My Great Endeavors : Uyghurs

Introduction

They live in northwest China. They have a rich history and culture. Today their religion is Islam, but in the past they followed other religions. Today they live in Xinjiang, which became part of the People's Republic of China in 1949. There is a East Turkestan independence movement that was created by Uyghurs. Many of them and members of other tribes have been put in internment camps.

History

They have been around 4 at least 2,000 years. They had their own empire called Uyghur Khaganate. It was in Mongolia and it was apart of the Silk Road. It lasted for about a century. It was created by 9 tribes called Toquz Oghuz. The Tang dynasty was saved by the Uyghurs, so as a reward they were given a bunch of silk. They even helped the Tang fight the Turks and the Tibetan empire centuries b4! Uyghur kings married Chinese princesses. Mou-yu made Manichaeism the state religion. The Kyrgyz took ova their empire, so they moved south and established another kingdom called Kocho.

Tocharians where already living where the Kocho kingdom was located and they where Buddhist. The Uyghurs mixed with them and the upper class Uyghurs became Buddhist. Tocharians were a Indo-European tribe; mummies of this tribe was found in western China. Chinese and Sogidians lived there as well. This kingdom was also apart of the silk road. The Mongols destroyed that kingdom centuries later. Today they are a mixture of Tiele, Mongolian, Tocharian, and Han tribes.

Today they live in villages and are farmers. They grow wheat corn, sorghum, and melons. In the cities the men extract oil from the ground. The Han started moving into Xinjiang after 1950. A bunch of them moved in after 1990. This caused tension between the Uyghur and the Han. There was a big brawl between the 2. A lot of Han people were killed. In response the government cracked down on the Uyghurs.

Culture

Clothing: They are made out of cotton, satin, and silk. They love to wear caps. Women wear earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.

Marriage: Married women have 2 hair braids and single women have as many braids as they want. Men interview the family of the bride after the proposal. During these interviews they learn about their her and her family.

Dance: They love to dance and women dance on stage often. Some women don't cover their faces either. There style of dancing is called Sanam. The dancers move their neck, fingers, eyes, and elbows. Each region has their own form of this dance.

Music: Their style of music is called Muqam and it has been around for 1500 years!!!!!! It is based on Arabic maqamat model system. They have 62 different musical instruments. One of their instruments is called a duttar. It is a 2 string guitar.

Art: They created a lot of cave painting dealing with Buddhism. Today they are still great painters and their artistry was influenced by Islam.

Language: They speak a Turkic language. It has subject-object-verb word order. It has been influenced by Persian, Arabic, Mandarin, and Russian. There are different scripts for writing Uyghur. They are as follows: Arabic, Cyrillic, and Latin. The first alphabet used by the Mongolians was the Old Uyghur alphabet. Old Uyghur alphabet is based on Aramaic.

Literature: They translated a lot of Manichean and Buddhist texts. A Uyghur wrote a dictionary on Turkic dialects. Someone else wrote a book on Islamic saints. Muyesser Abdul'ehed wrote about the struggle of his people.

Education: In the past Uyghurs were more educated than tribes around them. That was because they were civil servants in the Mongol Empire. They learned a lot after they became Muslims. Mosques and madrassas were full of knowledge. In recent years China has stopped them from getting a religious education.

Cuisine: Their food is cheap and delicious. They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. They also eat mutton, beef, camel, horse, and diary products. The meat is halal because they are Muslims. Some of their dishes are lamb soup, naan, tandoor bread, and lamb pies.

Medicine: They practiced Unani, this is the Islamic style of medicine. It is based on ancient Greek medicine. Arabs and Persians added to it and made it popular. It is common in India and Central Asia. I believe the Mughal Empire introduced this form of medicine to the Uyghurs. Uyghurs helped improve Classical Chinese Medicine. Today many of them practice allopathic medicine.

