Uyghur Culture
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Here are some pictures of Uyghur Culture
Since it was along the route of ancient Silk Road, The Uyghur Region became a passway for trade and commercial exchange between East and West, at the same time the melding and exchanges bewteen Asian and Euroupian Cultures. Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833 - 1905) considers the Valley of Pamir and Tarim in Uyghur Region to be the center of the first civilization,The desolate wastes of the Takla Makan Desert, Uyghur Region, at the heart of central Asia, are haunted by an ancient mystery. It was here, long ago, that East and West -- two of the greatest civilizations on earth -- made imperceptible contact.
Now, the echoes of voices long silent are offering startling testimony. Like other detective stories, this one begins with a dead body. This woman, and others like her, are as old as 3,800 years, yet remarkably well preserved. More startling yet, the mummies are clearly not Chinese, but they provide evidence to solve the riddle of ancient China's interaction with the West. An expedition is now setting out into the Takla Makan,Uyghur Region headed far across the dunes and deep into a long lost past. The quest to reclaim the mummy peoples' story began when Chinese scholar, Victor Mair, virtually stumbled on the most important find of his career.
Beaten into the land by traders' caravans and conquering legions about 2,000 years ago, it was the interstate highway of the ancient world, a bustling corridor where disparate cultures rubbed elbows and exchanged precious goods and ideas. The Silk Road, 4,000 miles long, spanned the entire world as the ancients knew it -- at one end, the great civilizations of Rome and Greece. From there, the route made its way across the near East and through the untamed Russian Steppes. Those who survived the brutal winds and marauding pirates went on to confront forbidding mountains and white-hot dunes. Crossing the Takla Makan Desert was the final ordeal, Over the centuries, the Silk Road sprouted a civilization of its own. It was as fantastically long as it was oddly narrow, lined with imposing temples and thriving cities.It was thought that these structures were built by the Chinese, but it now seems that the architects were a little-known local people known as the Tocharians, who seem to have appeared in these parts over 2,000 years ago. Some of their cities were located remarkably close to the ancient mummy graveyards in the Takla Makan, suggesting that this mysterious tribe may be connected to the mummy people.

Local Musician In Uyghur Region
Uyghur Region has been reknown for its vibrant music and ethnic dances since very anciant times. The Twelve Muqams, known as the mother of Music, embodies as a concentranted reflection of the wisdom and talnet of the Uyghur People in Music creation.Twelve Muqams includes 170 songs and dances tuness an addtional 72 instrumental pieces. The entire work takes over 24 hours to perfom from begining to end.
This garment from Uyghur Region includes the oldest cashmere ever found.
Study of garments worn by 3,000-year-old mummies excavated in Uyghur Region Tarim Basin (see ARCHAEOLOGY, March/April 1995) has yielded the world's oldest cashmere threads. Other mummies wore wool twills woven in a plaid design dating to 720 B.C. that required looms most likely brought by settlers from the Eurasian steppes. Irene Good of the University of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth J.W. Barber of Occidental College examined textile samples from two sites, Chärchän and Qumulk, where mummies have been excavated since the late 1970s by Uyghur and Chinese scholars. Good identified the cashmere threads from Chärchän by their shape, fineness, and consistency of diameter. "The Chärchän textiles indicate a high degree of skill in sorting and spinning fibers," she says. "The presence of cashmere shows a very sophisticated breeding of goats for the fleece." The plaid twill was dyed blue and derived from a hairy, rather than woolly, fleece. Barber says there is no evidence that the Chinese ever made wool twills on their looms, which were designed for silk, and that wool-weaving technology arrived with the western settlers of the Tarim Basin ca. 1800 B.C.
Nan/Girde (crusty pancakes)
Nan is a staple food for the Uyghurs, ,Making a nan is similar to making a pancake. The materials include wheat flour, corn flour or sorghum flour, with such seasoning as sesame seeds, onions, eggs, vegetable oil, butter, milk, salt and sugar. With a golden yellow surface, nang are crispy and delicious.


Spinning home-grown silk.
Spinning home-grown silk.
Standard Table For meal
the preparation an amazing lunch for the Guest . Irrigation enables farmers at the edge of the desert grow fresh fruit.
Kroran Beauty for the Ancient City

This photo shows the 4,000 year old mummy from Loulan who died when she was about 40. Next to her head there is a basket which contains grains of wheat.
Over the past 15 years Chinese and Western archaeologists have unearthed the preserved remains of bodies from the Tarim Basin in the Uyghur Region . Some of these well preserved bodies date back 4,000 years -- possibly even older. They have caught the attention of archaeologists and anthropologists not only for their remarkable condition, but because of the appearance of Caucasoid features.
Caucasian, often light-haired and garbed in colourful twill of a European style, the corpses will cause both linguists and archaeologists to rethink their theories of the Indo-European homeland and cultural trade. Many different methods are being employed to better understand the mummies. Ancient documents are being examined, textile fragments are being compared for the style of their weave, DNA experts are employing the latest technology, anthropologists are studying their skulls and comparing them to samples from across Eurasia, and archaeologists are looking at the burials of the mummies for hints about where they originated.
In 1978, the first of the mummies was found by the Chinese archaeologist Wang Binghua at Qizilchoqa, east of Urumqi which is the capital of the Uyghur Region. In the early 1990s, several Western academics accompanied Wang to the region to observe the excavations. Among them were Victor Mair, a professor of Chinese literature at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, executive director of the Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads and English archaeologist Charlotte Roberts.
According to Mair, there are no archaeological records from the digs which have only been conducted at cemeteries. Nor have settlements associated with the mummies have been excavated. Mair is pressing for drafts of the archaeological reports to be printed, but has had no luck so far.
The discovery of a possible Indo-European group so long ago in what is modern-day China can only cast shadows on existing cultural theories. While the Tarim Basin Mummies don't challenge the general homeland theory, they at least throw a big wrench into the equation. These arguments will be looked at more closely on the relevant page, as will other aspects of the Tarim Basin Mummies
For More information about the Tarim Basin Mummies Please visit 
Tarim Basin Mummies
Grape Yard
Dining in the local tradition, under a grape arbor
Manta- dumplings
Another delicious meal of local dumplings:
First chop the mutton, beef and sheep's-tail fat into small cubes. Add chopped onions, salt and pepper to make the stuffing. Wrap the stuffing in dough, and put in an oven to roast for 20 minutes. The dumplings are thin-skinned, with tender meat stuffing and very delicious. The Uyghurs often eat these together with Nan (crusty pancakes) and rice to be eaten with the hands
Dwelling
Hustar
One of the musical instruments called Hushtar
Religion and Art of the Silk Road
The surviving remnants of an intensely artistic Buddhist civilization were to remain interned until the late 19th century, when a new generation of "foreign devils" undertook archaeological excavations in the Tarim Basin in Uyghur Region .
An Old Carpet In Uyghur Region