Uighurs

Partha Desikan

Uighurs of Xinchiang in western china were in the news recently. Here is an account of their enviable cultural past from a book published seventeen years ago, as reproduced in apopular website.

Toward the end of the 19th century and into the first decades of the 20th, scientific

Throughout the centuries the Uighurs used the following scripts. 

1. Confederated with the Kok Turks in the 6th and 7th centuries, they used the Orkhon script, which was developed from the Sogdian alphabet.

2. In the 5th century they adopted Sogdian italic script which became known as the Uighur script. This script was used for almost 800 years not only by the Uighurs, but also by other Turkic peoples, the Mongols, and by the Manchus in the early stage of their rule in China. 

3. After embracing Islam in the 10th century the Uighurs adopted the Arabic alphabet, and its use became common in the 11th century.  

4. The Uighurs of the former Soviet Union use Cyrillic. 

5. The Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan use the Arabic and Latin alphabets and the Uighurs of Turkey use the Latin alphabet.

Most of the early Uighur literary works were represented by translations of Buddhist and Manichean religious texts, but there were also narrative, poetic and epic works. Some of these were translated into German, English, Russian and Turkish.

After embracing Islam the Uighurs continued to preserve their cultural dominance in Central Asia. World-renowned Uighur scholars emerged, and Uighur literature flourished. Among hundreds of important works surviving from that era are "Qutatqu Bilik" by Yüsüp Has Hajip (1069-70), Mähmut Qäşqäri's "Divan-i Lugat-it Türk", and Ähmät Yüknäki's "Atabetul Hakayik".

The Uighurs had an extensive knowledge of medicine and medical practice. Chinese Sung Dynasty (906-960) sources indicate that a Uighur physician Nanto traveled to China and brought with him many kinds of medicine not known to the Chinese. There are 103 different herbs for use in the Uighur medicine recorded in a medical compendium by Li Shizhen (1518-1593), a Chinese medical authority. Tartar scholar, professor Rashid Rahmeti Arat in Zur Heilkunde der Uighuren (Medical Practices of the Uighurs) published in 1930 and 1932, in Berlin, discussed the Uighur medicine. Relying on a sketch of a man with an explanation of acupuncture, he and some Western scholars suspect that acupuncture was not a Chinese, but a Uighur discovery.

The Uighurs were also advanced in fields such as architecture, art, music and printing. Western scholars who have studied Uighur history, culture and civilization have often expressed a high regard for the cultural level of the Uighurs. For instance, according to Ferdinand Sassure, "Those who preserved the language and written culture in Central Asia were the Uighurs". Albert von Lecoq wrote, "The Uighur language and script contributed to the enrichment of civilizations of the other peoples in Central Asia. Compared to the Europeans of that time the Uighurs were far more advanced. Documents discovered in Eastern Turkestan prove that a Uighur farmer could write down a contract, using legal terminology. How many European farmers could have done that at that period? This shows the extent of Uighur civilization of that time". Prof. Dr. Laszlo Rasonyi wrote, "the Uighurs knew how to print books centuries before Gutenberg invented his press". In the judgment of Prof. Dr. Wolfram Eberhard, "in the Middle Ages, Chinese poetry, literature, theatre, music and painting were greatly influenced by the Uighurs".

Chinese envoys such as Hsuan Chang, Wang Yen De and Chang Chun who traveled through Eastern Turkestan within the seventh to the thirteenth centuries reported that they were impressed by the high degree of the Uighur power, prestige and culture they encountered there.

Wang Yen De, who served as an ambassador to the Qarakhoja Uighur Kingdom between the years 981 and 984, wrote in his memoirs: "I was impressed with the extensive civilization I found in the Uighur Kingdom. The beauty of the temples, monasteries, wall paintings, statues, towers, gardens, houses and the palaces built throughout the kingdom cannot be described. The Uighurs are very skilled in handicrafts of gold and silver, vases and potteries. Some say God has infused this talent into this people only".

This Uighur power, prestige, and culture dominated Central Asia for more than 1000 years went into a steep decline after the Manchu invasion in Eastern Turkestan in 1759, and under the rule of the Nationalist and especially the Communist Chinese.

Source: Eastern Turkestan Information, Volume 1, No.2, July 1991

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the Governor's visit to India
written by partha, 2011-11-02 18:46:01

The visit of the Xinchiang (Xin Jiang) Governor to Mumbai and New Delhi for 4 days starting to day, could mean the resumption of trade ties with that province of China given up more than 60 years ago. Both trade and cultural ties with the Uighur region can indeed be rewarding.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays...ce=mobile
We have to wait and watch.

