Bukui Mosque

Bukui Mosque (Chinese: 卜奎清真寺; pinyin: Bǔkuí Qīngzhēnsì) is a mosque in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang in northeast China. It is located in Mosque Road (Chinese: 清真路; pinyin: Qīngzhēn Lù) off Bukui Street.^[1] It was built during the Qing Dynasty, and listed in 2006 as a Major Site to Be Protected for Its Historical and Cultural Value at the National Level.^[2][3] It is the largest and oldest mosque in the province.^[4]

History and structure

The name "Bukui" is the Chinese transcription of a Daur word meaning "auspicious".^[1] Bukui Mosque originally consisted of two separate mosques:^[2]

• The East Mosque, a three-storey, 374 square metres (4,030 sq ft) building constructed in Kangxi 23 (1684), predating the city of Qiqihar by seven years^[2]
• The West Mosque, a two-storey, 173 square metres (1,860 sq ft) building constructed in Xianfeng 3 (1852) by followers of the Jahriyya menhuan who immigrated from Gansu^[1][2]

The mosque contains roughly 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) of constructed space; the whole compound covers an area of roughly 6,400 square metres (69,000 sq ft). The two prayer spaces together can hold a total of roughly 450 people.^[2]

The mosque's long history has led to a saying in Qiqihar: "the mosque existed long before the town Bukui".^{[n 1][5]} In 1958, the two mosques were reorganised as a single mosque, with the name "Qiqihar Mosque". The mosque was listed as a city-level protected cultural relic in 1980, and as a provincial-level protected cultural relic in 1981; its name was then also changed to the present "Bukui Mosque".^[2] An assessment done that year found that while the East Mosque was in relatively good condition, there was serious structural damage to the West Mosque.^[6] Reconstruction efforts were undertaken in 1989-1990.^[3] On 25 June 2006, the State Council of the People's Republic of China entered Bukui Mosque onto the sixth batch list of Major Sites Protected at the National Level.^[3]

See also

• Islam in China
• List of mosques in China
• List of famous mosques
• Timeline of Islamic history
• Islamic architecture
• Islamic art
• List of mosques

Footnotes

1. Chinese: 先有清真寺，后有卜奎城; pinyin: Xiān yǒu qīngzhēnsì, hòu yǒu Bǔkuíchéng.

References

1. "卜奎清真寺", 《MOOK 自游自在》 (50): 79–81, 2001, ISBN 957-667-787-4
2. "卜奎清真寺", Qiqihar News, 2005-06-27, retrieved 2010-09-11
3. 《卜奎清真寺》, China Cultural Heritage Foundation, retrieved 2010-09-11
4. "黑龙江规模最大的伊斯兰建筑:卜奎清真寺", Xinhua News, 2008-12-12, retrieved 2010-09-11
5. "齐齐哈尔第三集", China Central Television, 2005-08-29, retrieved 2010-09-11
6. 刘沛霖 (1981), "卜奎清真寺", 《学习与探索》 (3), retrieved 2010-09-11

External links

• Photos of the Bukui mosque (French)

Coordinates: 47°21′03″N 123°57′02″E / 47.350701°N 123.950683°E