Portraits of Uyghur People

In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the least populated land whereas it covers near to a sixth from the country's area. Having resisted while in centuries the Han Chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Turkestan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is primarily Uyghurs and Turkish - speaking System.

Islamic especially, the Uyghurs have a strong religious identification which, in specific, allowed them to maintain a solid big difference towards the Chinese invader. Without a doubt, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

While in their own historical past, 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 opening the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.

Under the effect of the beliefs which they taken on, Uyghur People used successively, and at times in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own graphic system.

The coming of Islam was a great modification simply because it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the immense Turkic and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used presently.

If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition 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 pointing 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, though they represent only eight million people - a trifle for this particular large region. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been well known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.

This law allows them a few privileges in a country where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is accepted as the second official language in Xinjiang.

The integration of the Uyghurs 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 locations well-known as very sensitive, highly motivated the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant responsibility work opportunities.

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 recognition of their true identity, this movement was seriously 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 continue to keep their identity and their civilization , even though they become a minority on their own land.

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