the wonderful uighur

last lot of pictures is from western china, home of the uighur (pronounced weeger)people, amongst others. uighurs are central asian, with a language and culture (including food) completely different to the chinese. they are in fact ethnically and linguistically related to turks, though they use a modified arabic script similar to urdu (turkish is written in a roman script). i don't think the uighurs have ever ruled themselves, their lands belonging to one or other of china, mongolia, russia, khasakhstan, etc., etc. through their history. the western chinese province of xin jiang, where most uighurs live, actually borders mongolia, russia, khazakhstan, kyrgystan, afghanistan, pakistan, india and tibet (it's a big province, rugged and beautiful, with snow-capped mountain ranges rising out of the barren deserts). we spent easter there, and i found it a little ironic that i had to travel to western china to hear the best sermon i've heard in many years, if not ever. but maybe that's not so surprising.