Ismaili community in Beijing?
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richadmitha
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:04 am
Ismaili community in Beijing?
I will be for several month in China,Beijing and I wanted to know if there is an Ismaili community there? If someone can help me on that topic it would be helpful. Or if anyone can give me advices about china or anything related to...
Having been there in 1999 & 2000 (on my own), I didn't think there would be one. I did all my commuting in Beijing by local transit, i.e. bus, metro, pedicabs, walking, along which I made several Chinese friends, especially females as they wanted a practical method of speaking & learning English. I remember seeing only one Indian. Try not to communicate through PRC Gov't officials, obviously, to find this out. But there are several mosques there, for the Hui (pronounced hooay, and is from the word Uighur the muslims in Western China, like XinJiang Auto.Province) Muslim Minority in Beijing. The biggest one (one of the 4 biggest in China, one is in Kashgar and one in Xian) is the over-1000 year old Niu-Jie (Ox Street) Mosque, and is now a heritage one. Having been beautifully refurbished and re-opened 1978, after being partially destroyed by the Red Guards during the C.R (1966-1976). Then Premier Zhou EnLai (died in '76) personally intervened to halt it's destruction, as during the C.R, many religious sites (Buddhist Temples, grottos, mosques, etc) in China were destroyed - Out with the Old, In with the New (sounds familiar?). Ask for Ayisha Yin Yan if she's still around, as she was the only one who spoke English. She gave me much info about the Mosque and the past Muslim historical events. If you go to Muslim Mosques in China, wear dress pants or jeans, but not shorts. And if you have females ask them to dress decent, i.e. no exposure of legs and partially arms. Respect for their institutions is well appreciated. The Beijing Mosque has a sign posted at the entrance about the dress code. Ask permissions before taking photographs or videos. Always drop some money in the boxes, before leaving. This would certainly complete a Mosque tour.
As an add-on, I also went to Urumqi (pronounced urumuchi) and Kashgar (also called Kashi) in XinJiang Province, with the intention of travelling to Hunza via the KKH, but it got partially washed out near Taxghorkan and I never made it. I met Tajik Ismailis in Kashgar. Taxkorgan has mostly Tajik Ismailis. In Urumqi I met, by chance, a Kazak Shia girl (Rezia Esmail), with extreme Chinese features, who spoke almost all Central Asian Languages, Russian, both main Chinese languages and of course English. She also understood Arabic, but not speak as fluent, being a manager in an Importing/Exporting firm there. She fabulously recited the names of our early Imams, after I gently pursuaded her to do so. I have lost contact with her. Beijing air is very polluted along with the sand dust storms, that come from across the northern desert areas. Take note if one has some form of respiratory problems. I am not wont to posting my email account, but if you want more information, perhaps we can communicate via email if you can send me your account. Hope some of this bit helps.
As an add-on, I also went to Urumqi (pronounced urumuchi) and Kashgar (also called Kashi) in XinJiang Province, with the intention of travelling to Hunza via the KKH, but it got partially washed out near Taxghorkan and I never made it. I met Tajik Ismailis in Kashgar. Taxkorgan has mostly Tajik Ismailis. In Urumqi I met, by chance, a Kazak Shia girl (Rezia Esmail), with extreme Chinese features, who spoke almost all Central Asian Languages, Russian, both main Chinese languages and of course English. She also understood Arabic, but not speak as fluent, being a manager in an Importing/Exporting firm there. She fabulously recited the names of our early Imams, after I gently pursuaded her to do so. I have lost contact with her. Beijing air is very polluted along with the sand dust storms, that come from across the northern desert areas. Take note if one has some form of respiratory problems. I am not wont to posting my email account, but if you want more information, perhaps we can communicate via email if you can send me your account. Hope some of this bit helps.
