In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth from the nation's territory. Getting resisted during hundreds of years the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old East Turkestan, fell into within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Muslim above all, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identity which, in specific, permitted them to protect a strong big difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. Really, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their historical past, the Uyghur People successively adopted 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 influence of the beliefs which they adopted, 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 arrival of Islam was a great modification simply because it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Muslim Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.
If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also differ from their characteristic, 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 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 eight million population - a trifle for this kind of immense area. Therefore, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 racial minority groups having been known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This law allows them a few rights in a country where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, 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 the People's Republic of China, however, appears very illusory. The presence of all-natural resources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its proximity with nations acknowledged as very sensitive, strongly motivated the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the higher responsibility jobs.
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 recognition 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 Uyghurs population continues today to proudly hold their identification and their tradition , though they become a minority on their own land.
For further information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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