Tuogu Mosque, Mosque in Taoyuan Hui Ethnic Township, Ludian County, China

Tuogu Mosque is a large religious building complex with a main hall supported by 36 columns and covering about 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet). A five-story tower with Chinese inscriptions is a key feature of the site.

The site was founded in 1730 by two military officials from the Qing period to serve a religious community. Since then it has remained an important center for the local people.

The name Tuogu is a transliteration from the Yi language meaning "a beautiful place". The main hall carries a plaque reading 快乐天堂 ("Happy Paradise") under its eaves, and the five-story Huanxing tower bears one reading 普慈万有 ("Puci Wanyou"). The buildings are named in Chinese: Huanxing Lou (Awakening Tower), Wujuan Tang (Hall of No Weariness) and a rear pavilion.

The mosque stands in Tuogu Village, Taoyuan Hui Ethnic Township, Ludian County, Zhaotong, Yunnan. The complex covers 4,000 square metres, so allow time to walk between the main hall, the five-story Huanxing Tower, the Wujuan Hall, the back pavilion and the Zhaobi screen wall. Look up at the plaques under the eaves, including 快乐天堂 on the main hall.

The mosque is built entirely from round columns and crossbeams joined by interlocking mortise-and-tenon joints, without nails. This timber frame let it withstand more than twenty earthquakes of magnitude 5 or higher in the 20th century, as well as the 2014 Ludian earthquake, without damage.