Mosque at Gentle Road
Thirty or so years ago, there was once a Malay kampong at Gentle Road. Today, the area is filled with semi-detached houses and the IRAS skyscraper (Is that where our tax dollars go? In both senses of the word...). The old mosque, which was a zinc and attap affair, has since been rebuilt into this nice elegant place of worship. There is even a glass minaret!
During Hari Raya, they would sacrifice rams at this site. You could smell death and, the stench was very strong.
4 comments:
"During Hari Raya, they would sacrifice rams at this site. You could smell death and, the stench was very strong."
The place of worship is also the place of death? hmmm ...
Specifically the stench of entrails, and blood of the slaughtered rams. It travels a long way.
I wonder why they do not use the abattoir instead if they intend to sacrifice rams. But worst of all it is the smell of death that will always linger in people's minds. i.e. worship & sacrifice.
I would suppose since the sacrifice of rams through the slitting of their throats in a prescribed way is symbolic religious, hence the association with a place of worship. In addition, the mosque had a open yard where this was performed previously. I don't think the yard is still there. It was a few years ago.
I didn't go pass the place during the Hari Raya Haji last week and I don't know if they have continued with this practice at that location.
The strong stench of hot blood due to the slitting of throats is something urban-dwellers, like the most of us, is unused to. It would be fairly normal place for most of the pastoral world...
(re-posted for grammar. Ack)
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