Dungan Mosque…

I’m extremely grateful that I just had the opportunity to visit Dungan Mosque in Kyrgyzstan–a beautiful wooden mosque built by a Chinese architect and 20 artisans in the early years of the 20th century (without using a single nail!). The Dungans first arrived in Kyrgyzstan as refugees from China in 1877. Imagery from the Dungan people’s pre-Islamic Buddhist past is woven into the mosque’s decoration. It’s been my dream for a long time to travel to Karakol to see this unique mosque, and I’m thrilled that I finally got the chance…