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 country's territory. Having resisted while in centuries the chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Turkestan, fell into within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghurs and Turkish - speaking System.
Muslim primarily, the Uyghurs have a solid religious identification which usually, in specific, enabled them to preserve a strong big difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Definitely, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their background, the Uyghurs successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly 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 effect of the religions which they taken, Uyghur People used successively, and sometimes 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 modification simply because it was accompanied by the assimilation of the Uyghur land in the immense Turkic and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used currently.
If their writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also differ from their characteristic, 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 origins of these men and these women.
For a few years, China has included the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only 9 million population - a trifle for this kind of large land. So, Uyghur people are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.
This particular law will allow these people a few rights in a land where their big 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, seems pretty illusory. The presence of all-natural resources in Xinjiang, and its closeness with nations well-known as sensitive, highly encouraged the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant responsibility job opportunities.
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.
Asserting more flexibility, but specially the recognition of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in place 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 peoples population continues today to proudly hold their identification and their civilization , though they become a minority on their own land.
For additional information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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