Sage-Tips

Who are the Yugur people in China?

The Yugur are a small ethnic group of around 15,000 living in western China’s Gansu province. The name Yugur stems from the term “Yellow Uyghur” and refers to the common origins of both the Yugur and the Uyghur.

What is a Yugar?

The Yugur are a minority that live around the Yellow River town of Jishishan in the middle of Gansu Province. Their language is similar to the language of the Uighurs, but unlike the Muslim Uighurs the Yugurs practice Tibetan Buddhism. The Yugurs speak an Altaic language similar to Turkish.

How did the Uighurs end up in China?

The official Chinese view asserts the Uyghurs to be of Tiele origin who only became the main social and political force in Xinjiang during the 9th century, when they migrated to the region from Mongolia after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate, replacing the Han Chinese that they claim were there since the Han …

What race are Uighurs?

Turkic
The Uyghurs (/ˈwiːɡʊərz/ WEE-goorz or /uːiˈɡʊərz/), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uyghers, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia.

Is Uyghur a Turkic language?

Uyghur (ooey-GHUR say Uyghurs, WEE-gur say Americans) is a Central Asian Turkic language spoken along the Silk Route in Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang).

How similar are Uyghur and Turkish?

As they are both Turkic languages, Turkish and Uyghur share a high degree of mutual intelligibility. “Uyghurs can understand 60 percent of Turkish, and after three months [of living in Turkey] they can easily understand 90 percent of the language,” Suleyman said.

What language do the Yugur people speak?

The western Yugur speak a language known as Yaohu’er, which is Turkic. The eastern Yugur speak a language called Enge’er, which is Mongolic and very similar to the Mongolian spoke in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Today, many Yugur, particularly those among the younger generations, also speak Mandarin and use it for intercommunication.

What is the difference between Uyghur and Western Yugur?

Another ethnicity, the Western Yugur of Gansu, identify themselves as the “Yellow Uyghur” ( Sarïq Uyghur ). Some scholars say the Yugur’s culture, language and religion are closer to the original-culture of the original Uyghur Karakorum state than is the culture of the modern Uyghur people of Xinjiang.

What is the meaning of the word “Yugur”?

The Yugurs, Yughurs, Yugu (Chinese: 裕固族; pinyin: Yùgù Zú) or Yellow Uyghurs, as they are traditionally known, are a Turkic and Mongolic group and one of China’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, consisting of 16,719 persons according to the 2000 census. The Yugur live primarily in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu, China.

How many Uyghurs are there in China?

Outside Xinjiang, the largest community of Uyghurs in China is in Taoyuan County, in south-central Hunan. Outside of China, according to the World Uyghur Congress, the Uyghur population is believed to number 1.0–1.6 million.