Diverse Xinjiang

By staff reporter LI XIA

Site of 1,500-year-old Gaochang City on the Old Silk Road.

XINJIANG is China's largest provincial-level administrative region. Covering an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, there are eight countries along its 5,600-kilometer border. According to archaeological findings, human habitation began here in the Neolithic Age. Xinjiang was a main aspect of the Old Silk Road that traversed the region 2,000 years ago, and instrumental in linking the East and West. Migration from Central Asia and intermarriage brought about complex ethnic relationships culminating in the 13 ethnic groups that inhabit this region of diverse culture and topography today.

The Western Regions

The Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220) was a great Eastern empire equal in significance to the Western Roman Empire. Most venerated of all Han Dynasty emperors was Emperor Wudi, named Liu Che, who reigned for 54 years (156-87 B.C.). Under his governance the country prospered, encouraging him to expand his kingdom. He extended its borders to today's Yunnan in the south and to the Korean Peninsula in the east. In the northwest, however, Emperor Wudi met with strong resistance. At that time, Xinjiang was referred to as the Western Regions and consisted of many small vassal states. Those in the north were under the control of the Xiongnu (Huns), a nomadic ethnic group that had lived in China's northern grasslands since the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Battles with the fierce Xiongnu warriors left long grisly swaths of Han corpses.

After repeated failures to subjugate the Xiongnu with his Han armies, in 138 B.C. Emperor Wudi tried a different strategy. He sent his envoy, Zhang Qian (?-114 B.C.), to the Western Regions, charging him to form an alliance with the Darouzhi regime that had been driven westward by the Xiongnu. Zhang Qian spent 13 years on this mission and was captured twice by the Xiongnu. At the start of his journey he led an entourage of more than 100, but on his return he had just one companion.

 

Tiemen Pass in northern Korla, through which Ban Chao led an expedition to suppress the Xiongnu.

In 119 B.C., Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions a second time. All the small countries he visited en route sent their own envoys on return visits to the Han Court, increasing economic and cultural exchanges between the Han Empire and the Western Regions. Silk, iron and lacquer wares produced in the Central Plains areas were transported to the Western Regions and traded for jade, hides and horses. Braver merchants transported goods from the Central Plains areas to today's Central Asia, or even further to the Mediterranean. This trading thoroughfare that traversed the Western Regions became known as the Old Silk Road.

The Xiongnu were a constant hazard to traders traveling through the Western Regions, and Han troops were stationed along the Silk Road in order to guarantee safe passage. Soldiers planted grain to supply their own food requirements, and the earliest stretch of farmland established by garrison troops was in what is today's Luntai County. Having failed to vanquish them in battle, Han rulers eventually attempted to ameliorate relations with Xiongnu rulers by marrying Han princesses to Xiongnu chiefs.

A Tang Dynasty beacon tower in Luntai County, Bayan Gol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture.

Returning to the present, it is mid-June, the start of Xinjiang's hottest season. We have traveled from Korla, capital of Bayan Gol Mongolian Autonomous League, to Luntai County. At noon, we pass through the Gobi desert and approach the weathered remnants of a Han Dynasty beacon tower whose sentries would keep watch for marauding Xiongnu, and in the event of an enemy invasion raise the alarm.

Our local guide tells us that 2,000 years ago Luntai was a main point of convergence for Han Dynasty troops in the then Western Regions. Today, Luntai County, on the northern edge of Tarim Basin, produces petroleum and natural gas, and is site of a pipeline that transports natural gas to Shanghai on the eastern coast. It is one of China's largest construction projects.

A piece of Tang brocade in flower-and-bird patterns woven win eight colors, found in Turpan.

In addition to the great contribution to stability within the Western Regions made by Zhang Qian was that of Ban Chao (32-102), a scholar-turned general of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.). Historians refer to the Han Dynasty whose capital was in Chang'an, Shaanxi Province as the Western Han. In its latter period, internal strife within the imperial family led to its overthrow by Wang Mang, who established the Xin (New) Dynasty. He was overthrown 14 years later, and the Liu clan resumed the throne, making Luoyang, Henan Province the new capital. This is the period now known as the Eastern Han, in whose early years the Xiongnu ruled the Western Regions. Ban Chao was commander in charge of troops whose purpose was to recover territory north and south of the Tianshan Mountains from the Xiongnu. He succeeded in stabilizing the Western Regions and during his tenure also sent envoys to the Eastern Roman Empire, further developing the exchanges between East and West.

After social conflict and ethnic fusion that persisted for several dynasties, the Western Regions were unified under the central authorities of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Centuries later in 1759, the Qing government renamed the Western Regions Xinjiang and established governments there at various levels, bringing Xinjiang's military and political systems in line with those of the interior areas and consolidating its unification.

Place of Ethnic Fusion

Umar Abdurehim.

Umar Abdurehim of the Uygur ethnic group, aged 65, lives in Kuche County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Facing the gate in the courtyard of his home is a row of buildings: from right to left a sitting room, bedrooms and kitchen. In front of the house is a five-meter-wide carpeted corridor. Umar's two-year-old grandson swings playfully on a long rope hanging from the trellis. A household specializing in tourism, the family receives countless tourists. The child is obviously accustomed to visitors and poses for photographs like a professional.

Xinjiang street snacks.

