We Spent Christmas at the Largest Mosque in India!
I am a half Jewish, half Christian gal who spent Christmas at the largest Islamic mosque in India. And it was beautiful!
Though I love gathering with family during the winter holidays in America, I've never been obsessed with gifts. How freeing, then, to spend December 25 in a country where just 2.3% of the population is Christian, and holiday consumerism isn't ubiquitous!
T'was the morning of Christmas and the second day of our India teacher tour... and Jama Masjid mosque was our destination.
As our tour van pulled through the maze of Old Delhi and up to the mosque entrance, our guide Manu explained, "Jama Masjid mosque was completed in 1656-- over 120 years before the United States became a country!"
Our group climbed the steep stairs. At the top, Manu instructed, "Just as we did at the Sikh temple in New Delhi yesterday, please remove your shoes here as a sign of respect for the mosque. You may leave your socks on or pay a small fee for slippers." We added our footwear to the diverse pile.
The ladies in our group were then instructed to select brightly colored robes from a pile and put them on. "Why do we have to wear these rainbow colored mumus?" one of the female teachers in the group asked.
"Tourists used to not have to wear them," Manu explained, "but the Imams of the mosque spent so much time trying to decide which visitor attire was appropriate and which wasn't (where do capri pants fit in, for example?) that they concluded it would be easier to just have every female tourist cover up completely with complementary robes." We did have to admit that the colors gave us a jaunty flair.
We strode into the mosque courtyard, and -- GASP! -- our breath was taken away. What a glorious building! "Jama Masjid was ordered to be built by Emperor Shah Jahan," explained Manu, "the same Mughal emperor who commissioned the Taj Mahal." That man knew how to create fabulous monuments! "It took over 6,000 workers six years to build." Can you imagine being part of such an epic construction project?
As we walked through the courtyard and under the arches of the indoor halls, Manu mumbled, "You know, it is possible to climb up the 130-foot tall tower over there... but I do not recommend it. It is very high and narrow, and quite scary."
"Climbing a high tower?!" Colin, David, and I screamed, "LET'S DO IT!"
Colin, David, and I sprinted to the turret entrance and eagerly paid the small fee. The first flight of stairs was easy, and two cats the color of the mosque stones purred encouragement as we passed them. Then came the turret stairs: a narrow, dark spiral with barely enough room for one person to move. When a pack of Indian tourists encountered us on their way down, we had to plaster ourselves to the cold stone wall to let them squeeze past. But at last we reached the top. Ooh, what a view!
On one side of the turret, the massive mosque courtyard stretched far below us. To the other side, the tightly bunched buildings of Old Delhi winked through the haze of India's pollution. Packs of pigeons circled.
Then I saw the man gesturing towards us. He motioned for me to pose for a photo with his family: Muslim women grinning under their carefully wrapped headscarves. I joyfully obliged.
What a refreshingly unique Christmas! We were at the top turret of the largest mosque in India, smiling and posing with a devout Muslim family, not a Christmas present in sight except our presence together as a human family! I wished those who perpetuate negative stereotypes about Muslims could have felt the warmth and happiness in that moment on the tower.
At this point Manu emerged from the tiny stairway opening, his bare feet slapping the cold stone. All together, we gaped at the view from the tower until our watches reminded us it was time to make the dark, cramped descent down to rendezvous with our waiting group.
We made it back to the courtyard safely, with a short detour for my brother to snap photos of the surly cats (not included here, as they kept turning their heads from David's lens so all you can see is their rumps).
As we skipped across the huge courtyard, I tried to imagine it packed with people. Jama Masjid is, after all, still a working mosque. "25,000 people can pray here at a time," Manu explained.
"WHOA!" I responded, reeling with the image and the general vastness of India.
Speaking of multitudes, there were certainly multitudes of pigeons at Jama Masjid mosque. In India, pigeons are considered desirable, so people scatter birdseed on the ground in important places for the birds to swoop in and eat themselves silly before flying off.
During our visit to the mosque, we spotted two tiny kids gleefully doing the "I am a child running into a pack of pigeons and forcing them to fly away!!!!" move. It was so cute, and my brother reminded me that we used to do the same thing back in Boston as kids. Ah, the international dance of child and pigeon!
Our visit to the lovely Jama Masjid mosque was coming to an end, but our Christmas Day in India had just begun. We laid our robes back into the pile from whence they came, and retrieved our shoes from the footwear sea. I was beaming. What a wonderful visit!
Readers, what are your thoughts after reading this article? Have you had memorable tours of mosques around the world? Have you ever spent Christmas in a non-traditional way (by American standards)? What questions, thoughts, or additional information do you have? Do share!
