In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the least populated province whereas it covers close to a sixth from the country's area. Having resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell into within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic above all, the Uyghurs have a deep religious identity which usually, in particular, permitted them to protect a strong difference towards the Chinese enemy. Indeed, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a great civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their own background, 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 beginning the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.
Under the effect of the religions which they taken on, Uyghur People taken 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 arrival of Islam was a great change mainly because it was supported 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 currently.
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 aspect, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A shiny 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 8 million people - a trifle for this specific immense region. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.
This particular law allows them a few rights in a land exactly where their difference is very often repressed. Therefore, 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 the People's Republic of China, however, seems very illusory. The presence of all-natural resources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its proximity with locations recognised as sensitive, strongly encouraged the government to speed up 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.
Saying more flexibility, but primarily 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 their identification and their culture , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own land.
To get more information about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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