In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is a very least populated province while it covers near to a sixth of the country's area. Getting resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old Turkistan, fell into under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic primarily, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identification that, in particular, enabled them to preserve a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. Of course, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own background, the Uyghur People 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., as a result starting the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they taken on, Uyghur People taken successively, and at times in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own graphic system.
The coming of Islam was a great change because it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turkic and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used presently.
If their writing, their own language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition 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 going 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, although they represent only 8 million population - a little for this huge country. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been well-known in an official way by China.
This law allows them a few privileges in a land where their 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 Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its closeness with nations recognized as sensitive, strongly urged 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 jobs.
In reaction to this true will to assimilate the Uyghurs into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.
Saying more freedom, but in particular the recognition of their true identity, this movement was seriously 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 identity and their tradition , although they become a minority on their own land.
To get more detailed information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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