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language
written by partha, 2010-10-23 21:12:23

A satyagraha is in progress to preserve use of Tibetan as a medium of education at least in regions where the Tibetans are still having sizeable populations.
http://impunitywatch.com/?p=14742
Wonder whether the Uighurs and Cantonese speakers in Southern China too will have Mandarin thrust on them as the only medium of education.
Ananth Krishnan writes today in The hindu in a piece wrongly entitled, 'China to reconsider Language Policy' (http://impunitywatch.com/?p=14742) that the Chinese government said on Saturday it would reconsider its plan to promote the use of Mandarin, the language spoken by the majority Han Chinese ethnic group, as the sole language of instruction in universities after hundreds of Tibetan students in western China and in Beijing protested the move this week. However, if you read Krishnan's article carefully, you come across the following lines as well.
........Xinhua quoted Wang Yubo, director of Qinghai's education department, as saying changes would not be enforced in areas where “conditions are not ripe”, though he did not say what those conditions were..........
Again, ..........Woeser, a prominent Tibetan writer in Beijing, said it still remained uncertain whether or not the government would suspend the policy. “In view of the protest in Qinghai, the government has said it would somehow suspend the language policy, but I cannot see if this will really happen,” she told The Hindu...........
Again, ............In Tibet, and other areas such as Xinjiang, widening income disparities have been blamed on higher-income jobs, for which Mandarin is often a prerequisite, going to Han migrants from other provinces. The government introduced bilingual education in Tibet and Xinjiang, but Tibetans and Uighurs fear the neglect of their languages will erode their cultures.

Ms. Woeser said many Tibetans viewed the policy as a move “to marginalise the Tibetan language.” “On the one hand, the government's objective is to advance its objective of unifying the country,” she said, also pointing to recent protests by students in southern Guangdong province following efforts to promote Mandarin in place of the local Cantonese in television programming.'
The writing is on the Great Wall.
Regards. Partha

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strategic
written by P. Desikan, 2009-06-20 16:43:33

Yes, Mita, there will always be hecklers and grumblers.
Any American knowing the strategic location of Palau and the history of American-Palauan co-operation over the years will not grudge the incremental aid that the islanders get occasionally apart from agreed quanta.
Regards. Partha.

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...
written by Mita, 2009-06-20 13:20:34

Dear Partha,

It was heartening to see the small island nation of Palau step up and take the Uighurs who are just victims rather than terrorists in this whole mess. Instead they (Palau govt) are being maligned now. It's a sad world when a decent act is met with cynicism and worse. According to a Palau UN official:

Unattributed leaks and unsubstantiated rumors have twisted Palau’s decent act of taking in U.S. detainees into another grab for dollars by a cunning third-world country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/opinion/20beck.html?th&emc=th

Mita.

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rehabilitation being enabled
written by P. Desikan, 2009-06-09 22:38:55

Palau seems to be absorbing some Guantanamo detainees of Uighur origin in return for some useful US aid.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...amo_palau
Partha

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Thank you
written by P. Desikan, 2008-08-07 15:57:10

Thank you, Evelyn Wu, for clarifying that medicinal inputs of a great variety traversed from East Turkestan/Xinchiang to mainland China even as early as the seventh century after Christ.
I do hope that other Medhavis who unravel the links that you have given at the end of your comment will give us further insights into the contribution of Uighur medical know-how , part of which could also have originated in India. You seem to have provided literature link to show that some of the know-how did go back to Uttar Pradesh, India.
Regards. Partha.

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the Korean connection
written by P. Desikan, 2008-08-04 15:11:26

The title of Item 5 among the references which Evelyn Wu suggests we look up on our own seems to suggest that in the 14th century, some kind of a medical vocabulary (Uighur origin?)was created in Seoul.
Those of you who watched 'the Jewel in the Palace' that was aired in the US in 2003 by a Korean TV channel would recall how elaborate and effective the Korean medical system of the 16th century had been portrayed and how cooking in Korea involved, at least in that period, a number of medical inputs.
please read the wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dae_Jang_Geum
Regards. Partha

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From Evelyn Wu
written by P. Desikan, 2008-08-04 12:22:51

Dear Hatimtai, Please find below Evelyn Wu's feedback which I read only a few minutes ago. she had been on a trip to Vancouver and sent the feed back to me on Aug 1 by e mail, not being able to enter our blogspace for commenting.
(Perhaps because of double quotes, which i am now carefully replacing with single quotes.
She is of course much busier at Ottawa in her several capacities than I can be on vacation at my daughter's house.
Regards. Partha.
From: goopo@hotmail.com
To: desikanpartha@hotmail.com
Subject: Uygur medicine
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:50:39 -0400

