In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the very least populated land whereas it covers close to a sixth from the country's area. Getting resisted during generations the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic especially, the Uyghur people have a strong religious identification that, in specific, permitted them to protect a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. Indeed, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their history, the Uyghurs successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore opening the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they taken, 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 coming of Islam was a great modification because it was followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turkic and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.
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 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.
For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only 8 million inhabitants - a little for this great region. So, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 racial minority groups having been well known in an official way by China.
This statute allows these people a few privileges in a country exactly where their big 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 all-natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with countries recognised as very sensitive, highly 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 greater responsibility jobs.
In reaction 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 specially 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 hold their identification and their ethnic heritage , although they become a minority on their own territory.
For much more information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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