In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is the very least populated land while it covers close to a sixth from the country's territory. Getting resisted while in hundreds of years the chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic primarily, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identity that, in particular, enabled them to keep a solid big difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Without a doubt, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their history, the Uyghur People successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before finally converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., as a result beginning the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the effect of the religions which they taken on, the Uyghurs 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 entrance of Islam was a great modification since it was supported by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used currently.
If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs 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 roots 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 people - a trifle for this particular large region. Therefore, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been well known in an official way by China.
This particular law will allow these people a few rights in a country exactly where their 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 Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, looks quite illusory. The presence of natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with locations known 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 more significant 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 flexibility, but specially the acceptance 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 maintain their identification and their tradition , though they become a minority on their own land.
For more information and facts about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment