[Buddha-l] buddha-l Digest, Vol 103, Issue 6

[Dan Lusthaus]

(For some reason, this message, which I sent before the last one to Richard, 
hasn't come through yet, so I am re-sending)

> What?! Ethnicity isn't vague or plastic to a Uighur or an Uzbek or a
> Tajik!
> Those appellations mean very real things to those communities, hence the
> ongoing conflicts.

Being a Uighur is a tribal identification, not an "ethnicity." "Ethnically"
they are considered Turks.

Wikipedia (because it is easily confirmable online, and I promise I had
nothing to do with the composition of the entry):

--
The term Uyghur disappeared from historical records in the 15th century, but
the Bolsheviks reintroduced the term Uyghur to replace the previously used
Turk or Turki. In modern usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic urban
dwellers and farmers of Kashgaria or Uyghurstan who follow traditional
Central Asian sedentary practices, as distinguished from nomadic Turkic
populations in Central Asia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people
--

As I said, accurately, these "ethnic" identifications are modern with
imperialist underpinnings.

More detailed:

--
Throughout history, the term Uyghur has taken on an increasingly expansive
definition. Initially signifying only a small coalition of Tiele tribes in
Northern China, Mongolia, and the Altay Mountains, it later denoted
citizenship in the Uyghur Khaganate. Finally it was expanded to an ethnicity
whose ancestry originates with the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year
842, which caused Uyghur migration from Mongolia into the Tarim Basin. This
migration assimilated and replaced the Indo-Europeans of the region to
create a distinct identity, as the language and culture of the Turkic
migrants eventually supplanted the original Indo-European influences. This
***fluid definition of Uyghur and the diverse ancestry of modern Uyghurs are
a source of confusion about what constitutes true Uyghur ethnography and
ethnogenesis.***
(ibid, emphasis added)
--

And

--
""The Uighurs are the people whom old Russian travellers called Sart (a name
which they used for sedentary, Turkish-speaking Central Asians in general),
while Western travellers called them Turki, in recognition of their
language. The Chinese used to call them Ch'an-t'ou ('Turbaned Heads') but
this term has been dropped, being considered derogatory, and the Chinese,
using their own pronunciation, now called them Weiwuerh. As a matter of fact
there was for centuries no 'national' name for them; people identified
themselves with the oasis they came from, like Kashgar or Turfan."" - Owen
Lattimore, "Return to China's Northern Frontier." The Geographical Journal,
Vol. 139, No. 2, June 1973
--

and Wikipedia, in even greater detail:

--
The term "Uyghur" was not used to refer to any existing ethnic group in the
19th century, but to an ancient people. A late 19th-century encyclopedia
titled The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia said "the
Uigur are the most ancient of Turkish tribes, and formerly inhabited a part
of Chinese Tartary (Xinjiang), which is now occupied by a mixed population
of Turk, Mongol, and Kalmuck".[28] The inhabitants of Xinjiang were not
called Uyghur before 1921/1934. Westerners called the Turkic speaking
Muslims of the Oases "Turki", and the Turkic Muslims in Ili were known as
"Taranchi". The Russians and other foreigners used the names "Sart",[29]
"Turk", or "Turki"[30][31] for them. These groups of peoples identified
themselves by the oases they came from, not by an ethnic group.[32] Names
such as Kashgarliq to mean Kashgari were used.[33] The Turkic people also
used "Musulman", which means "Muslim", to describe themselves.[33][34]

The name "Uyghur" reappeared after the Soviet Union took the 9th-century
ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate and reapplied it to all non-nomadic
Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang,[35] following a 19th-century proposal from
Russian historians that modern-day Uyghurs were descended from the Turpan
Kingdom and Kara-Khanid Khanate, which had formed after the dissolution of
the Uyghur Khaganate.[36] Historians generally agree that the adoption of
the term "Uyghur" is based on a decision from a 1921 conference in Tashkent,
which was attended by Turkic Muslims from the Tarim Basin
(Xinjiang).[35][37][38] There, "Uyghur" was chosen by them as the name of
their own ethnic group, although the delegates noted that the modern groups
referred to as "Uyghur" were distinct from the old Uyghur Khaganate.[29]
According to Linda Benson, the Soviets and their client Sheng Shicai
intended to foster a Uyghur nationality to divide the Muslim population of
Xinjiang, whereas the various Turkic Muslim peoples themselves preferred to
identify as "Turki", "East Turkestani", or "Muslim".[29]

On the other hand, the ruling regime of China at that time, the Kuomintang,
grouped all Muslims, including the Turkic-speaking people of Xinjiang, into
the "Hui nationality".[39][40] They generally referred to the Turkic Muslims
of Xinjiang as "Chan Tou Hui" (turban-headed Muslim).[29][41][42] Westerners
traveling in Xinjiang in the 1930s, like George W. Hunter, Peter Fleming,
Ella K. Maillart, and Sven Hedin, all referred to the Turkic Muslims of the
region not as Uyghur, but as "Turki", in their books. Use of the term
"Uyghur" was unknown in Xinjiang until 1934, when the governor Sheng Shicai
came to power in there. Sheng adopted the Soviets' ethnographic
classification rather than that of the Kuomintang and became the first to
promulgate the official use of the term "Uyghur" to describe the Turkic
Muslims of Xinjiang.[29][36][43] After the Communist victory, the Chinese
Communist Party under Mao Zedong continued the Soviet classification, using
the term "Uyghur" to describe the modern ethnic group.[29]

Another ethnic group, the Buddhist Yugur of Gansu, by contrast, have
consistently been called by themselves and others the "Yellow Uyghur" (Säriq
Uyghur).[44] Scholars like Joana Breidenbach say that 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.[45] Linguist and ethnographer S. Robert Ramsey has argued for
inclusion of both the Yugur and the Salar as subgroups of Uyghur (based on
similar historical roots for the Yugur and on perceived linguistic
similarities for the Salar). These groups are recognized as separate ethnic
groups, though, by the Chinese government.[46]

Pan-Turkic Jadidists and East Turkestan Independence activists Muhammad Amin
Bughra (Mehmet Emin) and Masud Sabri rejected the Soviet imposition of the
name "Uyghur" upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang. They wanted instead the
name "Turkic ethnicity" (Tujue zu in Chinese) to be applied to their people.
Masud Sabri also viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate
from his own people.[47] The names "Türk" or "Türki" in particular were
demanded by Bughra as the real name for his people. He criticized Sheng
Shicai for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities
which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims.[48]

In current usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers
of the Tarim Basin and Ili who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary
practices, as distinguished from nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia.
However, the Chinese government has also designated as "Uyghur" certain
peoples with significantly divergent histories and ancestries from the main
group. These include the Loplik people and the Dolan people, who are thought
to be closer to the Oirat Mongols and the Kyrgyz.[49][50]

--

We could go through the same with the other identifications.

The original Uighurs were Manichaeans.

The "Uighurs" you are talking about are Turkic muslims (not Yellow
Buddhists, e.g.) with territorial ambitions in western China.

Call me more names, and expose your own simpleminded lack of historical
sense.

cheers,
Dan