In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth from the country's territory. Having resisted while in generations the chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell into within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.
Muslim above all, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identification that, in specific, enabled them to protect a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. In fact, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in 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 opening the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the effect of the beliefs which they taken on, the Uyghurs used successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own graphic system.
The entrance of Islam was a great change since it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Muslim Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used at present.
If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real difference with the culture of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also are different 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 pointing out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek origins 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 people - a trifle for this big area. So, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.
This statute allows them a few rights in a land exactly where their difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people 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 the People's Republic of China, however, looks really illusory. The presence of natural sources in Xinjiang, and its proximity with countries identified as sensitive, strongly motivated the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the larger responsibility job opportunities.
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 freedom, but primarily the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in area 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 tradition , despite the fact that 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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