Portraits of Uyghur People

In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the very least populated province whereas it covers close to a sixth of the country's territory. Getting resisted while in centuries the chinese control, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.

Islamic especially, the Uyghur people have a strong religious identification that, in particular, permitted them to maintain a strong difference towards the Chinese enemy. Really, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a great civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

While in their own background, the Uyghurs successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., as a result beginning the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.

Under the effect of the beliefs which they taken, the Uyghurs taken successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.

The entrance of Islam was a great modification mainly because it was followed by the assimilation of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turkic and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively 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, the Uyghurs also are different 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 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, although they represent only nine million inhabitants - a trifle for this particular large region. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.

This law will allow these people a few privileges in a land where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in China, however, appears really illusory. The presence of all-natural resources in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and its closeness with nations identified as very sensitive, strongly urged the government to speed up 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 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 place 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 continue to keep their identity and their culture , although they become a minority on their own territory.

For further information about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com