Love mosques? Check out the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey!
The author, Lillie Marshall, is a 6-foot-tall National Board Certified Teacher of English, fitness fan, and mother of two who has been a public school educator since 2003. She launched Around the World “L” Travel and Life Blog in 2009, and over 4.2 million readers have now visited this site. Lillie also runs TeachingTraveling.com and DrawingsOf.com. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media!
Hi Ms. Marshall,
I spoke to you in person about your websites, and this article struck me the most as I am a Muslim. It is nice to see that others are open to the idea of going to the mosque. Your sites are visually appealing and the photos are very nice, as well as your writing. I agree it does look like you put a lot of work into this. Glad I came across this!
-Hassan
Thanks so much Hassan! Be in touch!
This is a cool post Lillie! I spent last Christmas at a Tibetan Monastery in China. Love unusual random festive (or un-festive) experiences. Jonny ( http://dontstopliving.net )
Hey Lillie, this post is really inspiring for travelers. The photographs also amazing now words to say! . Have you ever visited Kerala. A wonderful place in India. Please make it next time if you are not. Once again thank you for having such a wonderful website and informative articles.
Thanks so much, Joseph! I haven't been to Kerela yet, but I've heard GREAT things, and it's very high on my wish list of places to go!
Such wonderful photos... so colourful on what looked quite a grey day. And to answer your question on the turret: no way Jose! Must say, isn't Islamic architecture amazing? I have yet to see a mediocre mosque, they're all so stunning.
Perhaps it's because of its connection to the dawn of mathematics, but Islamic architecture is consistently phenomenal!
Thank You for the very informative Artikel/fotos!!
What a lovely blog post - beautiful photos. I especially like the one with the pigeons. :)
And what a great way to spend Christmas. My favorite random Christmas travel memory was salsa dancing in Christmas eve in Vienna. A true story. :D
Awesome! Salsa dancing sure does have a world audience. My friend's friend who worked abroad for a while in Nepal got really into taking salsa dancing there!
Gorgeous photos! What a unique way to spend Christmas.
OK, I would not have enjoyed those stairs!! Your photos are gorgeous....
Thanks! :)
Wow, beautiful photos indeed!! Love the indoor shot of the inner halls of the Mosque, stunning light!
I was in New Delhi for three months just over a year ago and never made it to that Mosque...regretting it now, but I know I'll be back some day! I adore India!
Thanks! Yes, there is too much in any country to see in one visit alone, and that's especially true for India!
Lillie, once again, great article. We at GEEO (www.geeo.org) were so happy to put together this trip for you. If any of your readers would like to follow in your footsteps they should check out the two India/Nepal programs we are running this summer: http://www.geeo.org/tours/IndiaNepal/
We are running trips for educators to over 30 countries in 2013, so for those who are reading this, if India isn't your cup of tea we can send you somewhere else like Italy, Eastern Europe, Peru, Southern Africa or Uzbekistan. Call us at 1-877-600-0105 if you have any questions.
Thanks, Jesse!
Love it! What a great way to spend Christmas and so cute that they wanted to get their photo with you.
As a 6-foot-tall woman, I get it a lot out of the U.S. :)
Awesome....well, maybe not the staircase, but definitely everything else...
Even the staircase was awesome in a challenging sort of way. Hehe.
We spent last Christmas in Bali, and really enjoyed the non-consumerism of it. Sounds like this was similar :)
Yes! It's great! The question is how to replicate that back at home for coming years.
Sounds a lot better than our Christmas! Wow!
I totally forgot that people in India see pigeons as good luck. So cool that I'm still learning 6 weeks after the trip!
There is one thing missing from this article...pictures of cat rumps! :P
Hehe. :) Yes, I am so glad I have this website so that I can re-live the whirlwind that was our trip. We saw so much so fast that it is a huge help to go back and re-research everything.
I love reading your articles in India, Lillie. I've never been, but it's wonderful to see the country through your eyes. The architecture of this mosque is absolutely beautiful.
What great pictures!
I can't wait to visit India! Cheers.
Yay!
I've never read any article properly reviewing this mosque. From your photos I know I have to make a visit to this place! I mean, look at that interior, I might spend hours just marveling this grand mosque. However I hope the pollution won't get even worse because it seems like it's already bad enough.
Glad you're inspired! It is definitely a can't-miss spot. Regarding the pollution, I recently wrote an article about it for the Gates Foundation: http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/01/Help-We-Need-Air-Quality-Heroes the thrust of which is that the pollution is bad, and hopefully the efforts to improve it will ramp up and begin to make a difference!
I never did this in Delhi! Probably because the day we arrived there had been a bomb just outside the mosque. But I've been up a similar minaret staircase in Uzbekistan. Fantastic photos and thanks for taking us on this journey!
