Bukui Mosque

Bukui Mosque (Chinese: 卜奎清真寺; pinyin: Bǔkuí Qīngzhēnsì) is a mosque in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, China. It is located in Mosque Road (Chinese: 清真路; pinyin: Qīng Zhēn 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]

Bukui Mosque
卜奎清真寺
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
Branch/tradition	Sunni
Location
Location	Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, China
Shown within Heilongjiang
Geographic coordinates	47°21′2.5″N 123°57′2.5″E
Architecture
Type	mosque
Completed	1684 (East Mosque) 1852 (West Mosque)

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 metre building constructed in Kangxi 23 (1684), predating the city of Qiqihar by seven years^[2]
• The West Mosque, a two-storey, 173 square metre 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 of constructed space; the whole compound covers an area of roughly 6,400 square metres. 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][dead link]} 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. simplified Chinese: 先有清真寺，后有卜奎城; traditional Chinese: 先有清真寺，後有卜奎城; pinyin: Xiān yǒu qīngzhēnsì, hòu yǒu Bǔkuíchéng.