aswana-cliche: Lahore, Wazir Khan Mosque & Golden Mosque

Friday, January 11, 2013

Lahore, Wazir Khan Mosque & Golden Mosque

The PC Hotel Guest Relation Officer (GRO) had given my itinerary list to the driver who was assigned to complete my proposed tour list. As soon as I finished the tour inside the Lahore Museum, the driver told a story about the Walled City of Lahore on the way to Wazir Khan Mosque. Reason being, we had to go through the old gate of Delhi. Walled City of Lahore had 13 gates, Akbari Gate, Bhati Gate, Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Lohari Gate, Masti Gate, Mochi Gate, Mori Gate, Roshnai Gate, Shahalmi Gate, Shairanwala Gate, Taxali Gate and Yakki Gate. As he talked so fast, I had to get the gates reference names from Wikipedia. All 13 gates survived until the 19th century before the British demolished almost all except Roshnai Gate in their effort to defortify the city during the aftermath of 1857 Uprising, after the siege of Delhi. The same has been done by the British to the Walled City of Delhi but 5 out of 13 gates in Old Delhi survive today.

Some of the survived gates were rebuilt in a simple structures, except for Delhi Gate and Lohari Gate. Shahalmi Gate burnt to ground during the riots of 1947 while Akbari Gate was demolished for repairs but never built again. Today, out of 13, only Bhati Gate, Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Lohari Gate, Roshnai Gate, and Shairanwala Gate survive, yet many are in urgent need of repairs and restoration. To my surprise, a ride to Wazir Khan Mosque is through a busied market roads of old Lahore. According to the driver, the traffic will be hectic during prayer and at the evening times when all markets are in operation. As the mosque is located in the inner city, I tend to focus on the scene in below photo that is rarely for me to see in my hometown. I enjoyed them very much.

What I saw at the entrance of the gates was, an impressive high walls coated with plaster (chunam) and faced with a finely-soft quality of the same material tooled to a marble-like surface and coloured. All the external plasterwork was richly coloured a rich Indian red, in true fresco, and the surface afterwards picked out with white lines in the similitude of the small bricks beneath. The place was still very quite. The 2 gatekeepers did not charged any entrance fee. I was free to wander and to shoot as many pictures as I want.

As soon as I stepped inside the Wazir Khan Mosque prayer courtyard I witnessed more of its famously extensive faience tile work. Faience is a conventional words for a fine tin-glazed potter on delicate puff of earthenware, invented in Iran and Middle East before the 9th century. It has been described as 'a mole on the cheek of Lahore'. The mosque was built in seven years, starting around 1634-1635 AD, during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan. It was built by Shaikh Ilm-ud-din Ansari, a native of Chiniot, who rose to be the court physician to Shah Jahan and later, the Governor of Lahore. He was commonly known as Wazir Khan. The word wazir means 'minister' in Urdu language.

107 ft height minaret (below photo), decorated with mosaic tiles.

Externally and internally, the mosque requires extensive restoration works to bring back its beautiful colors and past glory. The prayer hall was very quite, so, I sneak into imam's mimbar with a pang of guilt for a record of me and the fine arts of shishan wood by a skill craftsman, whoever he was. The mosque caretaker was sleeping peacefully. The Koranic verses was crafted on the wall of the prayer hall, very impressive scenery.

Golden Mosque is situated not far from Wazir Khan mosque. If not because of the PC hotel driver asked whether or not he should take me there, I wouldn't knew the existence of this historic grandeur mosque. We had to wait few minutes before the mosque caretaker, who was overseeing the mosque renovation, released the padlock. Quite saddened with the lack of its maintenance.