Close to the Armenian Church in distance, but a whole world away culturally was the next stop - Sitara Mosque, also called the Star Mosque, but I didn't know this until I started writing this blog entry. Even though I have seen many mosques, and most of them in Bangladesh are very plain, as we approached I started saying "it's so beautiful", and it is. Facing was a series of archways with two large domes and three smaller domes above. But it was the colour that was most striking: white, not a grubby white, with coloured glass inset in these tiles. The mosque dates from the early 18th century but has changed considerably since then.
Inside there is a mosaic floor and tiles with floral patterns set on the wall. Many of these tiles added in the renovation around 50 years ago are from Japan and the UK. According to Lonely Planet this includes tiles with pictures of Mt Fuji but I didn't notice any, not that I was looking.
Why it is called the Star Mosque? The most logical reason seems that there is a large star in the pool out the front of the mosque. But it could also be that pieces of china and glass used as decoration appear as twinkling stars if viewed from a distance.
1 comment:
thanks for your post on sitara mosque. isn't it a beautiful place?
one thing: i am sure you have seen mount fuji. you can actually hardly miss it - i can even see the tiles on the "yellow wall" of the mosque.
best regards
boris
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