Tajiks of Xinjiang

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Mountain Tajiks
Total population
41,028 (Xinjiang of China)[1] 1,000~2,000 (Sarikoli in Tajikistan)[2]
Regions with significant populations
Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County
Languages
Sarikoli (majority), Wakhi (minority)
Religion
Shia Islam (Ismailism)
Related ethnic groups
Iranian peoples

Chinese Tajiks or Mountain Tajiks in China (Sarikoli: [tudʒik], Tujik; Chinese: 塔吉克族; pinyin: Tǎjíkè Zú), including Sarikolis (majority) and Wakhis (minority) in China, are an extension of the Pamiri ethnic group that lives in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. They are Mountain Tajiks, unlike Plain Tajiks in Tajikstan and Afghanistan. They are one of the 56 nationalities officially recognized by the government of China.

Name[edit]

See also: Pamiri people

Despite their name, the Tajiks of Xinjiang are not the same as the Tajik people(who speak a Persian dialect, known as Tajik in Tajikistan or Dari in Afghanistan). The Tajiks in Xinjiang of China, are an extension of the Pamiri people, a different Iranic group who speak Pamiri languages.

History[edit]

During the Qing dynasty, the Tajiks were administered by a system of Begs like the rest of Xinjiang.

The Tajiks of Xinjiang practiced slavery, selling some of their own as a punishment. Submissive slaves were given wives and settled with the Tajiks. They were considered property and could be sold anytime. Their slaves came from numerous sources, enslaving Sunni captives such as Kirghiz in retaliation for Kirghiz slave raids, or from Kunjud, Gilgit, Chitral. The Tajiks also sold some slaves to Bukhara. The Sunnis called them Rafidites and did not consider them Muslim.[3]

Most foreign slaves in Xinjiang were Shia Mountain Tajiks, they were referred to by Sunni Turkic Muslims as Ghalcha.[4]

In the 1940s around 9,000 Tajiks lived in Xinjiang.[5]

During the Ili Rebellion, Uyghur forces butchered the livestock of the Tajiks as they advanced south.[6] The Soviet backed insurgents destroyed Tajik crops and acted aggressively against the Tajiks and Kirghiz of China.[7]

Distribution[edit]

The population of Tajiks in China numbers 41,028 (2000). They are located in China's western Xinjiang region with 60% living in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County. Despite the name "Tajik" that is used to refer to them, the Tajiks of China do not speak the Tajik language. Early 20th-century travelers to the region referred to them as Sarikoli,[8][9] "Mountain Tajiks,"[10] or Ghalcha.[11]

Language[edit]

In China, the languages of the Tajik people have no official written form.[12] The great majority speak the Sarikoli language, which has been heavily influenced by Uyghur, Chinese, and Wakhi.[13] A small proportion speak Wakhi language.[14] Sarikoli and Wakhi are Iranian languages, commonly classified in the Pamir or Eastern Iranian areal groups.[15]

Religion[edit]

The Mountain Tajiks in China are adherents of the Nizari Ismaili sect of Shia Islam, and are still a little isolated from the rest of the worldwide Ismaili community, though their communication with other Pamiri (Ismaili) peoples has never stopped. The Chinese authorities allow a few Ismaili religious buildings to function in Xinjiang's Tajik Autonomous District, whose clerics were appointed by the Chinese secular authorities. Restrictions by the Chinese government bars foreign Ismaili preachers from openly working among the Tajiks in China; and the religious leader of the Ismailism (Nizari Ismaili sect), the Aga Khan, was once barred from business with the China's Ismailis.[16] But recently, the Aga Khan has begun to communicate with China more.

From 2–4 April 2012, His Highness the Aga Khan (Aga Khan IV), paid an official visit to Ürümqi, China, at the invitation of the Governor of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Mr Nur Bekri, to discuss collaboration between the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the autonomous government of Xinjiang. His Highness and Governor Bekri held constructive talks in the meeting and agreed to collaborate in several thematic areas of mutual interest, including poverty alleviation, education, tourism investment, and financial services.[17] The Aga Khan IV had last visited China in 1981.

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Tajik Ethnic Group". China.org.cn. June 21, 2005. Retrieved 2007-12-10. 
  2. ^ Pam Arlund (2000). "Research on Bilingual Phenomenon of Tajiks in Kashgar Prefecture". Language and Translation 61 (1): 12. ISSN 1001-0823. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
  3. ^ Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth (1875). Report of a mission to Yarkund in 1873, under command of Sir T. D. Forsyth: with historical and geographical information regarding the possessions of the ameer of Yarkund. Printed at the Foreign department press. p. 56. Retrieved 2011-01-23. 
  4. ^ Ildikó Bellér-Hann (2007). Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 20. ISBN 0-7546-7041-4. Retrieved 2010-07-30. 
  5. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 6. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  6. ^ Eric Shipton, Jim Perrin (1997). Eric Shipton: The Six Mountain-Travel Books. The Mountaineers Books. p. 488. ISBN 0-89886-539-5. Retrieved 2010-10-31. 
  7. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 204. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  8. ^ A Journey of Geographical and Archarological Exploration in Chinese Turkestan A Stein – 1904 – [sn] ... 15,800 feet above the sea, into Chinese territory on the Taghdumbash Pamir, using the yaks of the Sarikoli herdsmen...
  9. ^ The Heart of a Continent – Younghusband – ...an encampment belonging to a Sarikoli, who very kindly asked me to have some refreshment... (pg 242)
  10. ^ Through the Unknown Pamirs; the Second Danish Pamir Expedition 1898–99 By Ole Olufsen
  11. ^ Denis Crispin Twitchett, John King Fairbank (1977). The Cambridge history of China, Volume 10. Cambridge University Press. p. 71. ISBN 0-521-21447-5. Retrieved 2011-01-11. 
  12. ^ BARRY RUBIN (2000). Guide to Islamist Movements. M.E. Sharpe. p. 71. ISBN 0-7656-1747-1. Retrieved 2011-01-11. 
  13. ^ Arlund, Pamela S. (2006). An Acoustic, Historical, And Developmental Analysis Of Sarikol Tajik Diphthongs. Ph.D Dissertation. The University of Texas at Arlington. p. 191. 
  14. ^ Felmy, Sabine (1996). The voice of the nightingale: a personal account of the Wakhi culture in Hunza. Karachi: Oxford University Press. p. 4. ISBN 0-19-577599-6. 
  15. ^ James Stuart Olson (1998). An ethnohistorical dictionary of China. Greenwood Publishing Group,. p. 319. ISBN 0-313-28853-4. Retrieved 2011-01-11. 
  16. ^ UNHCR Refworld, CHINA: Xinjiang's Ismailis cut off from international Ismaili community [accessed 13 May 2009]
  17. ^ [1]
Ethnic groups
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