In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the very least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth of the nation's territory. Having resisted while in generations the chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Turkistan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic primarily, the Uyghur people have a solid religious identity which, in particular, allowed them to maintain a solid big difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Indeed, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their historical past, the Uyghurs successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore starting the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they adopted, Uyghur People taken successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a great 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 followed by the absorption of the Uyghur areas 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 these days.
If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also are different from their characteristic, 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 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 eight million inhabitants - a trifle for this great land. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six racial minority groups having been well-known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This law will allow them a few privileges in a country 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 Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, looks very illusory. The presence of natural sources in Xinjiang, and its distance with nations identified 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 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.
Asserting more freedom, but primarily the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang.
The events 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 maintain their identity and their civilization , although they become a minority on their own land.
For further information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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