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richadmitha
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:04 am
Here is my email adress<BR>[email protected]<BR>i will be glad to receive some more information<BR><BR>
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Guest
anon
CHINA: Xinjiang's Ismailis cut off from international Ismaili community
By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
China's tens of thousands of Ismaili Muslims - ethnic Tajiks concentrated in the north western Xinjiang region - are isolated from the rest of the worldwide Ismaili community, Forum 18 News Service has learnt on a visit to the remote region. The Chinese authorities allow only one Ismaili mosque to function in Xinjiang's Tajik Autonomous District, and children under 18 are not allowed to attend. The mosque's state-appointed imam, Shakar Mamader, admitted that the Chinese authorities do not allow the Aga Khan, the hereditary leader of the Ismaili community, to provide aid to China's Ismailis. "There is absolutely no need for such help as the central government provides very substantial funding to the region," he claimed to Forum 18.
The tens of thousands of Ismaili Muslims of the Tajik Autonomous District in China's north western Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region are isolated from their fellow-Ismailis across the border in Tajikistan and elsewhere in the world, Forum 18 News Service found on a visit to Xinjiang between 8 and 10 September. There is only one Ismaili mosque functioning in the Tajik Autonomous District, in the district capital Tashkurgan, whose imam was appointed by the Chinese secular authorities.
The imam-hatyb of Tashkurgan's Ismaili mosque, Shakar Mamader, admitted to Forum 18 on 9 September that under Chinese law children are forbidden from attending the mosque up to the age of 18. He also admitted that the Chinese authorities do not allow the Fourth Aga Khan (the Ismaili spiritual leader) to offer any aid to the Tajik Autonomous District. However, Mamader believes "there is absolutely no need for such help as the central government provides very substantial funding to the region". He stressed that the Fourth Aga Khan had visited the region in 1980.
Mamader also declared that Ismaili preachers and clerics from neighbouring Pakistan (Tashkurgan is situated 100 kilometres or 60 miles from the checkpoint at the Chinese-Pakistan border) do not work in China. He believes there is no need for them to do so. "We have enough of our own experts on Ismailism," he insisted. However, other local Ismailis who preferred not to be named told Forum 18 that Pakistani Ismaili clerics are not allowed to preach on Chinese territory. Xinjiang's Ismaili community has no contact with Tajik Ismailis as there is not one checkpoint on the Chinese-Tajik border.
The Tajik Autonomous District is situated in the eastern Pamir mountains and borders Pakistan and Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. There are about 50,000 people living in the Tajik Autonomous District identified as Tajiks in the Chinese census. However, these people can be called Tajiks only in the broadest sense. The Sarikoli and Wakhi Chinese Pamir nationalities, as well as the Tajik, Pakistani and Afghan Pamir nationalities who live in Chinese Pamir, speak languages belonging to the Eastern Iranian language group, whereas Tajik is linked to Western Iranian.
Unlike the Tajik Sunni Muslims, the Pamir nationalities practise Ismailism - a branch of Shia Islam which bears the clear influence of Buddhism and neo-Platonism. The current Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary imam of the worldwide Ismaili community. In contrast to other Muslims who pray five times a day, the Ismailis recite prayers only twice a day. They do not observe the Ramadan fast, nor do they ban the consumption of alcohol.
Externally, the villages of Chinese Pamir are virtually indistinguishable from the villages of Tajik Pamir. For example, the homes have an almost identical structure - the interior of the building has to have five columns, a number of sacred significance for Ismailis. However, there are substantial differences in the religious life of the Ismailis of the Chinese and Tajik Pamir.
In contrast to the ban on aid to the Ismailis of Xinjiang, the Aga Khan gives so much aid to the population of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region that this area depends on his financial support. The headquarters of the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme, which the Aga Khan funds, has opened in the city of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. A similar office operates in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, from where shipments of aid are dispatched by road to Tajikistan.
On 30 August the Tajik president Emomali Rahmonov laid the foundation stone for a new Ismaili Centre in the Tajik capital Dushanbe. In his remarks at the ceremony, the Aga Khan said the new centre would be "a place for contemplation, upliftment and the search for spiritual enlightenment".