Ah, I'm jealous-- I've been fascinated by recent photos of travelers from the 'Stans! Regarding the bomb outside this mosque, researching for this article was the first I heard about it. It seems to have been a relatively small and random, with minimal damages, so little cause for alarm for prospective tourists reading this article!
My husband and I have India on our list of places to visit and your posts have convinced me that it's not wimpy to go on a tour. In fact, I become exhausted just thinking about trying to visit India independently. I've only spent Christmas away from the U.S. while living for a year each in Mexico and England for a year --- both "officially" Christian nations.
I've had only two personal experiences with mosques. One was in Cyprus where a "green line" with U.N. peacekeepers divides the Greek (Greek Orthodox) side from the Turkish (Islamic) side. We didn't visit the Turkish part of the island, but on the Greek side, there were mosques cheek to jowl with Greek Orthodox churches --- only since the partition in 1974, the mosques are silent as the Greeks in the north were forced south as refugees and the Muslims in the south were forced north.
The only active mosques I've seen were in the Dubai Airport. There were a men's mosque and a women's mosque right next to each other---and directly across the hall was the Irish pub---of course. Obviously, Islam in India is not run by the Taliban. All you had to do was put on a muumuu and the Indian Muslim family were all together, the women were wearing bright colors and their faces were exposed. Were the prayer sections of the mosque gender segregated?
Yes, having tasted both do-it-yourself travel and tours, both have their pros and cons, but there are certain situations in which one is preferable to another. A first visit to a confusing country, especially in a limited time frame, is ideal for a small-group tour.
I love the details and observations you share in your comment. I don't know the answer to your gender question, but for just walking around, genders mixed freely, safely protected by mumus. :)
Beautiful pictures, I love the Mogul era architecture in the Asian sub-continent. India is on my list of places to explore, once I'm done exploring Canada.
Thanks! Interestingly, Canada is in my list for upcoming travels. Regarding India, YES the Mughals knew how to build!
Any particular time you're planning on visiting Canada? I suggest the summer time, winters are way too cold here, unless you like that kind of weather.
Make sure to visit British Columbia, and Vancouver (my home town).
Yes, a summer! :)
For Christmas I have warm memories of the Christmas I spent in Copenhagen while working there. I made a lot of friends through playing Ultimate Frisbee there and was invited to the team’s Christmas lunch, known as “Julefrokostâ€. I remember eating good Nordic food and enjoying Schnapps.
Great article Lillie! The fifth shot down, did you take that thinking about the image I sent you the night before you visited Jama Masjid? That is the angle that I love.
My favorite mosques:
Jama Masjid in Delhi: Agreed, this one is fantastic and so dignified. Climbing up the tower was indeed memorable. I took a wonderful photo in 1998 that Lillie has a similar angle to the one in her fifth picture down. I was lucky that it was pretty much empty in mine. When I returned with GEEO in 2008 I took one from the same angle but it just did not have the same spirit. Maybe it was the transition from film to digital? Maybe it was the light that day?
The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia: This mosque was built in 863 AD on top of the sight of an older mosque built in 670 AD. It is the oldest Muslim place of worship in Africa and is commonly regarded as the fourth holiest site in Islam (after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem). For centuries, the Great Mosque of Kairouan has served as a pilgrimage destination for North Africans not able to make the long trip to Mecca. According to popular belief, seven trips to Kairouan was worth one hajj to Mecca. I remember the columns inside were all mismatched because they had been re-purposed from their earlier use in Roman temples. I also dropped a $1000 lens just after that visit that thankfully I was able to repair.
Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco: Completed in 1993, it is the largest mosque in Morocco and the 7th largest in the world. It's minaret is the world's tallest at 210 meters. This mosque is just plain beautiful. It is tricky for modern architecture to as beautiful as the older buildings, but this one is spectacular.
The Mosques of Istanbul, Turkey: There are just so many great Mosques here that I can’t narrow it down to one. Sultan Ahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque), Suleymaniye Mosque, New Mosque, Fatih Mosque, The Hagia Sofia (It was a church for almost 1000 years, then a mosque for almost 500 years before it was turned into a museum in 1935.) GEEO goes to Istanbul on three of our trips this year.
The other Mosque’s that stand out for me are the Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo, the Niujie Mosque in Beijing, the Abu Darweesh Mosque in Jordan and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock (A shrine) in Jerusalem.
Great list!
You are doing such a great job capturing the beauty of Delhi's most significant religious sites!
That means a lot to hear! Each article takes hours and hours to do extra research and corroboration, edit and format photos, and write... But it's so worth it for readers like you! :)