The Tear of Allah

THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY CONFISCATED A SACRED METEORITE FROM MUSLIM HERDERS. THEY’RE SUING TO GET IT BACK.

- JONATHAN KAIMAN

THE SERIES OF events that would transform Zhuman Ramazan’s life began 4.6 billion years ago, millions of miles from Earth, when dust, rock, and other celestial debris gathered into an asteroid. In the late neolithic period, sometime around the dawn of writing, the asteroid crashed into Earth’s atmosphere, scattering silvery-black meteorites across the Eurasian continent. Many landed in what is now northwest China’s Xinjiang region, a swath of mountains, deserts, and high-elevation plains about four times the size of California.

In July 1986, Zhuman, a Muslim and ethnic Kazakh herder, was tending his flock on his 100-acre pasture in the region’s far north. Suddenly, a sheep darted away, and Zhuman, then 30, followed it on horseback. Around him, the Chinese county of Altay rose into snow-capped mountains delimiting Kazakhstan to the west, Mongolia to the east, and Russia to the north.

Zhuman noticed a boulder that he’d never seen before, partially hidden behind a granite slab. It was eerily reflective and about the size and shape of a small car. He knocked it with his fist, and it made a soft pinging noise. He knew nothing about meteorites, he says, but was “excited about finding something unique and different.” Zhuman informed the village’s Communist Party officials, and they congratulated him on his discovery. One called the meteorite “Zhuman’s Strange Stone.” Local herders devised another name for it: the “Tear of Allah.” They considered it a gift from God and often gathered near it to pray. Back then, China was liberalizing its economy, and Zhuman thought he could perhaps someday make it a tourist attraction. He watched over the boulder for 25 years.