Dear Hatimtai & Partha,
I have finally done some reading on the subject of Uygur medcine. I read both in English and in Chinese in internet, with much difficulty in verifying the names of people.
As early as the 4th century BC, the ancient Uygur has initially formed their basic theory of 4 elements (fire, air/gas, water,soil) which
is the foundation of the universe related to human beings in health and disease. Later it became part of the viewpoint of the Hippocratic doctors and was accepted into the Arab and Central Asian medical theory. The Uighurs applied poisons (strong medicine) as a higher level of drug treatment (possibly homeopath), an Uygur was known to perform eye surgery to a monk, Jianshen, to recover blindness. By the 9th century, they had compiled valuable information on medical treatments, including diet, physical therapy, mental therapy, cold fomentation, moxibustion, cleaning wound, fractures splint fixation, etc. Zhang Qian (Western Han period 206BC-23AD) brought back lots of herbs from Uygur, including walnuts, garlic, pomegranates, saffron, grapes, etc. About 450 substances were commonly used,these included plant, animal & minerals products. Uygur medicine flourished as far as Xian and Yangzhou, a business city in Sui (581-618AD) and Tang (618-907AD) periods. The revised 'Shen Nung Pen Ts'so' (Tang period) listed 850 kind of medicine, of which 114 were from Uygur. The most complete and comprehensive herb book by Li Shi-Zhen (1518-1593) also credited 103 species from the region. It was said that Uygur/Xinjiang has an arid and hot climate, long sunlight arradiation and therefore is suitable for cultivation of medical herbs. The Ancient Silk Road has also placed an important link for Uygur medicine to prosper in Europe and Asia.
It is impossible to know exactly who started to use the herbs foe medical treatment, the Chinese or the Uighur? First written record of herbal medicine, the Shen Nung Pen Ts'so was dated in 2800BC, that was 400 years ahead of the Uighur. Through thousands of years of development and progress, the Uygur medicine, no doubt, has made a significant contribution to the Chinese medicine. (are we not all symbiotic?)
This is not a sholarly finding. I transferred only what I read. Thank you for leading me to this fascinating topic. If you are able (not me) to access JSTOR or PION website, there are some more information of interest:
1. Ravigupta has translated 2 books in Sanskrit rhyme 'Siddhasaya' and 'Jiyakapustaka'.
2. Aladdin Muhammad (1150-1222) has a book entitled 'Zubdatul kawanil llaj' and 'Tibbi Fitki'.
3. Duncan J., Barnes T. www.envplan.com or PION website for historic archives.
4. Al Aksay (Al Aqsa ?), an Uygur medical doctor published a book in 1899 in Lucknow, India. The book was used as a medical text in the Islamic School of Medine in Delhi, in 1929.
5. Jama Leka (Seoul ?, ?-1322) wrote medical vocabulary in Persian.
Regards,
Evelyn Wu

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...
written by karigar, 2008-07-22 13:02:50

Partha,
Thanks for the links. I do remember going thru the one website you referred ...silk-road.com...setup by that prof in seattle (??) who gets his students to constantly research & write interesting articles....I liked the ones on the Chinese travelers to India...Fa Hsien, Huien Tsang, etc..

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biblio
written by P. Desikan, 2008-07-18 11:52:54

And dear Karigar,
Some parts of this exhaustive bibliography could prove interesting to you or any other friend who may go to a good library to learn about Uighurs. Here is the link
http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol3num1/6_turkistan.php
Warm regards. Partha

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the map
written by P. Desikan, 2008-07-18 11:22:54

Dear Karigar,

I found some difficulty in introducing the map picture. I am therefore sending it to you here as a link.

http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/pdf/silk-road.pdf

You can see a silk road start from Turkey and pass through modern Xinchiang (old East Turkestan) very much north of Afghanistan.

You must of course be familiar with the strong US and Chinese belief that this region has been infiltrated by terrorist elements very much as Afghanistan-Pakistan border has been.

The belief seems to be well grounded and can make life miserable for ordinary citizens of this autonomous region.

Warm regards.

Partha

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...
written by karigar, 2008-07-18 08:26:01

Partha,

Thanks for a wonderful sojourn into the Uighur culture. The Silk Road (both Northern & Southern) is a fascinating repository of culture, and nascent Globalization, some surviving into the present.

