This photograph brought back wonderful memories to me of my trip to Xinjiang a few years ago where I first learned about and met the beautiful Uighur people. (Uighur was pronounced “Wigger” by the Uighurs I met.) As you can see from the photo of me by the lake, this part of Central Asia is beautiful. Even the dusty city of Kashgar, where I was privileged to eat in a Uighur home and talk with Uighurs about their culture, religion, and history, has a beauty that is haunting in my memory. In the picture of the Uighur father and son, you can see the lovely meal my friends and I were served in this family’s home.

Uighur Father and Son On the way to this home, we passed a communal oven where neighborhood Uighur women were making and baking bread for their families. On the street right before we turned into the passageway that led by the communal oven to the home where we were to have dinner, we passed a display of bread for sale. You can see from this picture the artistic shapes Uighur bread is given.

Uighur Bread and Bakers

Who are the Uighurs?The Uighurs, who numbered 8.4 million in the year 2000, are a Turkic-speaking group of people who history and culture has been written about at least since 206 B.C. (This and subsequent facts about the Uighurs that I will share in this newsletter can be found under the subject, “Uyghur people,” in Wikipedia encyclopedia.) The area where Uighurs are concentrated today is East Turkestan, an oil-rich region conquered by and now controlled by China and known as Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
The Uighurs have had a long and brilliant civilization. Toward the end of the 19th and into the 20th century, expeditions to East Turkesan discovered “cave temples, monastery ruins, wall paintings, as well as valuable miniatures, books and documents.” These “relics of the Uighur culture constitute today major collections in the museums of Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo, Leningrad and the Museum of Central Asian Antiquities in New Delhi.” Uighur scholars and literature flourished for centuries. The Uighurs had been printing their own books for hundreds of years before the Gutenberg press was invented. Many hundreds of these works of literature survive today. The Uighurs were known for their extensive knowledge of medicine and have been credited with the discovery of acupuncture. There are 103 different herbs for use in Uighur medicine recorded in a medical compendium in the 1500s. Uighurs have always been an educated people.

The Uighur people I met were warm, welcoming, generous individuals. The children are absolutely lovely.

Uighur Child: Notice Playful Shoes

Uighur Little Boys Enjoying Having Picture Taken

They are excellent dancers and musicians.

Uighur Young Women Dancing

They use color in eye-popping ways.

Vibrant colors of Uighur fabrics To see a Uighur market is to be bathed in beautiful colors. Uighur Market The Uighurs design beautiful fabric. Uighur Boy Selling Fabric Uighurs love music. Little Uighur girls treated my friends and me to a concert when we dropped by their school. Uighur Little Girls Singing Even while they live under Chinese control, the Uighurs strive to maintain their own way of life, historically rich in language, poetry, music, religion, food, and art. The Uighurs as a people wish for more autonomy over their daily lives. The ability to enjoy their own culture and history has been difficult from the beginning of the Chinese conquest of East Turkestan. Since 9/11, however, being Uighur has become more and more difficult. Because Islam is the Uighur religion in East Turkestan, it has been easier since 9/11 for the Chinese to label Uighurs as dangerous. (If you are interested in reading more about this development, Human Rights Watch issued a report in April of 2005 detailing the religious repression of the Uighurs by the Chinese. )On one of my last days in Kashgar, I went to a sheep market where shepherds had brought their sheep in from miles and miles around. What an exciting adventure I had. Not only was the noise and excitement of the buying and selling of sheep going on, but there was unbelievably good mutton stew for sale and delicious sweets and, of course, that fabulous Uighur bread.

Uighur Sheep Market On that day I also chanced by the cart of a Uighur man who sat serenely reading the Koran behind the antique necklaces, rings, and bracelets he had for sale. I bought one of the lovely antique necklaces which I treasure and wear often. Uighur man reading Koran I bought a pouch woven by a Uighur woman in a typical Uighur weaving pattern. Uighur Pouch

I keep this Uighur pouch as an art display on one of the walls in our home and am reminded every day of the creative, warm Uighur people I was privileged to meet.Love,

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Dr. Elizabeth Harper Neeld offers wisdom and practical insights to anyone whose life is in a time of transition, change, grief and loss of any kind. As an internationally recognized and accomplished consultant, and author of more than twenty books - including Tough Transitions and Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World - she is committed to work that helps lift the human spirit.