Gongbei (Islamic architecture)
Gongbei (; from "gonbad", meaning "dome", "cupola"), is a term used by the Hui people in Northwest China for an Islamic shrine complex centered on a grave of a Sufi master, typically the founder of a "menhuan" (a Chinese Sufi sect, or a "saintly lineage"). The grave itself usually is topped with a dome. A similar facility is known as "dargah" in a number of Islamic countries. Between 1958 and 1966, many Sufi tombs in Ningxia and throughout northwestern China in general, were destroyed, viewed by the authorities as relics of the old "feudal" order and symbols of  the criticized religion, as well as for practical reasons ("wasting valuable farmland"). Once the freedom of religion became recognized once again in the 1980s, and much of the land reverted to the control of individual farmers, destroyed "gongbei"s were often rebuilt once again. Characteristics. In Ningxia, the nearly 70 existing gongbei are divided into three groups. When a site has as mosque, instructional hall and a gongbei, the gongbei is set apart from the other two.