Umar lives with his son and his family. Behind the house is a private garden where mulberry, cherry, fig and pomegranate trees grow, as well as grape vines. This five-member family also raises cattle, sheep and poultry, is self-sufficient in grain production, and owns a donkey cart and motorbike. Umar says his standard of living has improved steadily since 1985, when farmers were first allowed to grow trees and raise livestock. His family's annual income is now nearly 40,000 yuan, and the village has a number of other families like his. Neither he nor his wife speaks Chinese, but he knows all about the central authorities' Western Development Strategy. He talks enthusiastically about the "oil city" under construction that has brought about improvements to the roads, enabling him to sell his produce more easily.

An old man and his grandson.

Xinjiang has been a multi-ethnic region since ancient times. The 13 ethnic groups that currently inhabit the region are the result of centuries of ethnic fusion, separation and re-fusion. Archaeological discoveries and anthropological research show that in remote antiquity Xinjiang's ethnic structure mainly comprised Saka (Indo-Europeans), Qiang (Mongoloid) and a mixture of the two. There are images of Indo-Europeans on ancient silk textiles and murals.

When differentiating between Xinjiang's 13 ethnic groups in terms of language, there are two main categories: Turkic and non-Turkic. As regards religion, it is the Uygur, Kirgiz, Kazak, Tajik, and Hui ethnic groups that follow Islam. Taking the Tianshan Mountains as the dividing line, the Uygur live mainly in southern Xinjiang and the Kirgiz in the western part of southern Xinjiang. The Tajik are on the Pamir Plateau, Mongolian and Kazak in northern Xinjiang, and the Xibo in Ili. The Uygur constitute the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang. According to the 1998 census, the Uygur population amounted to 8.1394 million, making up 47.45 percent of Xinjiang's total. In certain areas they make up 90 percent of the total population.

The famous Kuche Grand mosque, with its 20 meter-high primrose minarets, is in the northern section of the old county town of Kuche. Said to have been built by Ishaq Wali, founder of Xinjiang's Ishan Sect in the 16th century upon his move from Kashgar to Kuche to disseminate Islamism, it was rebuilt in 1931 after being burnt down.

Daut mahsut.

It was at the Kuche Grand Mosque that we meet Daut Mahsut, last Prince of Kuche. Born in 1927 to an ordinary family, at the age of two he was adopted by the 13th Prince of Kuche and made his heir. In 1937, the 13th Prince of Kuche was secretly arrested by Sheng Shicai, ruling warlord of Xinjiang, and never seen again. In 1941 Sheng Shicai named Daut Mahsut Prince of Kuche.

In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, Daut's great wealth brought him a 20-year prison sentence. Three years later, the government reexamined the case and commuted his sentence to seven years. Despite having been Prince of Kuche, Daut Mahsut suffered as much hardship as any commoner, possibly more as a direct result of his royal title, working as construction worker and farmer. In 1978, two years after the end of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), he began to lead a normal life and in 1980 was elected vice-chairman of the Kuche County Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

In the main hall of the Kuche Grand Mosque Daut sits and tells us stories from his past. Now in his 70s, this amiable former prince is currently writing his memoirs.

Modern Metropolis

Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is a modern metropolis. On billboards around the airport are the smiling faces of international and domestic stars advertising mobile phones and trendy clothes. The road leading downtown is broad and lined with multi-story buildings like any other big city, the only difference being that they are in a distinctively monotone 1970s style. Visual relief, however, comes in the form of a large, exotically Islamic-style building complex known locally as the international bazaar. Its proprietors, Han and indigenous alike, purvey goods made in Xinjiang itself as well as from neighboring countries India and Pakistan, and occasionally from Europe.

Locals call the bazaar the "window on Central Asia." Its floor space of 100,000 square meters includes a Banquet Hall and Gourmet Square. Lu Mei is P.A. to the manager of the tourism promotion center in the bazaar. Responsible for receiving various officials, visitors and journalists, this attractive young Han lady knows every vendor and is familiar with all their commodities. There are few traditionally attired Uygur people to be seen on the street, but inside the bazaar the majority of shoppers are resplendently Uygur. Vendors here differ from those of the interior area in that they are not sly, never try to browbeat or cheat newcomers, and are amenable to bargaining.

Wedding dress modeled on Urumqi street.

Another man-made ethnic sight in Urumqi is the famous Xinjiang Folklore Street. Built at a cost of 200 million yuan, it was a key project within the 10th Five-Year Plan. The street is a convenient concentration of Xinjiang's folklore and handicrafts. On it are miniature replicas of the 36 vassal states of the ancient Western Regions. Xinjiang souvenirs include Yengisar knives, rewapu -- a plucked string musical instrument, copper handicrafts and silk textiles. Traditional ethnic singing and dancing is also performed here and there is a wealth of local snacks to sample.

The contemporary image of Urumqi is, however, overwhelmingly international. Xinjiang is distinct from the other western regions of Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia that seek development in being more widely open and prosperous, owing to its location, toTroypography and greater mobility of human resources. While our CT team was in Xinjiang, the film Troy was on show at local cinemas, simultaneously with Los Angeles, Paris and London. Xinjiang inhabitants are proud to be developing at the same pace as the interior areas, and are in happy anticipation of acceleration once the Western Development Strategy gets into full swing.