In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the land of Xinjiang is the very least populated land while it covers close to a sixth with the country's area. Having resisted during generations the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Turkestan, fell within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Muslim most importantly, the Uyghurs have a strong religious identification that, in specific, allowed them to keep a solid big difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Indeed, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own history, 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 starting the way to the Islamization of the complete 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 coming of Islam was a great change because it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turkic and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used today.
If their own 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 shiny 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 8 million population - a little for this specific immense land. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This particular statute will allow them 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 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 sources in Xinjiang, and its distance with countries acknowledged as sensitive, strongly motivated the government to accelerate 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 reaction 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.
Saying more flexibility, but in particular the recognition of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in area Xinjiang.
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 population continues today to proudly keep up their identification and their tradition , 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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