Topic: Minorities in Kunming e.g. Muslims, Kunming tribes
Intro Of the minorities in Kunming
Nowhere else in the country might one uncover the splendor of China's varied minority population than 'south of the clouds,' Yunnan. Situated on the southwestern corner of four other provinces, Yunnan also shares borders with three countries (not quite including Thailand and India), its proximity resulting in the highest concentration of ethnic groups in all of China.
Intro Of the minorities in Kunming
Nowhere else in the country might one uncover the splendor of China's varied minority population than 'south of the clouds,' Yunnan. Situated on the southwestern corner of four other provinces, Yunnan also shares borders with three countries (not quite including Thailand and India), its proximity resulting in the highest concentration of ethnic groups in all of China.
Kunming is the capital of China's south-western Yunnan province where it is multinational, 25 ethnic minority groups inhabiting there carry on their own ways of living and cultures.
According to the recordation involving inscrīption in mosques of Kunming and Yunnan chorography, a few Hui forefathers had lived there in the early Dang dynasty, and established the first mosque there. It is accepted that Islam was introduced to Yunnan in 1253 when Kublai, the fifth emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, pacified Dali. Later, Kubai sent a Muslim servant of the Yuan empire named Sai Dianchi to Yunnan to be the governor for taking charge of the state affairs (1274—1279), Sai is credited with having built the first version of mosque in Kunming.
The population of 36% in the central city district of Kunming is believers of Islam, and there are such streets as Shuncheng Street entirely with Halal in Islamic restaurants, religious bookshops, embroidered caps, women in veils, the smoke of street-side barbeque, conspicuous hulks of drying beef, and the call to prayer.
During Sai Dianchi’s reign, he established 12 mosques in Kunming, two of which are the Kunming Nancheng Mosque in Zhengyi Road and the Yongning Mosque at the Dongsi Street corner. Yunnan Islamic Association was founded in 1984 and its office is set in the Kunming Shuncheng Mosque.
The celebrated holy Quran in woodcut edition preserved in Kunming Nancheng Mosque. It was inscribed in the 21st year of the Guangxu Period of the Qing dynasty in the charge of Ma Lianyuan, a scrīpture master. In 1984, it was emended and reprinted. In connection with other Islamic classics, they all have become precious Chinese Islamic cultural relics.
The Muslim named Sayyid Ajal, also known as Sai Dianchi, as a governor of Yunnan Province, has made several major contributions to the development of Islam in Kunming. Cheng He, a Muslim admiral and navigator who became famous early in the Fifteenth Century for sailing with his fleet to thirty different lands, including Africa and Arabia.
It is well-known that Islamic education in Kunming of high quality, owing to Kunming Muslims’ consciousness and behavīors. The mosque education is a main kind of education that is provided by schools attached to the mosques, such as Kunming Quranic Institute of Kunming in Shuncheng Mosque, its basic religious curriculum is provided in Arabic language. College student and middle school students in Kunming are fortunate enough to accept Islamic education during the weekend and holiday.
