In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is the least populated land while it covers close to a sixth from the country's area. Having resisted during hundreds of years the chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Turkestan, fell under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic primarily, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identity which usually, in specific, enabled them to keep a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Indeed, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their historical past, the Uyghur People successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before finally changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., thus starting the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they taken, Uyghur People taken 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 coming of Islam was a great change mainly because it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used nowadays.
If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real big difference with the culture of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also are different from their characteristic, so characteristic of Central Asia's people. A matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features directing 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 8 million inhabitants - a little for this large area. Therefore, Uyghur people are now part of the fifty six racial minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.
This particular statute allows them a few rights in a land where their big difference is very often repressed. Thus, 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 China, however, appears really illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its area with nations identified as sensitive, strongly urged 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 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 flexibility, but primarily the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in place 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 hold their identity and their civilization , even though they become a minority on their own territory.
For more information and facts about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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