In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the land of Xinjiang is the least populated land while it covers close to a sixth with the nation's territory. Getting resisted while in centuries the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old East Turkestan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.
Muslim mainly, the Uyghur people have a very good religious identification which, in specific, allowed them to keep a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. In fact, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their historical past, the Uyghur People successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before finally 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 adopted, 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 entrance of Islam was a great modification since it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used at present.
If their writing, their own language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs 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 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 people - a trifle for this particular big country. So, Uyghur people 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 particular law allows them a few privileges in a country 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 Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in China, however, seems very illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with nations well-known as sensitive, clearly urged 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 work opportunities.
In reaction 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.
Asserting more flexibility, but especially the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang.
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 Uyghurs population continues today to proudly hold their identity and their civilization , although they become a minority on their own territory.
To get more detailed information and facts about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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