The Elements Unearthed

Jakarta Day 6: Thursday, July 20, 2017

Mosques (masjid) come in a variety of designs and colors. Some commonalities are the domed tops and tall minarets, used for broadcasting the call to prayers by the muezzin.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed along the expressway and I noticed the wide variety of mosques (masjid) throughout the city. No two are alike, and they are often brightly colored with ornate metallic domes or minarets. I’m used to the frequent LDS chapels all over Utah Valley, which are very similar to each other in appearance because they are built on common master plans. These mosques vary in interestingly different ways. Some neighborhoods have large mosques in good repair, others were smaller or older, their paint more faded or their metal domes a bit tarnished or tilted. I don’t know why one mosque would be in good repair and another not; perhaps some become more popular depending on the imam or muezzin. These get more donations and can build better-maintained mosques. Maybe there are other reasons.

Mosque with blue dome and golden domed minaret.

I saw that some mosques were small, attached to individual businesses. Even smaller businesses that can’t afford a mosque dome will have a musholla, or prayer room. I saw these as I was at restaurants and had to visit a bathroom – I would look into the musholla. They have a padded floor for kneeling; believers take off their shoes at the door and kneel down to pray with hats or hijabs on their head, the men in front and the women in back. The attitude is one of submission to Allah, acknowledgement that He is the One God and Muhammad is his prophet.

Green and gold mosque.

Although attendance at mosque during prayers is encouraged, the only mandatory time is the Friday afternoon prayer, when the entire community is required to attend. In many Islamic countries, this is the start of the holy day, from Friday noon to Saturday noon. In Indonesia they don’t practice the holy day observance, based on the saying in the Quran that the people should pray on Friday and then “disperse.”

This isn’t a mosque, but is a very unique building that is part of a shopping mall. It looks like some sort of hydraulic observatory.

At other times, people can pray wherever they are at. Even hotel rooms will often have arrow decals stuck on the ceiling, pointing toward Mecca so that guests can know which direction to kneel to pray.

These photos were snapped out the window of our bus on the way back to the hotel. This particular mosque looks similar to the Taj Mahal in styling even if the color scheme is simple.

We arrived back at the hotel, ate lunch at the buffet, and had a brief meeting in the conference room to prepare for our flights to our host cities the next day. I spent the balance of the evening eating snacks in my room and uploading photos. I have been using Photoshop to clean up the best photos as I take them so I won’t have a huge backlog upon returning home. I’ve been sending them to Becca attached to e-mails, and she’s been posting them on her Facebook account, which reaches over 700 friends. Once I get these blog posts written and edited, I will have all the photos ready. Then creating the actual posts will proceed rapidly. I have also been uploading my cleaned photos to the group Google Drive account so others can share them. I also packed up my bags and arranged for the hotel to keep some of my carry on things at the Concierge desk (such as my travel pillow), as I would not need them in Kalimantan.

A simple, modern style white mosque.

A smaller mosque with interesting minaret tower.