In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is a very least populated land whereas it covers near to a sixth with the country's territory. Getting resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Eastern Turkestan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.
Muslim primarily, the Uyghur people have a strong religious identity which usually, in particular, permitted them to maintain a strong difference towards the Chinese enemy. Certainly, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own historical past, the Uyghurs successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore starting the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken, the Uyghurs used successively, and at times in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.
The arrival of Islam was a great change because it was followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used currently.
If their own writing, their own 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 matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features going 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, though they represent only nine million inhabitants - a little for this specific immense area. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the fifty six racial minority groups having been well known in an official way by China.
This statute allows these people a few rights in a country where their big difference is very often repressed. Thus, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang.
The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, appears really illusory. The presence of all-natural sources in Xinjiang, and its distance with countries acknowledged as sensitive, highly urged the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the higher 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 flexibility, but especially the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang.
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 maintain their identification and their civilization , although they become a minority on their own land.
To get more information and facts about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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