In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is the least populated province while it covers close to a sixth from the nation's territory. Getting resisted during hundreds of years the chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell into within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic above all, the Uyghur people have a deep religious identity which usually, in particular, enabled them to keep a strong difference towards the Chinese invader. Indeed, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a great civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their background, 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., thus opening the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.
Under the effect of the religions which they taken on, Uyghur People used 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 arrival of Islam was a great modification mainly because it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used nowadays.
If their 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 going out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek origins of these men and these women.
For a few years, China has included the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only eight million population - a little for this great region. So, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.
This particular law will allow these people a few rights in a country exactly where their big difference is very often repressed. Thus, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is accepted as the second official language in Xinjiang.
The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in China, however, seems really illusory. The presence of all-natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its closeness with locations recognised as very sensitive, strongly encouraged 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 jobs.
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.
Asserting more flexibility, but specially the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang.
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 Uyghur population continues today to proudly keep up their identity and their ethnic heritage , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own land.
To get more detailed information and facts about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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