By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
China's tens of thousands of Ismaili Muslims - ethnic Tajiks concentrated in the north western Xinjiang region - are isolated from the rest of the worldwide Ismaili community, Forum 18 News Service has learnt on a visit to the remote region. The Chinese authorities allow only one Ismaili mosque to function in Xinjiang's Tajik Autonomous District, and children under 18 are not allowed to attend. The mosque's state-appointed imam, Shakar Mamader, admitted that the Chinese authorities do not allow the Aga Khan, the hereditary leader of the Ismaili community, to provide aid to China's Ismailis. "There is absolutely no need for such help as the central government provides very substantial funding to the region," he claimed to Forum 18.
The tens of thousands of Ismaili Muslims of the Tajik Autonomous District in China's north western Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region are isolated from their fellow-Ismailis across the border in Tajikistan and elsewhere in the world, Forum 18 News Service found on a visit to Xinjiang between 8 and 10 September. There is only one Ismaili mosque functioning in the Tajik Autonomous District, in the district capital Tashkurgan, whose imam was appointed by the Chinese secular authorities.
The imam-hatyb of Tashkurgan's Ismaili mosque, Shakar Mamader, admitted to Forum 18 on 9 September that under Chinese law children are forbidden from attending the mosque up to the age of 18. He also admitted that the Chinese authorities do not allow the Fourth Aga Khan (the Ismaili spiritual leader) to offer any aid to the Tajik Autonomous District. However, Mamader believes "there is absolutely no need for such help as the central government provides very substantial funding to the region". He stressed that the Fourth Aga Khan had visited the region in 1980.
Mamader also declared that Ismaili preachers and clerics from neighbouring Pakistan (Tashkurgan is situated 100 kilometres or 60 miles from the checkpoint at the Chinese-Pakistan border) do not work in China. He believes there is no need for them to do so. "We have enough of our own experts on Ismailism," he insisted. However, other local Ismailis who preferred not to be named told Forum 18 that Pakistani Ismaili clerics are not allowed to preach on Chinese territory. Xinjiang's Ismaili community has no contact with Tajik Ismailis as there is not one checkpoint on the Chinese-Tajik border.
The Tajik Autonomous District is situated in the eastern Pamir mountains and borders Pakistan and Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. There are about 50,000 people living in the Tajik Autonomous District identified as Tajiks in the Chinese census. However, these people can be called Tajiks only in the broadest sense. The Sarikoli and Wakhi Chinese Pamir nationalities, as well as the Tajik, Pakistani and Afghan Pamir nationalities who live in Chinese Pamir, speak languages belonging to the Eastern Iranian language group, whereas Tajik is linked to Western Iranian.
Unlike the Tajik Sunni Muslims, the Pamir nationalities practise Ismailism - a branch of Shia Islam which bears the clear influence of Buddhism and neo-Platonism. The current Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary imam of the worldwide Ismaili community. In contrast to other Muslims who pray five times a day, the Ismailis recite prayers only twice a day. They do not observe the Ramadan fast, nor do they ban the consumption of alcohol.
Externally, the villages of Chinese Pamir are virtually indistinguishable from the villages of Tajik Pamir. For example, the homes have an almost identical structure - the interior of the building has to have five columns, a number of sacred significance for Ismailis. However, there are substantial differences in the religious life of the Ismailis of the Chinese and Tajik Pamir.
In contrast to the ban on aid to the Ismailis of Xinjiang, the Aga Khan gives so much aid to the population of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region that this area depends on his financial support. The headquarters of the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme, which the Aga Khan funds, has opened in the city of Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. A similar office operates in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, from where shipments of aid are dispatched by road to Tajikistan.
On 30 August the Tajik president Emomali Rahmonov laid the foundation stone for a new Ismaili Centre in the Tajik capital Dushanbe. In his remarks at the ceremony, the Aga Khan said the new centre would be "a place for contemplation, upliftment and the search for spiritual enlightenment".
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Guest
Liaqat, Haji
my name is Liaqat, Haji i live in hongkong i have few ismaili friend in china.email me [email protected]