The House of the Far-Reaching Arrows: How a Dalai Lama Gifted a Mosque to Muslims
The 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682) would often see a lone man go and perform prostration (sujūd) on an isolated hill in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Being curious, he asked the man what he was doing. The praying man — whose name was Pīr Maulānā Khairuddīn — explained that it was the way of prayer in his religion, Islam and that — he went to the hill because there was no mosque in the town.
The Dalai Lama then ordered arrows to be fired from the top of the hill in all directions — and the land between the points where the arrows fell was granted to the Muslim community. This area came to be known as rGyang mda’ khang (“The House of the Far-Reaching Arrows”).
There are now two mosques in that area of Lhasa (six in total across Tibet), both still in use today for jum‘ah prayers. A Muslim cemetery is also located there.
Lhasa has around 6500 Muslims — who are generally pious in their faith — follow the Ḥanafī school of law — and strictly observe the sharī‘ah in their daily diet and social affairs.
- José Ignacio Cabezón, 𝐼𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒
- Chen Bo, 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑚 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐿ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑎
- Xiaochun Yang, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑜𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐿ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑎
