A report on Xinjiang, Central Asia and Uyghur language

Dzungaria (Red) and the Tarim Basin or Altishahr (Blue)

Expanded definition of Central Asia. Core definition that includes the five post-Soviet states in dark green. Afghanistan, the most commonly added country to Central Asia, in green.

A signboard in front of the Military Museum of Xinjiang written in Uyghur (using Arabic script) and Standard Chinese

Northern Xinjiang (Junggar Basin) (Yellow), Eastern Xinjiang- Turpan Depression (Turpan Prefecture and Hami Prefecture) (Red) and Altishahr/the Tarim Basin (Blue)

Three sets of possible boundaries for the Central Asia region (which overlap with conceptions of South and East Asia).

A sign in Ghulja, Xinjiang, written in Uyghur (using Arabic script) and Chinese (both Hanzi and Pinyin)

Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) by the Tien Shan Mountains

On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake, Issyk Kul Region.

Internet café in Khotan oasis city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Address written in Uyghur with the Arabic script.

Map of Han Dynasty in 2 CE. Light blue is the Tarim Basin protectorate.

Central Asia map of Köppen climate classification.

Old Uyghur/Yugur art from the Bezeklik murals

Iranian-speaking people circa 170 BC. Eastern Iranian languages are in orange, Western Iranian languages are in red.

A Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel. Sancai ceramic statuette, Tang dynasty

The Chinese Tang dynasty at its greatest extension, controlling large parts of Central Asia.

Mongol states from the 14th to the 17th centuries: the Northern Yuan dynasty, Four Oirat, Moghulistan and Kara Del

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979

The Dzungar–Qing Wars, between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate

The Battle of Oroi-Jalatu in 1756, between the Manchu and Oirat armies

Saadi Shirazi is welcomed by a youth from Kashgar during a forum in Bukhara.

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Hazrat-e Turkestan, Kazakhstan. Timurid architecture consisted of Persian art.

Scene from the 1828 Qing campaign against rebels in Altishahr

GDP growth trends in Central Asia, 2000–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.1

19th-century Khotan Uyghurs in Yettishar

GDP in Central Asia by economic sector, 2005 and 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030, Figure 14.2

GDP per capita development in Central Asia, since 1973

Governor Sheng Shicai ruled from 1933 to 1944.

Trends in research expenditure in Central Asia, as a percentage of GDP, 2001–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: 2030 (2015), Figure 14.3

The Soviet-backed Second East Turkestan Republic encompassed Xinjiang's Ili, Tarbagatay and Altay districts.

Central Asian researchers by sector of employment (HC), 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.5

Central Asian researchers by field of science, 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.4

Scientific publications from Central Asia catalogued by Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded, 2005–2014, UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6

Cumulative total of articles by Central Asians between 2008 and 2013, by field of science. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6

Ethnic map of Central Asia.
White areas are thinly-populated semi-desert.
The three northwest-tending lines are the Syr Darya and Amu Darya Rivers flowing from the eastern mountains into the Aral Sea and in the south the irrigated north side of the Kopet Dagh mountains.

Black Irtysh river in Burqin County is a famous spot for sightseeing.

Tartar prostrating before Qianlong Emperor of China (1757).

Political cartoon from the period of the Great Game showing the Afghan Amir Sher Ali with his "friends" Imperial Russia and the United Kingdom (1878)

Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang Government between 2007 and 2015

Islam Karimov (President, Uzbekistan) in the Pentagon, March 2002

The distribution map of Xinjiang's GDP per person (2011)

Ürümqi is a major industrial center within Xinjiang.

This flag (Kök Bayraq) has become a symbol of the East Turkestan independence movement.

"Heroic Gesture of Bodhisattvathe Bodhisattva", example of 6th-7th-century terracotta Greco-Buddhist art (local populations were Buddhist) from Tumxuk, Xinjiang

Sogdian donors to the Buddha, 8th century fresco (with detail), Bezeklik, Eastern Tarim Basin

People engaging in snow sports by a statue of bodhisattva Guanyin in Wujiaqu

Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Ürümqi

Taoist Temple of Fortune and Longevity at the Heavenly Lake of Tianshan in Fukang, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture

Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, largest mosque in China

Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is a landlocked autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads of Central Asia and East Asia.

- Xinjiang

The Uyghur or Uighur language ( ئۇيغۇر تىلى, Уйғур тили, Uyghur tili, Uyƣur tili, or ئۇيغۇرچە, Уйғурчә, Uyghurche, Uyƣurqə,, CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language, written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script, with 25 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China.

- Uyghur language

The Russian geographer Nikolaĭ Khanykov questioned the latitudinal definition of Central Asia and preferred a physical one of all countries located in the region landlocked from water, including Afghanistan, Khorasan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uyghuristan (Xinjiang), and Uzbekistan.

- Central Asia

These names include Altishahr, the historical Uyghur name for the southern half of the region referring to "the six cities" of the Tarim Basin, as well as Khotan, Khotay, Chinese Tartary, High Tartary, East Chagatay (it was the eastern part of the Chagatai Khanate), Moghulistan ("land of the Mongols"), Kashgaria, Little Bokhara, Serindia (due to Indian cultural influence) and, in Chinese, "Western Regions".

- Xinjiang

Middle Turkic languages, through the influence of Perso-Arabic after the 13th century, developed into the Chagatai language, a literary language used all across Central Asia until the early 20th century.

- Uyghur language

Uzbek and Uyghur are spoken in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Xinjiang.

