Chapter 55 does china have tea

Shia Islam has two holy sites in Iraq, Najaf and Karbala.I really wanted to visit, so I chose Karbala, which is a little closer, about 100 kilometers southwest of Baghdad. Islam is divided into many factions, the largest one is called Sunni, accounting for about 80% of the world's Muslims, followed by Shia, mainly distributed in Iran, Iraq and other places.The two factions have split on the issue of choosing the successor of the Prophet Muhammad. There has been a long history of confrontation, during which there have been many tragedies of revenge.Karbala was the site of one of these tragedies, from which Shiites have created a permanent memorial to their martyrs.We didn't know much about Shia in the past because the majority of Muslims in China are Sunni.But since Iran's Shia leader Khomeini led the Islamic Revolution, and then the Iran-Iraq War broke out, we must pay attention to Shia.

In fact, this is a faction with particularly strict organization, high enthusiasm, and strong fighting spirit, which cannot be ignored. The city of Karbala is centered on two mosques, surrounded by other buildings and radiating to the edge.Both temples have shining golden roofs and cylindrical towers, forming a symmetrical structure, with a square about 500 meters apart in the middle.Unlike in Baghdad, all women here, almost without exception, wear black robes.This made several ladies in our car suddenly nervous, and hurriedly got out of the car to find a shop to buy black robes, so as not to be punished unexpectedly.

Miss Xin Lili was small in stature, so she didn't know what was going on when she was wrapped in a black robe.Lu Yu called out from behind: Lili, is that you?is it you?I wanted to recognize her from the crowd of black robes, but Lili's ears were wrapped inside, so she couldn't hear her at all. When she turned her head occasionally, she still couldn't see her face, only a pair of glasses slid to the tip of her nose, from a circle of black Cloth stands out.Suddenly I heard a voice under the glasses: The black robe makes me very quiet, it's great! We first went to the municipal government to apply for activities in Karbala.There are sand barriers and machine guns above the gate of the city hall, and two soldiers have been aiming.We waited under machine guns for about an hour, our application was approved, we rushed to a mosque and asked to enter as non-Muslims.The answer is that, considering that they come from far away China, they can make an exception to enter the gate of the wall, but they cannot enter the chapel in the temple.

The mosque was built in the seventh century and has been rebuilt several times.Entering the gate, one can see a corridor inside the wall, and countless women in black are leading their children sitting on the carpet with quiet expressions.Behind the black clothes is a high blue and white glazed wall, and above the high wall is a golden top and white clouds.This kind of combination, from a humble person to a brilliant sky, one layer is brighter and higher, the contrast is strong, it is really beautiful. I remember a British architect said that the architecture of Islamic mosques reflects an oasis civilization in the desert, which I think makes sense.In the early days, the Arabs lived a nomadic life like the Bedouins that can still be seen today.When the wanderers in the desolate desert are looking for a habitat, they need to see the tall and shining golden dome from a long distance, and they need a safe and quiet enclosure. Inside the enclosure, they need a shady colonnade and sufficient water sources.The chapel in the middle, however magnificent, is an extension of the tent structure.In fact, until Khomeini lived in seclusion in the suburbs of Paris, he used a real tent as the chapel of the mosque.This basic function makes the building of the mosque simple, bright and practical. Even if the patterns become more and more colorful, the main shape cannot be changed, which provides a good example for architectural aesthetics.

I have come all the way, visited the Saladin Citadel Mosque in Egypt, the Dome of the Rock Mosque in Jerusalem, and attended a complete prostration in the Royal Mosque in Jordan. There are more other mosques that I visited by the way. this form.But in comparison, the two mosques in Karbala are most in line with the purpose of the original oasis civilization.Other mosques are already too urbanized and too touristy, but here, it's mostly devout worshipers. We asked the family of four sitting on the carpet in front of the cloister if they come here often, and the answer was once every two months. Just sitting like this for a day and reciting the Koran will calm the mind.I looked at the families sitting on the ground inside and outside the cloister, and their expressions were similar.Living in the land where the battle clouds are overwhelming, they all have different sufferings, but after sitting in the courtyard under the golden roof for a day, they feel that everything is bearable.Then, in the darkness of night, we went home together, supporting each other.

Many of them came from other places, and they had to walk through a long sandy field with fluttering black robes.Although we were not allowed to enter the worship hall, the directors of the two mosques insisted on seeing us.Shiites are not in power in Iraq, so it is impossible to judge the religious identity of the head.Their living rooms are all silver-roofed, very spacious, with high-powered air conditioners, and several president portraits hung there. The two supervisors are fat, energetic, smoking cigarettes, can speak English, do not look at us when they speak, hold their heads up, and speak in a loud voice.But they didn't talk about religion. They talked about international politics and their admiration for the president as soon as they opened their mouths.The central point of their speech is that the most cultured countries in the world are Iraq and China, so Western countries are jealous, but Iraq resists it.

At this time, an old man came to serve tea with a plate, in a glass cup slightly bigger than his thumb, and there was no tea leaves, only a few tea stalks sank in the bottom of the cup.The supervisor solemnly gestured for us to drink, and asked by the way: Do you have tea in China? We pretended not to hear, and turned our faces to the sky outside the window. November 14, 1999, Karbala, Iraq, overnight at the Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad