Little about the Uyghurs

In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the least populated land whereas it covers close to a sixth with the nation's area. Getting resisted during centuries the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkestan, fell into within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.

Islamic primarily, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identification which, in specific, allowed them to protect a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Of course, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

While in their background, the Uyghur People successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before finally converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., as a result beginning the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.

Under the influence 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 followed by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the immense Turkic and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used at present.

If their writing, their own language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also differ from their aspect, so characteristic 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 roots of these men and these women.

For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only eight million population - a little for this kind of big country. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been well-known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.

This statute will allow them a few rights in a country where their difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is accepted as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, seems quite illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with locations well-known as very sensitive, highly urged the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the greater responsibility work opportunities.

In response 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.

Asserting more freedom, but especially the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in place Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

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 peoples population continues today to proudly maintain their identification and their culture , even though they become a minority on their own territory.

For much more information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com