- Central Asia

4 related topics with Alpha

Kazakhstan

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Approximate extent of Scythia within the area of distribution of Eastern Iranian languages (shown in orange) in the 1st century BC

Cuman–Kipchak confederation in Eurasia circa 1200. The Kazakhs are descendants of Kipchaks, Nogais and other Turkic and medieval Mongol tribes

Ural Cossacks skirmish with Kazakhs (the Russians originally called the Kazakhs "Kirgiz")

Young Pioneers at a Young Pioneer camp in Kazakh SSR

The International Conference on Primary Health Care in 1978, known as the Alma-Ata Declaration

The Monument of Independence, Republic Square, Almaty

Satellite image of Kazakhstan (November 2004)

The Kazakh Steppe is part of the Eurasian Steppe Belt (in on the map)

Kazakhstan map of Köppen climate classification

President Nazarbayev with U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2012

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019

Member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)

A proportional representation of Kazakhstan exports, 2019

Aktau is Kazakhstan's only seaport on the Caspian Sea

Kazakhstan has the largest proven oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region.

Train 22 Kyzylorda – Semipalatinsk, hauled by a Kazakhstan Temir Zholy 2TE10U diesel locomotive. Picture taken near Aynabulak, Kazakhstan

Group of Kazakhstan physicists in collaboration with Uzbek researchers working at the ion accelerator DC-60

Baikonur Cosmodrome is the world's oldest and largest operational spaceport

Central Asian ethnolinguistic patchwork, 1992

Kazakhstanis on a Lake Jasybay beach, Pavlodar Region

Khazret Sultan Mosque is the biggest mosque in Kazakhstan

A Kazakhstan performer demonstrates the long equestrian heritage as part of the gala concert during the opening ceremonies of the Central Asian Peacekeeping Battalion

Kanysh Satpayev, one of the founders of Soviet era metallogeny, principal advocate and the first president of Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences

1965 Soviet stamp honouring Kazakh essayist and poet Abai Qunanbaiuly

A-Studio was created in 1982 in Almaty, then called Alma-Ata, hence called "Alma-Ata Studio"

International Astana Action Film Festival, 2010

Timur Bekmambetov, a notable Kazakh director

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental landlocked country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe.

While it was part of the Russian Empire, Kazakhstan lost some of its territory to China's Xinjiang province, and some to Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan autonomous republic during Soviet years.

Other minority languages spoken in Kazakhstan include Uzbek, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Tatar.

Kazakhs

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The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: sg.

Genetic, archeologic and linguistic evidence links the early Turkic peoples with the 'Northeast Asian gene pool'. Early Turkic-speakers may have been millet agriculturalists in Northeast Asia, which later adopted a nomadic lifestyle and expanded from eastern Mongolia westwards.

Genetic distances between various Western and Eastern Eurasian populations. Analyzed Kazakh samples cluster close to East and Southeast Asian samples, with the relative closest affinity to Mongolian people.

The suggested East-West admixture among modern Eurasian populations. In this analysis, Kazakhs are inferred to have slightly less than 30% Western (European-like) admixture.

Muhammad Salyk Babazhanov – Kazakh anthropologist, a member of Russian Geographical Society.

Shoqan Walikhanov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Kazakh hunters with eagles in Bayan-Ölgii Province, Mongolia

қазақ, qazaq,, pl. қазақтар, qazaqtar, ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; казахи) are a Turkic ethnic group, who mainly inhabit the northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts of Uzbekistan and Russia, as well as China (Northern Xinjiang) and Mongolia (Bayan-Ölgii Province) in Eurasia.

The Kazakh language is a member of the Turkic language family, as are Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Uyghur, Turkmen, modern Turkish, Azeri and many other living and historical languages spoken in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Xinjiang, and Siberia.

Kazakh language

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Kazakh or Qazaq (Latin: qazaqsha or qazaq tılı, Cyrillic: қазақша or қазақ тілі, Arabic Script: قازاقشا or قازاق ٴتىلى,, ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia.

Kazakh is the official language of Kazakhstan and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, north-western China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of western Mongolia.

, Kazakh is written in Cyrillic in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, Kazakh is written in Latin in Kazakhstan, while more than one million Kazakh speakers in China use an Arabic-derived alphabet similar to the one that is used to write Uyghur.

Uyghurs

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Uyghur man in traditional clothing, playing a tambur, a traditional Uyghur instrument.

A possible Tocharian or Sogdian monk (left) with an East Asian Buddhist monk (right). A fresco from the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, dated to the 9th or 10th century (Kara-Khoja Kingdom).

Uyghur princes from Cave 9 of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Xinjiang, China, 8th–9th century AD, wall painting

Uyghur Khaganate in geopolitical context c. 820 AD

Map showing the distribution of ethnicities in Xinjiang according to census figures from 2000, the prefectures with Uyghur majorities are in blue.

Protesters Amsterdam with the Flag of East Turkestan

Leaf from an Uyghur-Manichaean version of the ‘‘Arzhang’’.

Wall painting at Bezeklik caves in Flaming Mountains, Turpan Depression.

Doppa Maker, traditional Uyghur hats, Kashgar

A Uyghur man having his head shaved in a bazaar. Shaving of head is now seen mostly among the older generation.

Uyghur girl in clothing made of fabric with design distinctive to the Uyghurs

Uyghur women on their way to work, Kashgar. 2011

The Uyghurs ( or ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia.

The Uyghurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

In the Uyghur language, the ethnonym is written ئۇيغۇر in Arabic script, Уйғур in Uyghur Cyrillic and Uyghur or Uygur (as the standard Chinese romanization, GB 3304–1991) in Latin; they are all pronounced as.