Bhong Mosque
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Quick Facts
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Bhong Mosque (Bhong Masjid) is located in the village of Bhong, Sadiqabad Tehsil, Rahim Yar Khan District, Southern Punjab Pakistan.The mosque is located at the distance of 200 kilometers from Bahawalpur and 50 kilometers from Rahim Yar Khan and is well known for its exquisite design and architectural beauty with gold leaves carved for the intricate decorative patterns and the stylish calligraphic work. It was designed and constructed over a period of nearly 50 years (1932–1982) and won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1986. A postage stamp depicting it was issued on May 12, 2004 in Pakistan.
History of Mosque
The Bhong Mosque was constructed by Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad, a prominent social and political personality as well as the landlord of a large estate, in 1932 in village Bhong, Tehsil Sadiqabad, District Rahim-Yar Khan.In order to immortalize the mosque, Sardar Rais brought craftsmen, artisans and calligraphers from Lahore, Iran, Spain and Turkey.
The mosque was initially a Complex consisted of a small mosque but was later converted to a prayer hall and a library for women, madrassa and residential dormitories for students and visitors.
Over the 50 years of its evolution, the Bhong Mosque Complex has generated jobs and trained approximately 1000 workers and craft men in indigenous crafts. Its construction laid an edifice for socio-economic development and provision of basic amenities of life including market roads, schools, electricity, gas, bank, hospital, post office etc. to the local population.
For the most beautiful and singular effort to produce an exquisite architecture and in recognition of his significant sole attempt to create a local Islamic Centre of learning and building crafts, the 1986 Agha Khan Award of Architecture was awarded by His Highness Prince Karim Agha Khan to Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad. In the words of the Jury
"Bhong enshrines and epitomizes the popular taste in Pakistan with all its vigour, pride, tension and sentiment. Its use, and misuse of signs and symbols expresses appropriate growing pains of an architecture in transition."
The President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan has posthumously conferred upon Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad, "Sitara-i-Imtiaz" on March 23, 2004 on Pakistan Day for his outstanding contribution to the field of Public Service Bhong Mosque Architecture.
Since conference of award, the Mosque has become a site of interest for architects from all over the world.
"To many architects and intellectuals, the Bhong Mosque complex is a product that negates the very purpose of an architectural enterprise rooted in the deep understanding of the culture," writes steering committee member and architect Ismail Serageldin.
"To many others, it is a wonderful, exuberant structure that evokes an almost palpable joie de vivre, and that represents a bow to the prevailing taste of its users," stated (Along with the majority's final thoughts and statements) by Hans Hollein and the Turkish architect Mehmet Doruk Pamir in their work. Much more have been written by the international architectural press about the mosque that is a thing of beauty.
The mosque was initially a Complex consisted of a small mosque but was later converted to a prayer hall and a library for women, madrassa and residential dormitories for students and visitors.
Over the 50 years of its evolution, the Bhong Mosque Complex has generated jobs and trained approximately 1000 workers and craft men in indigenous crafts. Its construction laid an edifice for socio-economic development and provision of basic amenities of life including market roads, schools, electricity, gas, bank, hospital, post office etc. to the local population.
For the most beautiful and singular effort to produce an exquisite architecture and in recognition of his significant sole attempt to create a local Islamic Centre of learning and building crafts, the 1986 Agha Khan Award of Architecture was awarded by His Highness Prince Karim Agha Khan to Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad. In the words of the Jury
"Bhong enshrines and epitomizes the popular taste in Pakistan with all its vigour, pride, tension and sentiment. Its use, and misuse of signs and symbols expresses appropriate growing pains of an architecture in transition."
The President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan has posthumously conferred upon Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad, "Sitara-i-Imtiaz" on March 23, 2004 on Pakistan Day for his outstanding contribution to the field of Public Service Bhong Mosque Architecture.
Since conference of award, the Mosque has become a site of interest for architects from all over the world.
"To many architects and intellectuals, the Bhong Mosque complex is a product that negates the very purpose of an architectural enterprise rooted in the deep understanding of the culture," writes steering committee member and architect Ismail Serageldin.
"To many others, it is a wonderful, exuberant structure that evokes an almost palpable joie de vivre, and that represents a bow to the prevailing taste of its users," stated (Along with the majority's final thoughts and statements) by Hans Hollein and the Turkish architect Mehmet Doruk Pamir in their work. Much more have been written by the international architectural press about the mosque that is a thing of beauty.
Architecture and Design
Prayer Hall
The large mosque and a smaller one, containing a women's prayer hall and library, sit on a 3 m high platform which contains storage space and worker's quarters. An ablution pool, the school and guest accommodations are found at an intermediate level. The madressa and student rooms are located still lower. The mosque garden surrounds the north and part of the east side of the complex. A private gate marks the entrance to the garden, along with a water channel which defines the main axis leading to the mosque.
Formally, the mosque reflects the traditional regional style, with its three ribbed domes and eight minarets accenting the corners and entrance. In addition, Rais Ghazi borrowed stylistic elements from monuments in Lahore, Iran, Spain and Turkey. He mixed these with the western colonial elements of the 1740s, which appear in the guest houses and market. Decorative elements and techniques used are also eclectic, though the extensive ornamentation is standard. The structural system combines brick masonry and cement mortar with brick and stone arches and reinforced concrete. Brick domes are set as independents units on top of reinforced concrete roofs.Materials and crafts range from the traditional teak, ivory, marble, colored glass, onxy, glazed tile work, fresco, mirror work, gilded tracery, ceramics, calligraphy work and inlay to the modern and synthetic marbleized industrial tile, artificial stone facing, terrazzo, colored cement tile and wrought iron. Rais Ghazi used modern materials freely in the ancillary buildings, such as, the gates, the small mosque and the porch of the large mosque. He applied only traditional materials to the mosque interiors. His intention was to represent as many forms of vernacular craft and Islamic religious architectural features as possible, using a combination of modern and traditional materials.
Formally, the mosque reflects the traditional regional style, with its three ribbed domes and eight minarets accenting the corners and entrance. In addition, Rais Ghazi borrowed stylistic elements from monuments in Lahore, Iran, Spain and Turkey. He mixed these with the western colonial elements of the 1740s, which appear in the guest houses and market. Decorative elements and techniques used are also eclectic, though the extensive ornamentation is standard. The structural system combines brick masonry and cement mortar with brick and stone arches and reinforced concrete. Brick domes are set as independents units on top of reinforced concrete roofs.Materials and crafts range from the traditional teak, ivory, marble, colored glass, onxy, glazed tile work, fresco, mirror work, gilded tracery, ceramics, calligraphy work and inlay to the modern and synthetic marbleized industrial tile, artificial stone facing, terrazzo, colored cement tile and wrought iron. Rais Ghazi used modern materials freely in the ancillary buildings, such as, the gates, the small mosque and the porch of the large mosque. He applied only traditional materials to the mosque interiors. His intention was to represent as many forms of vernacular craft and Islamic religious architectural features as possible, using a combination of modern and traditional materials.
