Regional

Now the Ternate Sultanate Mosque has its pair

Selasa, 10 September 2013 | 10:37 WIB

Ternate, NU Online
Ternate may have its own tradition. The people in North Maluku do not allow women to enter and pray in Ternate Sultanate Mosque -called Sigi Lamo- to maintain the mosque's sanctity. Until three years ago the community built Masjid Permaisuri or the Qeen Mosque, specially built for women.<>

Caretaker of Mosque of Sultan Ternate, Muhammad Saleh said construction of Queen Mosque for womenfolk was a request of Boki Ratu Nita Budhi Susanti, the current Queen of Ternate Sultanate.

"Now whenever Sultan Mudaffar Sjah wants to pray at the mosque, his Queen can also join in a mosque next to it," Saleh said recently as quoted by republika.co.id.

Mosque of Sultan Ternate was built in 17th century and still stands strong till today. The mosque can be found in Soa Sio village, not far from Kedaton of Ternate Sultanate in North Ternate. This building is painted ivory, with four layers of roofs and pyramide-like at the top. The Queen's Mosque had similar building but shorter compared to the Sultanate Mosque.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq