Social and Economic Aspects of the Kuhmarim–Sehwalim Mazar in Khotan

Abstract

Historical sources and recent data testify to the important role of the mazar pilgrimage in Uyghur daily life. The article deals with pilgrimage to Kuhmarim (alt. Köhmarim), a mazar ‘Muslim shrine’ close to Khotan, largely based on fieldwork by the authors who visited the shrine on separate occasions in 2009, 2015 and 2016. The shrine’s current status is unclear, but here we describe the pilgrimage as it was just before 2017. That was the year that the international community started receiving increasingly disturbing reports of the mass detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim Turkic-speaking ethnic minorities in China. Given developments in the Uyghur homeland during the past few years, whereby hundreds or even thousands of mosques have been flattened to the ground together with the systematic destruction of numerous family tombs and holy shrines, this might be seen as a historical account of pilgrimage patterns, which still are not fully explored.