In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a very least populated land whereas it covers near to a sixth from the nation's territory. Getting resisted during centuries the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Muslim primarily, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identification that, in specific, permitted them to preserve a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Without a doubt, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a great 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 changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore starting the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken on, Uyghur People used successively, and at times 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 modification mainly because it was followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used presently.
If their writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the culture of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also are different 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 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 9 million people - a trifle for this particular immense country. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been well known in an official way by China.
This statute allows them a few rights in a country exactly where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is accepted as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, looks quite illusory. The presence of all natural resources in Xinjiang, and its proximity with countries acknowledged as very sensitive, clearly urged the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant responsibility jobs.
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.
Saying more freedom, but mainly the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in place 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 identity and their tradition , even though 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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