The first mosque we visited was close to the heart of the city, near a large garden. My tutor told me that her family attends services here occasionally. Her mother is Muslim and her father is Christian Orthodox, but their whole family will go to the mosque, while only her father and brother go to church. A religious leader (I think his title is technically a mulla, I'm not sure, though, hopefully someone can set me straight) welcomed us to Bashkortostan and spoke to us about religion and life. The people who spoke Russian very well seemed to appreciate what he said, but unfortunately he spoke very quickly, so I only really got the parts about not drinking vodka. He also chanted a prayer and asked us to pray with him.
The second mosque we visited is called Ljalja-Tjulpan and I believe its named that because its twin minarets look like tulips. It stands just outside the city and is absolutely stunning! The building is relatively new, it wasn't finished until 1998, and is shared with a nearby theological college.
 |
| The Ljalja- Tjulpan Mosque towering above us. |
 |
| The tulip minarets |
As someone who enjoys the atmosphere inside older churches and cathedrals, I found both the mosques to be very peaceful inside. They were quiet, well-lit and decorated with soft colors, intricate carpets, beautiful inscriptions - overall, ideal places to pray and meditate. I actually felt like our big group disturbed some people praying. By the way, the girls did have to wear head-coverings and cover our shoulders and legs (to the knee) when we visited the mosques. But gowns and kerchiefs were available at both of them, if you needed them.
 |
| An older woman praying in Ljalja-Tjulpan. |
We also visited the Statue of Friendship between the Russian and Bashkiri peoples. Funnily enough, I go by this every day on the bus on my way to the university, so it was nice to finally find out what it is. It was built in 1965 and in what I would consider to be the typical style of Soviet monuments.
 |
| Statue of Friendship between the Russian and Bashkiri peoples |
Speaking of Soviet style, Friday we went to the house in Ufa where Lenin lived while he was in exile. Never mind that he lived there for less than a year (probably even less than six months) - he lived there. End of discussion. Basically, the house just showed a typical Russian home in 1900 and our guide talked a bit about Lenin's life, especially what he did leading up to going to Ufa and immediately after. All things considered, Russian history is something I need to brush up on (along with Russian language, Russian literature, and Russian politics, etc...). I know surprisingly little about this country, actually, but that's what I'm here to learn! We also got to see some pictures of Ufa in 1900, including some places I see everyday now. There was also an impressive collection of statues and paintings of Lenin.
 |
| "In this house in 1990 lived Vladimir Illyich Lenin." |
Well, this is getting to be a long post, so I'm going to wrap it up with just a quick story from this Friday. I was with one of the other girls on the CLS program in a cafe to grab lunch and there were a couple of Russian girls waiting in line in front of us. One of them turned around and starting talking to my friend like she knew her, saying she saw her on the bus that morning. We weren't really sure what to make of it, so we asked her to repeat what she said, thinking maybe we just didn't understand it. It turned out that they just mistook my friend for someone else, but then they asked us where we were from and why we were here. They are physics students at one of the other universities in the city and one of them had seen the report on local tv about Americans studying in Ufa. One thing led to another and we ended up having lunch with them! It was awesome!
Finally, I found this funny article about Ufa online, if you're interested. I'm not sure about all of it, but I can attest to it that the thing about awful traffic is true.
No comments:
Post a Comment