In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a very least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth of the country's territory. Getting resisted during centuries the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old Turkistan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Muslim especially, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identity that, in specific, allowed them to maintain a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. In fact, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own historical past, the Uyghurs successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., as a result starting the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.
Under the effect of the religions which they taken, the Uyghurs used 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 entrance of Islam was a great change mainly because it was supported by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used today.
If their writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also differ 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 integrated the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only 8 million people - a trifle for this specific big country. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 racial minority groups having been recognized in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This particular statute will allow these people a few privileges in a country exactly where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is recognized as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, appears very illusory. The presence of natural resources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its distance with nations known as very sensitive, clearly encouraged 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 response 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 mainly the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was seriously 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 Uyghurs population continues today to proudly continue to keep their identification and their ethnic heritage , although 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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