In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a very least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth with the nation's territory. Having resisted during centuries the chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Turkistan, fell into under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic most importantly, the Uyghur people have a solid religious identity that, in particular, allowed them to keep a strong big difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Really, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their own history, the Uyghurs successively adopted 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 opening the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the effect of the beliefs which they taken on, the Uyghurs taken successively, and at times in a competing way, a great number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.
The coming of Islam was a great modification simply because it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur land in the enormous Turkic and Muslim Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.
If their writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the culture 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, though they represent only nine million inhabitants - a little for this particular great land. So, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six racial minority groups having been well-known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This particular law allows these people a few privileges in a land where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, looks quite illusory. The presence of all-natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its closeness with countries recognised as very sensitive, clearly 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 jobs.
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.
Saying more freedom, but mainly the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in area Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
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 up their identification and their tradition , though they become a minority on their own land.
For much more information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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