Chini Mosque, Islamic prayer house in Saidpur, Bangladesh.
The Chini Mosque is a prayer house in Saidpur whose walls display a continuous covering of marble stones, ceramic plates, and colored glass pieces throughout. These materials are arranged across the structure to create a visually distinctive exterior appearance.
Two local residents, Haji Baker Ali and Haji Muku, built the first prayer house in 1863 from thatch and bamboo in the Isbagh area of Saidpur. It was later rebuilt in tin, and in 1920 Haji Hafiz Abdul Karim had the first masonry section erected, 40 feet long and 39 feet wide, with marble and porcelain materials brought from Kolkata. A second masonry section followed on the south side in 1965, and a third on the north side during the Bangladesh period.
The mosque serves as a central place where the Muslim community of Nilphamari district gathers for daily prayers and religious ceremonies. It shapes the spiritual life of the surrounding region and attracts worshippers from nearby villages.
The building is accessible by local buses or rickshaws from Nilphamari, with several residential hotels nearby for accommodation. Visitors should wear appropriate clothing and plan their visit around prayer times when access may be restricted.
Five of the mosque's 27 minarets were never completed, and the decoration consumed 283 cross-cut marble stones together with 23 tonnes of porcelain and glass chips. The ceramics were shipped from Kolkata because no ceramic factory existed in East Pakistan at the time.
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