Portraits of Uyghur People

In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a very least populated land whereas it covers close to a sixth with the nation's territory. Having resisted while in hundreds of years the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Turkistan, fell into under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.

Muslim especially, the Uyghurs have a strong religious identity which usually, in specific, enabled them to maintain a strong difference towards the Chinese invader. Indeed, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a great civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

While in their 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., thus starting the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.

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

The entrance of Islam was a great modification simply because it was supported by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian 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 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 origins of these men and these women.

For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only 9 million population - a little for this kind of large region. Therefore, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been recognized in an official way by China.

This particular statute will allow them a few privileges in a country where their 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 Uyghur people and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, looks quite illusory. The presence of all natural resources in Xinjiang, and its proximity with countries known as very sensitive, strongly motivated 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 freedom, but mainly the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in location 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 their identity and their traditions , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own territory.

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