Saint-Domingue

[http://abouthongkong.asexblogs.com] [www.billionaire-blogs.com/abouthongkong] [cancerblog.com.au/abouthongkong]The Mosque at Hua Jue Lane is the largest in Xi’an, and at the same time, it is also one of the earliest built on a comparatively large scale, and well preserved mosques in China.

　　According to “the Stele on the Building of the Mosque”, the mosque is said to be built in the Tang Dynasty. However, the architectural style of the mosque suggests a possible building dating back to the Ming Dynasty. The four courtyards of the mosque cover an area of more than 12,000 square meters, out of which about 4,000 are occupied by various structures. The still intact wooden front memorial gateway of the front yard, built at the turn of the 17th century, with glazed tiles on the top, spectacular corners and upturned eaves, is about 9 metres high, and has a history of about 360 years. The stone memorial gateway in the center of the second courtyard is flanked with a tail stele on either side with dragons carved on each, recording the repair work ever since the building of the Mosque. On the back of one of the steles are engraved characters by the master calligrapher Mi Fu, “May Buddhism Fill the Universe”, on the other, “Royal -Bestowed”by Dong Qichang, another master of the same art of the Ming dynasty. They are treasures in Chinese calligraphy. At the entrance of the third courtyard is an imperial built hall, where a “month tablet”, showing the calculation of the Hui Calendars in Arabic, is stored. It was compiled by a man in charge of the mosque called Xiao Mining in the early period of the Qing dynasty. A three –storeyed octagonal wooden structure called “Retrospection Tower”also stands in the center of the courtyard, which has the same function as the minaret in Islamic temples in Arabic countries, and which is a place from where orders were sent to call the Moslems to come to worship. Respectively, on the south and north wings of the tower, are a reception chamber and a Scripture Chamber, both elegantly laid out. The five wooden houses, which are called “Water Houses”in the southwest section of the Mosque are the place where the believers bathe themselves before they attend their services. And in side the fourth courtyard there is a structure called “the Pavilion of Phoenix”, a place where the worshipers used to wait for the services. The Pavilion, in fact, is a compound structure of three small buildings. The six-gabled structure of the central part, adjoining the two three-gabled buildings on each side looks very much like a flying phoenix, and hence its name. Just at the back of the Pavilion, there is a fishpond, beyond which is a platform occupying an area as large as 700 m2. Across both ends of the platform stands the 1,300 square metered service hall, holding over a thousand worshipers at once. There are over six hundred sunk panels well as the sunk panels, are decorated with patterns of painted trailing plants and Arabic letterings. The imam leads his group of worshipers, while facing in the direction of Mecca, to chant in Koran and to pay their religious homage.

Saint-Domingue

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