In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the very least populated province while it covers near to a sixth from the nation's territory. Getting resisted while in generations the chinese control, Xinjiang, or Old Eastern Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Islamic most importantly, the Uyghur people have a strong religious identification which, in specific, enabled them to maintain a strong big difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Certainly, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
During their own historical past, the Uyghurs 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., therefore beginning the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.
Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken on, 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 coming of Islam was a great modification mainly because it was accompanied by the absorption of the Uyghur land 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 writing, their own language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also are different from their characteristic, so aspect 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, though they represent only 9 million people - a trifle for this kind of huge country. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the 56 racial minority groups having been known in an official way by China.
This law will allow them a few rights in a land 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.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, appears pretty illusory. The presence of all natural resources in Xinjiang, and its closeness with locations recognised as sensitive, strongly encouraged the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the greater responsibility job 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.
Saying more flexibility, 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 Uyghurs population continues today to proudly maintain their identification and their culture , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own territory.
For much more information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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