In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth from the nation's area. Having resisted while in hundreds of years the chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell into under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic above all, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identity which, in particular, allowed them to preserve a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. Indeed, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their own historical past, 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., thus starting the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they adopted, Uyghur People taken successively, and sometimes 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 since it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian 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 differ from their characteristic, 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 roots 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 people - a trifle for this specific huge land. Therefore, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 racial minority groups having been well-known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This statute allows these people a few privileges in a land where their 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.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, appears quite illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang, and its closeness with nations recognised as very sensitive, highly motivated the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the larger responsibility work 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 flexibility, but especially the recognition of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in area 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 Uyghurs population continues today to proudly keep up their identification and their culture , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own land.
To get more detailed information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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