The last great mosque in China lost its domes and minarets were converted into pagodas, thus marking the end of the government’s campaign to destroy the country’s Muslim places of worship.

The Great Mosque of Shadian, one of China’s largest and grandest mosques, it towers over the small town it takes its name from in southwestern Yunnan Province.

According to a report by the Guardian Until last year, the 21,000 square meter complex had a large building with a green tiled dome, adorned with a crescent moon, flanked by four smaller domes and tall minarets.

Satellite images from 2022 show the entrance pavilion decorated with a large crescent moon and star made of vibrant black tiles.

Photos, satellite images and testimonies from this year show that the dome was removed and replaced with a Han Chinese-style pagoda roof, and the minarets were shortened and turned into pagoda towers. Only a faint trace of the crescent and star tiles that once marked the mosque’s front porch is visible.

See the before and after

Yunnan’s other landmark mosque, Najiaying, less than 100 miles from Shadian, was also recently stripped of its Islamic features in a renovation.

In 2018, the Chinese government released a five-year plan to resist “foreign architectural styles” and promote “Islamic architecture… full of Chinese characteristics.” A leaked Chinese Communist Party memo shows that local authorities have been instructed to “adhere to the principle of demolishing more and building less”.

Hannah Theaker, a historian of Islam in China at Plymouth University, said the campaign to destroy mosques had progressed “province by province”, with Yunnan, one of the furthest provinces from Beijing, being the last to be targeted. “By 2023, there was a feeling among the communities that the architectural absorption would reach the famous Yunnan Mosques, the last great mosques in China that have not undergone technical treatment.”

Ma Ju, a Hui Chinese activist based in New York, said the renovations were “a clear message to destroy your religion and nationality.”

The history of the Shadian Mosque

The Great Mosque of Shadian, first built during the Ming Dynasty, was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in an uprising known as the Shadian Incident, in which the People’s Liberation Army suppressed a revolt by Hui Muslims in the region . More than 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed.

The Great Mosque was later rebuilt and expanded with government support. His design was based on the Prophet’s Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where Muhammad is believed to be buried. It has three prayer rooms and a capacity of 10,000 worshippers.

The destruction of the mosques

China’s plan to destroy mosques is now considered largely complete, but it is only part of its plans to shape Islam to fit the government’s ideology. In February, Beijing tightened its regulations on religious expression to ensure religions “conform to the direction of destruction.” Several local authorities already ban people under the age of 18 from attending mosques, and in Najiaying minors are prohibited from fasting.