Photo Essay: Who Are the Uighurs?

Blood in the streets: Brutal rioting broke out this week in China's Xinjiang region between members of the Uighur ethnic group, Han Chinese, and government security forces. More than 156 people were killed in the riots in the capital of Urumqi, which began after police quashed a protest by students over ethnic discrimination. China has threatened to execute the leaders of the uprising -- while intervening to protect the Uighur community from ethnic reprisals. The violence has briefly focused global attention on one of the world's bitterest, but least-understood, ethnic conflicts. Above, an unconscious protester is pulled away from the fighting on July 7.

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Meet the Uighurs: The majority of Uighurs live in Xinjiang, the massive western "autonomous region" that accounts for nearly a sixth of China's land area. At its height in the ninth century, the Uighur empire stretched from the Caspian Sea into eastern China. The Uighurs also managed to establish independent republics twice during the 20th century before being annexed by the People's Republic of China in 1949. Above, a Uighur man sells knives in the 2,000-year-old city of Kashgar on April 3, 2008.

 

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Under Bejing's gaze: The Chinese government has actively promoted the migration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang, and since the 1950s, the region's Han community has grown from 5 to 40 percent of the region's total population. Although recent years have seen enormous economic growth in the region, local Uighurs have become increasingly resentful of control from Beijing. After a Uighur uprising in 1990, the Communist Party took steps to accelerate the integration of Xinjiang into China by stepping up migration and increasing the security presence and control over religion in the region. Above, a Han woman and a group of Uighur men stand in front of a statue of Chairman Mao in a park in Kashgar on June 14, 2008.

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Mosque and state: Most Uighurs practice Sunni or Sufi Islam, infused with a fair amount of local folklore and tradition. Uighur Islam is traditionally extremely moderate on social issues, though in recent decades, more fundamentalist traditions were introduced by students who studied abroad in Central Asian and Pakistani madrasas. The Uighur independence movement has had a strongly Islamic character since the 1980s. Until recently, there was almost no tradition of Islamist militancy in Xinjiang, but there have been reports that the Central Asian jihadist group Hizb ut-Tahrir has made inroads in the region. The government tightly regulates the practice of Islam and accreditation of clerics. Above, Uighur women and children leave a mosque in Kashgar on June 14, 2008.

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Traditions: The Uighurs are famed for their craftwork, particularly their musical instruments. Above, a shopkeeper plays a rawab, the most commonly used instrument in Uighur music, on June 14, 2008. Uighurs have resented being forced to attend Chinese schools, where classes are taught in Chinese rather than their own Turkic-derived language.

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Trade zone: Uighur cities, particularly Kashgar, have been important trade outposts along the Silk Road for more than 2,000 years. But in recent decades, many Uighurs have felt economically marginalized and shut out of Xinjiang’s rising prosperity as they’ve been forced to compete for jobs and agricultural land with the rising Han population. Here, cattle vendors tend to their animals at a Sunday market in Kashgar on June 15, 2008.

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Crackdown: Above, a Uighur woman walks with her son past security forces after demonstrations in Kashgar in 2008. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Chinese government switched its official position from denying the existence of unrest among Xinjiang's Muslim population to actively linking the region's separatist movement to global terrorism. International human rights groups say China is exaggerating the extent of Uighur terrorism and that many of the incidents labeled "terrorist attacks" are actually spontaneous civil unrest.

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Globe-trotting prisoners: The world's best known Uighurs may be the 22 detainees that the United States detained at Guantánamo Bay as "enemy combatants." The detainees have since been cleared of terrorism charges by the U.S. military. Beijing has demanded that the detainees be remanded to China, but the United States fears they would be abused in custody or executed.  The Bush and Obama administrations have subsequently worked to arrange for other countries and territories -- including Albania, Bermuda, and Palau -- to take them in. Above are recently released Uighur prisoners at an Albanian refugee camp in 2006.

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The world is watching: The Uighur independence movement has received far less attention in the Western media than has neighboring Tibet, but its profile has been growing in recent years, thanks largely to actions by the Uighur diaspora. (The Chinese government has blamed the current unrest on Uighur-American activist Rebiya Kadeer.) Above, a Uighur protester attempts to extinguish the Olympic flame during the torch relay preceding the Beijing Olympics on April, 3 2008. Below, Uighur demonstrators protest in Paris this week.

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On edge: Soldiers stand guard outside Urumqi's Grand Bazaar in the aftermath of this week's riots. With the Uighur independence movement growing increasingly militant and the government's efforts to contain it growing increasingly repressive, such confrontations may become more common. But developments in this remote corner of Asia are no longer quite so hidden from the outside world's view.

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