Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Uyghur People from Eastern Turkistan

In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the least populated land while it covers near to a sixth with the country's area. Having resisted while in hundreds of years the chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghurs and Turkish - speaking System.


30072934 by wolfgangkaehler


Muslim primarily, the Uyghur people have a strong religious identification that, in particular, enabled them to keep a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. In fact, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a great civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.


Uyghur bread maker Muslim Quarter Xian by Cerita Ambar


While in their own historical past, the Uyghurs successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly moving to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., thus opening the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.


Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken, the Uyghurs taken successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a great number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.



Uyghur Alipbesi by Aptap

The coming of Islam was a great change because it was followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur land in the enormous Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used presently.


If their writing, their own language and their religion mark a real difference with the culture of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also differ from their characteristic, so characteristic of Central Asia's people. A matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features directing out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek roots of these men and these women.


CH9-319.jpg by herwigphoto.com


For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only nine million people - a little for this kind of huge region. So, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been known in an official way by China.


This law will allow them a few rights in a country where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang.


The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, appears really illusory. The presence of all-natural resources in Xinjiang, and its area with countries recognized as sensitive, clearly urged the government to speed up the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the larger responsibility jobs.


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 acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in place Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

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 hold their identification and their civilization , even though they become a minority on their own land.

For additional information about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com

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