Yugar Ethnic group

[nanman]

Dear all

Here are some pictures of the Yugar ethnic group or sometimes known as Yellow Uighurs.

According to official Chinese sources. The Yugars live mainly in Gansu province. There are currently no more than 15,000 people of pure Yugar descent. The rest have mainly assimilated into Han, Hui (Dungan) and Tibetan ethnic groups. They speak a Turkic dialect. Some speak a more Mongolic dialect. They can only write Chinese characters.

The Yugars are said to be related to the Uighurs back in the days of the Uighur empire in 8th Century. After a big war with the Kirghiz in what is today Mongolia, they fled towards Uighuristan but one group fled South into what is today the Ningxia HAR and Gansu. If this is true, you can see most of these Turkic tribes people have Mongolic facial features. Many people believe the pure Yugar people are more like what the Uighur people looked before they re-established their kingdom in Uighuristan. These people offer a potential insight into what some Turkic tribes would have looked like before they moved further west of the Gobi desert and Altay mountains.

Little has been known of these people outside of China. This has led to some mis-information being spread around that these people are living in a restricted zoo like area where no one is allowed to come in and out. What is true is that there are many tour companies organising trips and charity events to these areas. As Gansu is beautiful, rich in history but it is also today the poorest region in the whole of China. I myself is planning one day to visit the area.















There is a portal www.76yuguzu.cn/ set up by the Yugar community but unfortunately it is only in Chinese language. But there are links to lots of pictures etc.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Thank you for the share.

The reason why they are called "Yellow Uyghur" is because they were a group of Uyghurs that were ruled by the Yaghlaqar tribe, which the first Uyghur qaghan dynasty was from. Yellow indicates royalness. Similarly, the Türgish people was later divided as "Yellow Türgish" and "Black Türgish".

Interesting thing is that, even though these Yughurs are Buddhists, the woman from the second last photo looks identicially with the old Turkish women of Anatolia ;D

[ceonni]

I've met a Turpanlik Uyghur professor from Urumqi years ago. By the "Official History of Xinjiang" published by the University of Xinjiang, the modern "Uyghur" nationality stems from two stocks: Yaghlyk (I would guess the same as "Yaghlakar", and Sartys (I would think he meant the "Sarts", which is the sedentary population that formed the substrate for modern Kashgarliks, Uzbeks and the 10th century Karakhanliks)

[nanman]

It seems like Eastern Mongolia and Manchuria seem to be a region that has spawn many tribes that has pushed other tribes westwards over time.

A guide told me that the Kirghiz were from Southern Siberia / Manchuria and were not indigenous to the region near Aksu and Kirghiz Republic until around 11-12th century. The Kirghiz were then themselves friven westwards by another Mongol tribe.

This also explains why there is a small Kirghiz county in Manchuria NE China.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

The modern Qyrghyz used to live in today's Khaqasia. Indeed, the Khaqas are nothing but the branch of the Old Qyrghyz that did not migrate from their original homelands. Even the names Khaqas and Qyrghyz are the same indeed.