Al-Baitul Amien Mosque
— — white domes against a wet-season sky.
Not only on a wall.
“The grand mosque on the alun-alun in Jember, a market town in the foothills below the Ijen and Raung volcanoes of East Java. White domes, twin minarets, a long arcaded prayer hall that fills before dawn on Fridays and overflows into the square on Idul Fitri. The call to prayer carries clear across the becak stands and the warung lights. — from the studio
Al-Baitul Amien Mosque, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Masjid Jami' Al-Baitul Amien is the grand mosque of Jember Regency, a tobacco and coffee town of about 2.5 million people on the eastern arm of Java, between the Argopuro and Raung volcanic ranges. It sits on the alun-alun, the central square that organises every regency town in Java, opposite the regent's office. The current form, with its large central dome and twin minarets, dates from a major rebuild in the 1970s and a further enlargement in 2006 that brought the capacity to several thousand worshippers.
The mosque is open daily for the five daily prayers and welcomes visitors outside prayer times. Friday noon prayers draw the largest congregation; the courtyard and surrounding alun-alun fill on the two Eid holidays. Modest dress is expected for any visitor stepping inside: long trousers or a long skirt, covered shoulders, and a headscarf for women. Shoes come off at the prayer-hall threshold. The square around the mosque is the social centre of Jember after sunset, with food vendors and families walking the perimeter.
Jember sits at roughly 90 metres above sea level on the plain that runs south from the Ijen plateau toward the Indian Ocean. The climate is wet-tropical with two clear seasons: a rainy season from November through April, when afternoon thunderstorms build over the volcanoes, and a drier, hotter season from May through October. The white domes of the mosque read brightest against the grey of a wet-season sky in the hour before a storm, when the light goes flat and the call to prayer carries furthest.