I was impressed by the efforts by Uighurs to asimilate & preserve so many different cultural expressions, like writing, art, architecture etc.....almost feel a kindred spirit to our Indic civilization. (The same Sassure whose Phd Thesis was on RgVeda, the 'father of Linguistics', seems to be awed by the same..)

A map showing the location vis.a.vis India/China & other countries would really enhance the description... Perhaps you could give a basic overview on the Silk Road...(Yes I keep asking for more don't I...

Thanks for enhancing our cultural horizons...

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...
written by Sreeparna, 2008-07-17 13:38:46

Dear Partha and Dwai,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and input. I shall wait for your friend Wu's input and insight.

It would be wonderful if we find more experts from other great traditions to collaborate on Medhajournal, as we have in-house experts talking about our Indic culture and traditions, and many more for Indic systems as well!

To have a balance between past, present and future on Medhajournal is going to be a bonus for all of us!!

Regards,
Hatimtai

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white vision
written by P. Desikan, 2008-07-16 19:34:08

Dear Dwai,
Just as dating of vedic and vedantic literature suffers from some vested interests deciding how exactly it should be done, I suppose, there are people who would like all Taoist literature to be dated in the post Christian era.
You must have read the wikipedia entry for Huangdi neijing.
Regards. Partha

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TCM history
written by dwai, 2008-07-16 16:38:47

The Taoist known as the "Yellow Emperor" created the first book on Chinese Medicine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor
This was around between 2697 and 2600 BCE.
The book is the foundation of TCM and is called Huangdi Neijing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing

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Chinese herbal tradition larger, older.
written by P. Desikan, 2008-07-16 14:36:40

Dear Hatim Tai,
evelyn Wu is about to leave for vancouver on a private visit and promised to get back to me on the subject when she returns, but thinks that the Chinese tradition in herbal medicine could be quite old, a few thousands of years, with records available for about 2000 years. The Tao tradition preceded the Buddhist, and the Uygur(Uighur) tradition could also have added on much later, though its effect is not believed to be significant.
Dwai should be able to enlighten us on this. The website on herbal medicines accessible through the link
http://www.traditionalchinesetherapy.com/content/history/ could reinforce what I say above.
Regards. Partha.

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interesting typo
written by P. Desikan, 2008-07-16 08:15:57

Not middleweastern, but middle eastern, of course! Since Turkey is almost in the west, this typo is apt!
Partha

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welcome
written by P. Desikan, 2008-07-16 08:13:35

Dear Narensomu and Hatimtai, you are both most welcome.
You must be aware that the Turkish culture is really very ancient, dating far before and beyond the middleweastern and neareastern advent of Islam.
Also much misunderstood, because of the alleged ruthlessness with which the typical ancient Turkish invaders dealt with people captured in their conquests.
The puranic age writers of India knew the Turks. The Bhagavata predicts in its last sarga that Turushkas and other foreigners will invade Bharata in the Kali age. The derived Tamil word Tulukka is freely used in casual description of all Muslims, though the early Turushkas whom India met were not Moslems.
Hatimtai, I can take your advice and check with Chinese sources. But as in India, the nature and extent of colouring of historical truth depends on which kind of national you are listening to.
The privileged Hans, the privileged rulers of the red hue? The Peranakans in the Malaysian straits, the Hakka driven first to South of China and then to various corners of the world via Indonesia? The Hongkong Chinese? The Taiwanese? The Tibetans? The Xinchiang Uighurs?
I took a chance and have written to my good friend Evelyn Hu Amberg, who presides over the activities of the Ottawa Hakka in Canada's capital. I met her only last week, and am hopeful that she will find time to answer my mail. If she answers I will be happy to post it in tmj.
Hatimtai, if you had visited Chinatown in Calcutta, there is every chance that you met quite a few Hakka in the Dhapa or Tanjira area there. These are likely to be in the tanning, shoe selling and beautician trades rather than in the dentist trade.
Regards. Partha

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Nice information
written by Sreeparna, 2008-07-15 15:56:14

Dear Partha,

Thanks for this piece of information on a new culture. Looks like they were advanced in medicine and herbs. Could they have contributed to the Chinese traditional medicinal practice as well?

Probably a chinese origin or a researcher can share more insight..

Regards,
Hatimtai

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The Ocean of time
written by narensomu, 2008-07-14 05:43:19

Dear Partha
Thanks for the illuminating article about a rich culture.
I went through the links and am particularly interested in the temples.
And also what literary treasures their language is rich by.
Great cultures seemed to have thrived all over the World during different time periods.
We , who look at the World through the narrow opening of our limited time frame feel even smaller.
Regards
ns

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