In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a least populated land while it covers close to a sixth with the nation's area. Getting resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.
Muslim above all, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identity which, in particular, permitted them to maintain a strong big difference towards the Chinese enemy. Without a doubt, 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 finally moving to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., as a result opening the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they taken, the Uyghurs used 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 entrance of Islam was a great change since it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.
If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real big difference with the culture of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also differ 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 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 nine million inhabitants - a trifle for this big land. So, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been known in an official way by China.
This statute will allow these people a few rights in a country exactly where their difference is very often repressed. Thus, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is recognized 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 closeness with nations recognised as very sensitive, highly motivated 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 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 recognition of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in place Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
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 Uyghurs population continues today to proudly hold their identity and their culture , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own land.
To get 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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