Khilingrong Mosque

Name of Monument: Khilingrong Masjid

Location: Shigar

Date of Construction: 17th Century

Khilingrong mosque, in Shigar was constructed in the earlier years of 17th century which makes this structure more than 400 hundred years old. Khilingrong mosque is a unique two storey wooden building, with the ground floor used in winters and first floor mainly in summers. The mosque was built in the traditional way using stone and timber, with cribbage columns, and exquisitely carved motifs with geometrical and floral patterns in abundance.  As was the tradition, emanating from the region’s Buddhist influence, the mosque is topped off with a Tibetan Tower.  

It also has a veranda at the entrance on the lower floor. As a mosque which once may have served as a ‘court mosque’ (in addition to a much smaller structure next to the raja’s palace), it is a showpiece of refined and richly decorated wooden architecture. The prayer room on each floor has a central pillar topped by a carefully decorated cross-bracketed semivoluted capital. There are richly carved spandrels of the arcades of the lower veranda and refined ornamental carvings inside on the entrance, windows, and on the mihrab.