Religions

Shamanism: All tribes start off shamanic. The Uyghurs believed everything has a spirit, some still do. The shamans use verses in the Quran to heal people and they use Arabic inscribed amulets. If you want to learn more about shamanism click here.

Tengrism: Tengri is the heavenly father and Umay is the earth mother. This religion is a mixture of folk Turk and folk Mongol religions. It is very shamanic because it comes from folk religions. Ancestor veneration is a big deal and there is over 90 deities in this belief system. Many Central Asian tribes followed this. Humans and animals have several spirits: a etheric body, a personality, and a soul that reincarnates.

Zoroastrianism: They worshiped @ fire altars. This religion is very dualistic. The ideas god vs devil, angels vs demons, heaven and hell, end times, and judgement day can be found in this religion. If you want to learn more about it, click here.

Manichaeism: This became the state religion when a khagan embraced it. He converted to it after meeting Manichean priests. This religion is a mixture of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Christianity. My next post will be about this religion.

Buddhism: They learned it from the Tocharian and Sogdian peoples about a millennium ago. Centuries later they were influenced by Tibetan and Mahayana Buddhism. Buddhists Uyghurs were prominent in the government of the Yuan dynasty.

Nestorianism: This form of Christianity believes Jesus has 2 natures: human and divine. Uyghurs followed this form of Christianity b4 they became Muslims.

Islam: They became Muslim about 500 years ago. This was because their kingdom became a part of Moghulistan. Sunni Islam became the state religion of this empire. Some of them are Sunni, others are Sufi.

Xinjiang

Uyghurs have been there 4 at least 2,000 years. It became apart of China in 1949. The Chinese government tried to assimilate them, but it didn't work. As I wrote b4 the Uyghurs beat up the Han after they moved in the 90's. Some members of the Uyghur tribe traveled to Mecca decades ago and were influenced by Islamic fundamentalism. Some Uyghurs committed terrorist acts because they want their own country. Islamic fundamentalism is just one factor in terrorism in Xinjiang. There are several others.

East Turkestan Independence Movement+

"The desire for independence or greater political and cultural autonomy largely stems from resentment over perceived restrictions to religious and cultural expression, ethnic conflict with the local Han Chinese population, income inequality, and the perception that Beijing's government is misallocating Xinjiang's natural resource wealth."

This movement is about freeing Xinjiang from China's tyranny. The members of this movement want to rename Xinjiang to East Turkestan or Uyghurstan. China's government see this region as apart of China because it was conquered millennia ago during the Han dynasty.

There has been several different peoples in that region throughout history. So, the communists feel the land doesn't belong to the Uyghurs. This movement is seen as terrorism by the government. The Republic of China (ROC) feels Xinjiang is apart of China. In 1931 the a constitution was made by ROC that said ethnic minorities "may either join the union of Chinese Soviets or secede from them." The ROC ruled China and Taiwan until the communists tookova China. Now they only rule Taiwan.

East Turkestan Government-in-Exile is based in Washington D.C. They want independence from China, but the World Uyghur Congress wants autonomy. WUC believes they can get autonomy by being non-violent. But they are seen as terrorist by China. They are based in Germany.

Internment Camps

China (government) says they put Uyghurs in the camps to stop terrorism. Maybe they are trying to turn them into communists. Han culture was forced on them by Weng Lequan. He was ova Xinjiang and he also helped modernize it. Uyghurs are penalized for doing Islamic customs. Zhang Chunxian tookova after Weng. He was worse then Weng. Chen Quanguo tookova after Zhang and he was even worse than him!!!!!!!! He turned Xinjiang into a police state. He did this to Tibet as well b4 he was ova Uyghurland. People in these camps may be getting tortured and having their organs harvested. There are ova 100,00 people in these torture chambers. Cultural genocide comes b4 physical genocide.

Conclusion

Uyghurs have a rich history and culture. They have practiced several religions ova the centuries. They have lived in Xinjiang for ova a millennium. Some of them created there own resistance movement. The Chinese government have been putting them in in internment camps for years.