Are all uyghurs in the same ethnic group?

[thetibetan]

Hi,
I have been to E Turkistan a few times and found that uyghur people in different parts of ET have quite different facial composition and hair colors. Are they actually different ethic groups? Does Chinese categorize them into one group just for convenience?

Anyone can help?

TB

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Hello, welcome aboard

The Uyghurs in East Turkistan have different physical appearances and different cultures from city to city, the two most famous being Kâshghar and Turpan (Turfan).

[BAWIR$AQ]

The term "Uyghur" was accepted by them in 1921. Before that, they used to call themselves according to the oases - "qashgarliq", "turpanliq", etc, or according to the profession, i.e. "taranchi"

[Deleted]

thetibetan said:

Hi,
I have been to E Turkistan a few times and found that uyghur people in different parts of ET have quite different facial composition and hair colors. Are they actually different ethic groups? Does Chinese categorize them into one group just for convenience?

Anyone can help?

TB

Their culture, physical appearance and even language does change from region to region. In the south an Uygur from Hotan usually has light skin and light brown hair, they tend to speak much faster and pronounce their "r" sounds much stronger than other Uygurs. In Kashgar, not too far from Hotan, the Uygurs have darker skin and black hair and speak a little softer, unless you get them mad. When you go up north the Uygurs speak kind of fast and use some words that are different from Uygurs in the south. I've noticed that a lot of the non-nomadic Kazaks have light skin and hair. The Uygurs in the north range from physical appearances because many of them, or their parents and grandparents, have come from different parts of E.T. But northern Uygurs usually seem more Mongoloid, even the light skin ones, than the southerners. The Uygurs in the south seem Mongoloid too but not as much in some places. Are they the same people? Yes, however, it's possible many, probably the Uygurs with light skin in the south, are a product of Uygurs and Tocharians mixing. The Chinese wouldn't label them as Uygur, if they actually weren't, just for convenience. For them, the less Uygurs here the safer they feel.

[Deleted]

Uygurs in Turpan speak differently and look different as well. Buddhism was very influential in Turpan in the Uygurs' pre-Islamic past. Because of this their culture is a little different than that of Uygurs who are heavily Islamic. They also tend to look a little more Chinese than other Uygurs. But I found that Turpan girls are probably the most beautiful Uygur girls.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Well Turpan (Turfan, Gaochang [Kao-ch'ang] ‚¹) was the first area to be settled by the nomadic Turkic tribes of the Uyghur federation. Kashghar followed very soon. It was a century later when Khotan was captured, raised to the ground and rebuilt some distances away by the Qarakhanids, eventually leading to the Turkification of the last non-Turkic Saka-Tokharian region in East Turkistan.