In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang is a least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth with the country's territory. Getting resisted while in centuries the chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell into within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Muslim mainly, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identification which usually, in particular, enabled them to preserve a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Of course, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own background, the Uyghurs successively adopted 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 effect of the religions which they taken on, the Uyghurs used 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.
The entrance of Islam was a great modification simply because it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turkic and Muslim Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used currently.
If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the culture of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also differ from their aspect, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A shiny skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features pointing out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek roots of these men and these women.
For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only 8 million population - a trifle for this great region. So, Uyghur people are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This statute will allow these people a few privileges in a country where their big difference is very often repressed. Thus, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is recognized as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, appears really illusory. The presence of all-natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its distance with countries recognised as sensitive, strongly motivated the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant 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.
Asserting more freedom, but especially the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The situations 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 civilization , even though 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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