.
A mosque near Yinchuan
Photos: www.powerhousemuseum.com
Copyright 2007, Emma Nicholas and Brendan Palmer.
Mosques are often
decorated with Arabic script
_________________________________________________
YINCHUAN, Ningxia (Bernama), September 17, 2008:
By Tham Choy Lin
It was still several hours away to the breaking of fast but the three women work swiftly, two of them chopping up green vegetables while the third prepares the dough to make noodles.
By the time a handful of mostly elderly men gathered for Asar prayers, the delicious aroma of mutton boiling in soup wafted from a huge pot inside the spartan kitchen.
Pieces of the noodle dough were already rolled out, ready to be sliced into strips and thrown into the bubbling pot.
Since the start of Ramadan, the mosque in Ta Qiao village, a short drive from Yinchuan, the capital China's Muslim-dominated Ningxia autonomous region, prepares food for the men who come to pray and break their fast at the mosque.
"Normally, we get about 70 to 80 people coming to pray daily but during this month, the number increases to 100 and they break their fast here," said Yang Yonglu, the mosque's administrator.
"There is a mix of young and old men. We get up at about 4 a.m. (for sahur - meal before fasting) and begin fasting from 5 a.m. to 7.25 p.m." said Yang, who is from the Hui minority, the largest Muslim community of 10 ethnic groups who profess Islam in China.
COMMUNITY RAMADAN
The breaking of fast at the mosque is usually a simple fare of mutton soup with rice and noodles.
The white and green-tiled mosque, with a green dome and flanked by a pair of minarets bearing the crescent, dates back three hundred years to the Qing dynasty but bears little resemblance to the period after renovations through the years.
To the left of the door leading to the main prayer hall is a blackboard showing the monthly income and expenditure of the mosque.
On the opposite wall, contributions for the daily Ramadan meals are noted on a large piece of red paper. Cash donations are recorded on the left while other items like meat and other food are scribbled on the right.
"The living standards of the people here are getting better. More youngsters are coming to the mosque and they are learning how to do business from those who are successful," said Wu Zhongcheng, the ahong (imam) of the mosque, after leading the Asar prayers.
"More will turn up in the evenings for tarawih (a special prayer performed only in Ramadan). Most of them work in the flower and vegetable farms," added the 38-year-old who took up religious studies in a Ningxia Muslim school.
Hui men, recognisable by their custom of wearing a white skullcap, don another six-pointed white cap to perform prayers.
Muslim History
Here, girls take to fasting from nine years old, earlier than the boys, who do so when they reach 12 years of age.
Ta Qiao has 400 families and nearly half of the village's 3,400 people are Hui who make up a 36 per cent of Ningxia's population of six million.
The Hui are descendents of Persian and Arab traders who came China on the ancient Silk Road bringing with them trade and Islam. Ningxia was one of their favoured stopovers.
Simple Celebration
Yang's wife, Jin Cuiying, said while the men go to the mosque, the women of the village prepared food at home for the rest of the family.
"We make the usual dishes, nothing special, but for the celebrations, we will get some new clothes," said Jin, referring to what is known locally as Kai Cai Jie literally meaning Breaking of Fast Festival, or Aidilfitri to Malaysians.
Fried dough cakes like youbin and youxiang are served to visitors during the festival.
From under a bed, Jin pulled out a plastic crate and took out a pair of Chinese tea bowls with Arabic inscriptions, which are used to serve tea to guests.
Muslim communities in China, have long used the porcelain sets that come with covers, unchanged in shape through time, for brewing the tea.
Historical relics of such porcelain have been unearthed and are displayed at the museum of the Chinese Hui Cultural Park opened two years ago in Yinchuan.
© 2008 BERNAMA.
A mosque near Yinchuan
Photos: www.powerhousemuseum.com
Copyright 2007, Emma Nicholas and Brendan Palmer.
Mosques are often
decorated with Arabic script
_________________________________________________
YINCHUAN, Ningxia (Bernama), September 17, 2008:
By Tham Choy Lin
It was still several hours away to the breaking of fast but the three women work swiftly, two of them chopping up green vegetables while the third prepares the dough to make noodles.
By the time a handful of mostly elderly men gathered for Asar prayers, the delicious aroma of mutton boiling in soup wafted from a huge pot inside the spartan kitchen.
Pieces of the noodle dough were already rolled out, ready to be sliced into strips and thrown into the bubbling pot.
Since the start of Ramadan, the mosque in Ta Qiao village, a short drive from Yinchuan, the capital China's Muslim-dominated Ningxia autonomous region, prepares food for the men who come to pray and break their fast at the mosque.
"Normally, we get about 70 to 80 people coming to pray daily but during this month, the number increases to 100 and they break their fast here," said Yang Yonglu, the mosque's administrator.
"There is a mix of young and old men. We get up at about 4 a.m. (for sahur - meal before fasting) and begin fasting from 5 a.m. to 7.25 p.m." said Yang, who is from the Hui minority, the largest Muslim community of 10 ethnic groups who profess Islam in China.
COMMUNITY RAMADAN
The breaking of fast at the mosque is usually a simple fare of mutton soup with rice and noodles.
The white and green-tiled mosque, with a green dome and flanked by a pair of minarets bearing the crescent, dates back three hundred years to the Qing dynasty but bears little resemblance to the period after renovations through the years.
To the left of the door leading to the main prayer hall is a blackboard showing the monthly income and expenditure of the mosque.
On the opposite wall, contributions for the daily Ramadan meals are noted on a large piece of red paper. Cash donations are recorded on the left while other items like meat and other food are scribbled on the right.
"The living standards of the people here are getting better. More youngsters are coming to the mosque and they are learning how to do business from those who are successful," said Wu Zhongcheng, the ahong (imam) of the mosque, after leading the Asar prayers.
"More will turn up in the evenings for tarawih (a special prayer performed only in Ramadan). Most of them work in the flower and vegetable farms," added the 38-year-old who took up religious studies in a Ningxia Muslim school.
Hui men, recognisable by their custom of wearing a white skullcap, don another six-pointed white cap to perform prayers.
Muslim History
Here, girls take to fasting from nine years old, earlier than the boys, who do so when they reach 12 years of age.
Ta Qiao has 400 families and nearly half of the village's 3,400 people are Hui who make up a 36 per cent of Ningxia's population of six million.
The Hui are descendents of Persian and Arab traders who came China on the ancient Silk Road bringing with them trade and Islam. Ningxia was one of their favoured stopovers.
Simple Celebration
Yang's wife, Jin Cuiying, said while the men go to the mosque, the women of the village prepared food at home for the rest of the family.
"We make the usual dishes, nothing special, but for the celebrations, we will get some new clothes," said Jin, referring to what is known locally as Kai Cai Jie literally meaning Breaking of Fast Festival, or Aidilfitri to Malaysians.
Fried dough cakes like youbin and youxiang are served to visitors during the festival.
From under a bed, Jin pulled out a plastic crate and took out a pair of Chinese tea bowls with Arabic inscriptions, which are used to serve tea to guests.
Muslim communities in China, have long used the porcelain sets that come with covers, unchanged in shape through time, for brewing the tea.
Historical relics of such porcelain have been unearthed and are displayed at the museum of the Chinese Hui Cultural Park opened two years ago in Yinchuan.
© 2008 BERNAMA.
