The East Turkestan Quandary

This blog will deal with the quandary of the Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic minority living in western China. The Uyghurs (pronunciation in English: wee-gher) make up about half of the population of Xinjiang, China’s most western and expansive province. Xinjiang province is about three times the size of France—consuming one-sixth of China’s overall geography—yet it has an overall population of less than 19 million people, slightly more than that of metropolitan Shanghai.

Historically, the natives of this region have referred to it as East Turkestan, East Turkistan, or Uyghurstan. For the purposes of this blog, I will refer to Xinjiang province as East Turkestan.

It even has its own flag—though it is illegal to behold in China—nearly identical to that of Turkey’s red banner with a white star and crescent moon in the upper left corner; instead of red, however, the Uyghur flag has a sky blue background. I will post that flag in the next week or so.

This particular blog will not go into too much depth on any issues, but will instead briefly introduce the Uyghur people and their culture. Also spelled Uighur, Uygur, and Uigur; for the purposes of this article, the spelling will be U-Y-G-H-U-R because this is what the author learned was the closest transliteral spelling from studying the language and from consulting with those familiar with both languages.

In the posts that follow, much more will be explored in depth, much more insight will be given, and many examples, either witnessed firsthand or related from reliable sources and told secondhand, will be conveyed.

The People’s Republic of China is a country of nearly one and a half billion people, and around 93% of the population is made up of Han Chinese. The remaining seven percent is divided up amongst 55 ethnic minorities; this includes the Uyghurs, who themselves only make up roughly one-tenth of one percent of the total population of the People’s Republic of China.

The Han are descendants of the Han Dynasty, which lasted from about 206 BC- 220 AD. It is because of the considerable influence that the dynasty exerted over what is considered “Chinese” culture that the Chinese people are known as Han Chinese. In fact, in denoting a person who is Chinese, the Chinese characters for this mean, literally, “a man of Han.”

Traditionally, the Uyghurs have been semi-nomadic, living for countless generations under their own auspices, as it were. They trace their origins to Altay, a fairly mountainous region that today encompasses parts of central-southern Russia, western Mongolia, extreme northeast Kazakstan, and the north of Xinjiang; it is from this region that the Altaic languages are believed to have arisen—such languages include Korean, Finnish, Hungarian, and, of course, Uyghur.

The Uyghurs are not related to the Chinese in any way: not in language, culture, religion, looks, personality, food, business acumen, hospitality, or train of thought—in fact, Uyghurs are more closely related to Europeans, Caucasians, Koreans, and Mongolians than they are to the Han. Many a Uyghur have blue or green eyes, red or light brown hair, and body types that are less stereotypical Asian and more like that of Europeans or Middle Easterners—prominent noses, shapely body features, a proclivity for body hair, and more. Too, there are several distinguishing body marks that Uyghurs share with Koreans, the most particular of which is a purplish mark resembling a bruise near the base of the spine.

The Uyghurs have a history that is approximately four millennia old. They have lived in the East Turkestan area for about half of those four millennia. Being at the crossroads of the old Silk Road that served as the connection between the East and West, the Uyghurs developed themselves into a highly civilized culture. Though Uyghur culture is largely unknown to so many people in today’s world, Uyghur treasures and artifacts, which highlight their high level of civilization and sophistication, fill up vast parts of museums in all parts of the world, including some of the world’s most renowned museums in London, Paris, Tokyo, New Delhi, and St. Petersburg, among others.

Such aspects of the Uyghurs’ highly civilized world include the following:

• the written script of the Uyghur language was so revered by Genghis Khan that he adopted it into Mongol culture (until then, the Mongols had no written script for their language);
• the Uyghurs' knowledge of medicine was extensive, too, and many scholars now believe that acupuncture was not, in fact, a Chinese invention, but, instead, an invention of Central Asia that was perfected by the Uyghurs;
• the Uyghurs are believed to have been printing books, poetry, legal contracts, and other such documents long before Guttenburg invented his press;
• though living in a generally dry climate where much rain doesn’t fall, the Uyghurs invented an irrigation system—called “kariz”—that takes advantage of melting snowfall and can ferry water underground for many kilometers to fields and farms that need water. Farmers and agriculturists from places all over the world with similar topography and climate have come to East Turkestan to learn this method of irrigation, and it is still used East Turkestan today.

As you can tell, Uyghur culture shouldn't be as obscure as it is in today's world. But the Chinese government has been quite successful not only in oppressing the Uyghurs and their culture, but it's also been successful in repressing the spread of Uyghur contributions to the world.

I hope in some way to combat that.

Thanks for your time today. I will continue with another update soon.

Until then...