In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a very least populated land while it covers close to a sixth of the nation's area. Getting resisted while in generations the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell into under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghurs and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic above all, the Uyghur people have a strong religious identity which usually, in specific, permitted them to preserve a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Definitely, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a great 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 changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore beginning the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken on, Uyghur People used 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 arrival of Islam was a great modification mainly because it was followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used today.
If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also are different from their aspect, so characteristic 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 origins of these men and these women.
For a few years, China has included the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only 9 million population - a trifle for this immense area. Therefore, Uyghur people are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been well-known in an official way by China.
This particular statute allows them a few privileges in a land where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, appears pretty illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with locations acknowledged as very sensitive, highly encouraged the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the higher responsibility job opportunities.
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 especially the recognition of their true identity, this movement was severely 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 population continues today to proudly keep their identification and their culture , though they become a minority on their own territory.
For more information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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