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Kashgaria's terrain, people, languages
and religion have more in common with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan, and even nothern Pakistan, than with China. But over the
centuries Imperial China has come again and again to control its
frontiers or police the Silk Road. History in the Tarim Basin is mainly
conflicts between the Chinese and the indigenous nomadic tribes.
Recently, the Chinese government's response to riots and bombing has
been ferocious, with exile Uyghur sources claiming hundreds or thousands
of executions since 1996.
 Xinjiang
is home to over a dozen of China's 55 official minorities, and many
ethnic groups are represented in Kashgaria. A walk in Kashgar's bazaar
reveals an array of faces from Chinese, Slavic and Turkish to downright
Mediterranean - surmounted, incidentally, by an incredible variety of
hats. Most of them are Sunni Muslims, though not as self-consciously
devout as those in Pakistan. Though Madarin Chinese is the official
language, Xinjiang's lingua franca is Uyghur, a Turkic dialect written
in both Arabic and Latinised scripts, the latter introduced for a time
in an unpopular attempt to reduce illiteracy. |
[17 Aug. ensoleillé Urumqui-Kashgar airplane 1480 km
Hotel Seman]
 Retrouvaille
des brits au John's Café (thanks Lonely Planet). Discussion avec un
Californien qui conçoit mal que d'autres pays se sentent oppressé par le
rouleau compresseur US. Attaquer le mal (le terrorisme) d'accord, mais
les causes du mal surtout. Bargain de scrolls chinois pour me changer
les idées. Puis ballade à bicyclettes avec Tim et Lucy vers les tombes
d'Abakh Hoja.
 Visite du plus grand marché d'Asie centrale,
certainement le plus bruyant, boueux à gogo. Mon copain (Timcrazed) s'en
met plein les baskets. Dégotage de jumelles; elles pourraient sevir dans les
montagnes. Check out the Sunday Market of Kashgar.
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