Why we object to the inclusion of religious exhibits Why we object to the inclusion of 'minority' exhibits Lonely Planet
According to the Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit on China (4th ed.), the
Chinese name of xiangfei mu translates to 'Fragrant Concubines Tomb'
in honor of one daughter of the Hoja clan who was married to the emperor
Qianlong. However, her body was later moved to Hebei Province and is not
actually entombed here.
New World Press
According to an article in NewWorld Press, Beijing, 1989, The Apak Hoja
Tomb, five miles northeast of Kashi(Kashgar), is an important cultural unit
protected by the Autonomous Region. As a tomb of the descendants of an Islamic
sage, it was built around 1640. The legend has it that seventy-two persons in
all of five generations of the same family were buried in the tomb. The first
generation buried here was Yusuf Hoja, a celebrated Islam missionary. After he
died, his eldest son Apak Hoja carried on the missionary work and became the
leader of the famous Islamic faction of Baishan during the seventeenth century
and seized the power of the Yarkant Court for a time. Apak Hoja was buried in
1693 and was buried in the tomb. His reputation was greater than his father's,
so the tomb was renamed "The Apak Hoja Tomb."
The tomb is a group of beautiful and magnificent buildings including the Tombs
Hall, the Doctrine-Teaching Hall, the Great Hall of Prayer, the gate tower, a
pond and an orchard. The Tombs Hall, with a dome-shaped top of seventeen meters
in diameter and covered with green glazed tiles outside, is twenty-six meters
high and thirty-nine meters long at the base. the hall is high, spacious and
columnless. Inside the hall, there is a high terrace on which the tombs are
arranged. All the tombs are built of glazed bricks with very beautiful patterns
of blue flowers on a white background, glittering, simple and elegant. The
Great Hall of Prayer in the west part of the tomb, Ayitijiayi by name, is the
place where the Muslim believers conduct service on big days. The Lesser Hall
of Prayer and the gate tower are outmost buildings decorated with colorful
paintings and elegant brick carvings. Outside the tomb there is a crystal-clear
pond lined by tall trees making the place pleasantly quiet and beautiful.
The legend goes that among the Hoja descendants buried here, there was a lady,
Yiparhan by name, who was one of the concubines of the Qing Dynasty Emperor
Qianlong. She was called Xianfei (Fragrant Imperial Concubine) because of the
rich delicate fragrance of flower sent forth by her body. After she died, her
remains was escorted back to Kashi (Kashgar) by her sister-in-law Sudexiang and
was buried in the Apak Hoja Tomb. So, some people call the tomb, ` the Tomb of
Xiangfei. ' But according to textual research, Xiangfei was none other than
Rongfei, a concubine of Emperor Qianlong, and she was actually buried in the
East Tombs of the Qing Dynasty in Zunhua County, Hebei Province after she died.
