In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-west part of China, the land of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a very least populated province whereas it covers close to a sixth with the nation's territory. Getting resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Turkestan, fell within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghur People and Turkic - speaking System.
Islamic mainly, the Uyghurs have a deep religious identity that, in specific, allowed them to protect a solid difference towards the Chinese invader. Really, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a great 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 finally converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore starting the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the influence of the religions which they taken on, the Uyghurs taken successively, and at times in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.
The arrival of Islam was a great change because it was supported by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turkic and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.
If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real difference with the culture 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 nine million inhabitants - a little for this great area. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This statute allows these people a few privileges 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 Uyghur people and their culture in China, however, appears quite illusory. The presence of natural sources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its closeness with locations acknowledged 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 greater responsibility jobs.
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 specially the recognition of their true identity, this movement was seriously 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 peoples population continues today to proudly continue to keep their identity and their tradition , 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
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