Mazha

Mazha

Mazha is a special burial system among Muslims in Xinjiang, China, with strong local characteristics. Maza is the tomb of the Islamic saints or famous sages in Xinjiang, China. Transliterated from Arabic, originally meant for the mausoleum or Jinye place. Generally, there are many long wooden poles around the tomb, which are used to hang cloth strips, horsetail, sheep skin, sheep horn, ox tail and other objects. Mazhaduo is a courtyard style building, with a large vault top tomb, a chapel, a tower, a sutra study hall and other ancillary buildings, and a large number of land, houses, shops and other industries. Another Imam and muaijin presided over religious activities, and the scripture teachers were responsible for religious education. The famous Maza include apak hojia Maza in Kashgar (known as Xiangfei tomb in Chinese historical materials), satuk bugrahan Maza in Atushi, ould Maza in Yingjisha, alfada Maza in Turpan, tuheiluk Timur Khan Maza in Huocheng, etc. It is mainly distributed in the southeast of Tianshan Mountains, along the southern margin of Tarim Basin and Pamir tashkergan area. Mazar is a special system among Muslims in Xinjiang, China, which has strong local characteristics. Mazar means "place of worship" in Arabic and refers to the cemetery of saints. Muslims here believe that Mazar has a sacred status and extraordinary power; every Muslim should worship Mazar and pray for the souls of the saints buried in Mazar to help himself, so as to obtain happiness in this life and the afterlife; as long as they worship Mazar, they can get spiritual liberation and everything goes well.

type

Mazar can be divided into three types: one is the Mazar of the people who have made great contributions to the spread of Islam in Xinjiang; the second is the Mazar of their religious leaders; the third is the Mazar named after animals and plants without names. The first two kinds of Mazha are large-scale, generally with luxurious mausoleums and a series of ancillary buildings; the third kind is the most common, with the largest number and the most humble. There are also many kinds of accessories, such as long poles, cloth strips, flags, horsetails, horns and so on.

effect

Worshiping Mazha occupies a very important position in the life of Muslims in Xinjiang. Many Mazha are distributed in the vast area of Xinjiang. The most concentrated season of worship is in May, June, September and October every year. During this period, Muslims from all over the world come to worship one after another, forming a remarkable feature of the Islamic belief system in Xinjiang.

development

Islam originally opposed to worship anyone or anything other than Allah, but Uyghur and other ethnic groups still have Mazar worship, which is the most typical manifestation of the localization of Islam. The customs of setting up a high pole, flying a flag and hanging sheep's skin on Mazha are the remains of Shamanism, Buddhism and other multi religions.

Address: Aksu, Xinjiang

Longitude: 75.890417

Latitude: 39.145748

Chinese PinYin : Ma Zha