with the city's famous Drum Tower a block away.

it has the layout of a Chinese temple: successive courtyards on a single axis with pavilions and pagodas adapted to suit Islamic function. Unlike a typical Buddhist temple, however, the grand axis of the Great Mosque of Xian is aligned from east to west, facing Mecca. Five successive courtyards, each with a signature pavilion, screen, or freestanding gateway, lead to the prayer hall located at the western end of the axis.

Through another roofed pavilion is the third courtyard, the Qing Xiu Dian, or "Place of Meditation". Here, the commanding structure is the octagonal "Pavilion for Introspection", also known as the "Tower of the Visiting Heart" (Xing Xin Ting or Sheng Xin Lou). This brick tower is over ten meters tall with three stories separated by eaves and surrounded by wooden balconies. This Ming mosque merges the minaret and the bangke tower into the tallest structure of the complex. Its eaves are decorated with blue glazed tiles and dragon heads are carved into the ridges. Dougong brackets are seen below the raised eaves of the roof. Inside, a moveable staircase leads up to the ceiling caissons, which are carved and brightly painted with lotus flowers. The third courtyard has a series of rooms along its north and south walls. These rooms are internally divided and once housed the library and the imam's quarters, with a narrow courtyard for washing. The paneled wooden partitions of these rooms are covered with painted carvings of chrysanthemums, lotus flowers and peonies.

The prayer hall, which is the focus of this ceremonial layout, includes a porch and a great hall. These cover an area of about 1,270 square meters covered by a single roof with three distinct segments, a common feature of Ming era mosques taken from Han palace architecture. The joined hipped roofs of the porch and the main hall roof have parallel north-south ridges. The hipped roof of the projecting qibla iwan is perpendicular to that of the main hall. The height of the roofs are kept proportional to the depth of the space, following Hui tradition.

The portico, hall and iwan are differentiated by separate roofs, a common feature of early Hui mosques taken from Han palace architecture. The open portico, carried on six columns, is covered by the gentle bump of a rolled-shed roof, which dips down to join the roof of the great hall. This large hall, of equal width to the portico, sports a pitched roof raised above the others on two rows of six columns. It is curtailed at the back by the hipped roof of the qibla iwan, whose eaves are supported on twelve external columns. The rounded timber columns supporting these roofs are decorated with low relief woodwork. There is more sculptural woodwork on the lambrequins and the heavy dougong brackets. Six hundred polychrome panels with floral motifs and carved brackets decorate of the ceiling. Heavy cylindrical columns, painted deep red like the walls, divide the first two spaces into seven bays. Blue scrolls with Arabic calligraphy hang from the porch columns.

More nature-based relief carving. Notice the fine coating of grey dust over everything.