In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the land of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a least populated province while it covers near to a sixth of the country's territory. Having resisted during generations the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell into within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic primarily, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identification that, in specific, enabled them to keep a solid big difference towards the Chinese enemy. Really, 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 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 complete Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they adopted, Uyghur People used successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a great 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 followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively 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 culture of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs 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 directing 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, though they represent only 8 million people - a trifle for this kind of immense region. So, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.
This law will allow them a few privileges in a country 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 Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, seems very illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its distance with locations recognised as sensitive, highly motivated the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the larger 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 freedom, but specially the acceptance 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 population continues today to proudly continue to keep their identity and their traditions , even though they become a minority on their own territory.
For further information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment