In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a least populated province while it covers near to a sixth with the nation's area. Having resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghurs and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic primarily, the Uyghurs have a strong religious identity which, in particular, allowed them to maintain a solid big difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. Really, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own background, the Uyghurs successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before finally converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., thus starting the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken on, the Uyghurs used successively, and at times in a competing way, a great number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.
The entrance of Islam was a great change simply because it was supported by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.
If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also are different from their characteristic, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A shiny skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features going out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek origins of these men and these women.
For a few years, China has included the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only 8 million population - a trifle for this specific big region. So, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six racial minority groups having been well known in an official way by China.
This particular law allows these people a few privileges in a country where their difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, looks really illusory. The presence of natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its proximity with nations recognised as very sensitive, strongly urged the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the greater responsibility job opportunities.
In response to this true will to assimilate the Uyghur people into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.
Saying more flexibility, but in particular the recognition of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang.
The events of September 11, 2001, were the perfect occasion for the Chinese government to justify true reprisals: they declared the "Uyghur freedom fighters" as dangerous terrorists linked to Al Quaida because of their Muslim origins and their proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan... However, the terrible repression which followed did not calm down the anger. The Uyghur peoples population continues today to proudly continue to keep their identification and their traditions , although they become a minority on their own land.
For additional information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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