Fragrant Lady's Tomb, Xinjiang China

> China Travel Tour Guide > Attractions

Fragrant Lady's Tomb

The Fragrant Lady's Tomb is 5 kilometers away east from Kashi, Singkiang.

In Uigur it is called "Apahoga Mausoleum" with the legendary story to have The Fragrant Lady's Tomb, who was deeply loved by Emperor Qianlong of the Ch'ing Dynasty, sleep inside silently.

The Fragrant Lady's Tomb, built with a full-bodied traditional Uigur architectural style in 1640 and come with an area about 30 mu (Chinese unit of area). It comprises the water pool, the gate, the chapel, the main grave, the bethel, and the garden.

Its front entrance is a magnificent gate with huge brick columns on both sides. Joined to the west wall of the gate, a small mosque sits quietly with a colored drawing sunshade and a prayer room at the back. However, these are not all, in the west area of the tomb there still has a big mosque and a scripture hall with an arch vault.

The main grave face south inside the tomb. The rectangular body of the grave covered with an arch coping is 36 meters wide, 29 meters long and 2.7 meters high with huge half embedded brick columns on four sides. Each column has a delicate cylinders tower named "the summons tower", on top there are iron meniscus mounts on the tip of the tower.

The umbrella-arched coping of the grave was built by glazed bricks and has a meniscus on the top. The surrounding walls were covers with green glazed bricks on the surface and inlays of yellow or blue ceramic tiles. The ceramic tiles have colored patterns and some even record Islamic aphorism in Arabic or Farsi.

The hall of the tomb is so grand that there are 58 coffins on the central platform. Each coffin covered with simple but elegant blue-patterned glazed bricks of white background. The coffins of Mymyti Usuropehoga, Apahoga, Yeheyarhoga (the eldest son of Apaho), etc. are larger and decorated better than others are.

The legendary Fragrant Lady's Tomb just sleeps on the right side of the front line and tends to keep away from the highlight of the grave, as her coffin has not any special decoration.

In fact, this grave is not the real tomb of the Fragrant Lady but is the graveyard having buried 72 members of her family from her ancestor Aki Mymyti Usuropehoga through 5 generations. During the interim from the Ming Dynasty to the Ch'ing Dynasty, Aki Mymyti Usuropehoga was known as a famous Islamic missionary in the Kashi region.

Though some says this is not the tomb of the Fragrant Lady but the graveyard of her kindred, this place is still a tourist attraction shaded by green old trees and reflected in the clear water. Everyone visiting here will bail some water and take it home for not only him but also presenting to relatives or friends. People said that you could luck up as you drink the water. The local believers have been keeping the tradition of fetching the water.

Besides the above interesting tale, Kashi is also a colorful city worth touring.