Apak Hoja Mausoleum and an animal market

Today it's gonna be a long day in Kashger. To get all the pictures on the homepage, we'll make most probably 2 of them for just one day, let's see. First thing in the morning we saw some worker at our hotel. What exactly they were doing we didn't find out, but the extension cord architecture made an impression on us.

vorm Hotelfenster    Hotelbaustelle

First stop today is the Apak Hoja Tomb. The entrance gate to the tomb area is decorated with different hand made tiles. Some of them are missing and unfortunately nobody knows nowadays, how to manufacture these kind of tiles. So the missing ones will not be replaced.

Mausoleumseingang    Schmuckkacheln auf Uygurisch

Uuuups, maybe you wanna know some of the history. Sure, no problem. Build in 1640 for the father of Apak Hoja it should be named after him: Yussuf Hoja tomb. But Apak was later on the more prominent king and religion leader, so they changed the name to Apak Hoja. Quite simple.

Turm    noch ein Turm

The whole area is around 29 ha, so there is plenty of space for some buildings, a mosque, a study house and some ways for walks.

Spazierwege    Eingangstor von hinten

But enough for the prologue, let's get to the tomb.

Eingang zum Mausoleum    Das Mausoleum

In the tomb it's forbidden to take photographs. All in all there should be 72 persons buried, out of 5 generations but it's only 58. Where the rest is? No clue. But there is also the body of the concubine of the chinese empower Quing Long buried. Quing Long? The Quing Long? Boy, that's really unbelievable, this guy had really fun in his life. It's the same who was quite often in Suzhou and also in Hangzhou, we wrote a lot of his stories already here. The world is just a village, especially here in China.

Gli grande Kuppola di Mausoleo di Kashgar    Nebentürme

The cupola is the biggest one in Xinjiang and meassures 35 x 29 meters at 10m height.So, now you know also this detail. Next to the tomb is the graveyard for all the other people. If you imagine the cupola over this graveyard it's exactly how it looks like inside the tomb.

Friedhof    ein Halbmond

Some steps further the ways we found the study hall which is currently under renovation. In this hall all the Hojas preached their interpretation of slam. What a pity, we couldn't get in and touch the holy stone with the white and green sparkles. This stone heals all deceases and the one who are not ill stays longer healthy. Again, what a pity.

Studierzimmer    im Vorlesungssaal

Some more meters away there is the Juma mosque. Sure, you can't have a tomb without one.

die Juma Moschee    in der Moschee

The mosque is around 100m in length. The whole roof is carried by 62 wooden pillars with individual carvings in each. If they now would take a little care of the carvings and maybe do some renovation work......

Säulenunikat    Gebetsraum
Noch ne Säule    Improvisierkunst

Two last pictures from the area and we're off to the animal market. We don't think that we find the same peacefulness there like here.

Auf dem Mausoleumsgelände    Ein weiterer Turm

Since roughly a year they move the animal market from downtown to a special place a bit out of town. The traffic chaos was just too big downtown. Not only the cars but also the animals are more or less on the road.

Auf zum Viehmarkt    alle fahren hin
und noch mehr    sag ich doch, wirklich alle

Wow, this market is big. They're trading mostly sheeps and donkeys but also some cows, horses, goats, chicken, donkey cars, screws and parts, shoes, vegetables, well, just everything which has something in common with farming.

der Viehmarkt    auch Gemüse und so gibts

Everywhere animals are checked out, discussions, negotiations, barging, selling, buying, laughing, gossiping everywhere. We double checked with Tudajim, if we're really really still in China or if we passed some borders without recognizing it.

das will gut überlegt sein    Ob das Schaf was taugt?

There is a constant flow of animals coming and going, the traffic is not stopping for one second. Some animals don't want to walk like they're supposed to. And others don't want to let go of their sheep at all.

nein, er will nicht wirklich    So ein Schaf im Arm, was gibts schöneres sollte man meinen

Really great is the market for 2nd (or maybe 8th) tools and screws. It's a paradise to search for hours just to find the one screw you're looking for. Also the repair man is a cool thing. There is nothing he's not gonna fix. Even without Silicone or Tape....

Gebraucht Werkzeug und Schraubenverkauf    Alles Reparier Mann

I heard quite often, the longer people are living with their animals, the more they look like each other. Well, judge your self.

Ähnlichkeiten in den Bildern sind reiner Zufall    was heisst hier dumme Kuh

The market is a man area, no question about it. But sometimes you can see also a woman, but they're buying lambs or chickens at the most.

Frau mit Lamm    Mäh und nichts anderes

In Xinjiang the number one transport vehicle is the donkey car. The guys are quite good in driving the donkeys, they are better in parking than some people I saw here in Suzhou with the car.

gekonnt geparkter Eselwagen    Uyguren Mädchen

You'll not imagine,  how many photographs we took, and don't ask about the sorting out for the homepage. Here just 6 of them but be sure, a picture collection will follow.

UYgure mit typischem Käppi    in Wartehaltung
Futterzeit    Eseltreiber
und noch ein Uygure    Im Pailettenkleid auf dem Viehmarkt

But not only portraits of people, also the main attraction get pictured: the sheeps.

Schafherde    mehr Schafe

That much work leads to hunger.  There is plenty of food booths around the market selling food, e.g. the sheep dumplings fresh out of the stone oven. Yummy.

Mittagspause    mehr Mittagspause
Maultaschenbholzbackofen    Maultaschen im Holzbackofen
Eisgekühltes Drink-Joghurt    früh übt sich....

Ok, some last portraits of the people before we leave the market:

Zahnversicherung kostet extra in China    Marktfrau
Beobachter am RandImages_XinJiang/Day4_1/Markt39.jpgImages_XinJiang/Day4_1/Markt39.jpg    Muslima

After purchasing some animals or stuff somehow its needed to transported it home. We could have stared for hours, no problem

Schaftransport    Holztransport
Kuhtransport    Kuhtransport von Hand

As a single example, here the documentation, how to transport a living sheep on a e-bike. There's no "animals rights organisation" or something like this in China.....

erster Versuch    Schaf doch besser andersrum
Ohren langziehen und Kopf ausrichten    und los gehts

What a start in the day. And it's barely noon. So let's have some lunch at a uygur family, after that we visit the handcraft street,  the Idha mosque and at last the Sunday market.

ein Kleintransporter    das Schild steht an allen Zugängen vom Viehmarkt.....

How we'll manage all of this is a completely other story, told here later on......

Dann is ja gut...

Camels...
 
....and a "take a picture here" sign. The real mixture of China and Uygur......

Foto-Kamel

Nochmal Foto-Kamel

Und ein letztes mal: das Foto-Kamel