Everything about The Salar totally explained
The
Salar people (
Chinese: 撒拉族,
Pinyin:
Sālāzú) are one of the
56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China. They numbered 104,503 people in the last census of 2000 and live mostly in
Qinghai (in
Xunhua Salar Autonomous County 循化撒拉族自治縣 and Hualong Autonomous County of the
Hui Nationality 化隆回族自治縣), in
Gansu (in Jishishan Autonomous County of the
Bonan,
Dongxiang and Salar Nationalities 積石山保安族東鄉族撒拉族自治縣) and in
Xinjiang (in the
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture 伊犁哈薩克自治州).
Their ancestors were migrating
Oghuz Turks who intermarried with the
Tibetans,
Han Chinese, and
Hui. They are a
patriarchal agricultural society and
Muslims.
History
Their origins are uncertain but according to Salar tradition, during the fourteenth and fifthteenth centuries their ancestors, possibly from an Oghuz tribe of the Seljuk Turks, left
Samarkand in present-day
Uzbekistan and eventually settled in their present location in Gansu province. Over the course of their history, the ancestors of the Salar are believed to have merged with Tibetans, Han Chinese and Mongolians to form the present-day Salar.
In
1781,
Qing armies crushed a Salar uprising with the results being disastrous for the Salar. As much as 40% of their entire population was killed in the revolt.
Culture
The typical clothing of the Salar very similar to other Muslim peoples in the region. The men are commonly bearded and dress in white shirts and white or black skullcaps.
The young single women are accustomed to dressing in Chinese dress of bright colors. The married women utilize the traditional veil in white or black colors.
They have a musical instrument called the
Kouxuan. It is a string instrument manufactured in silver or in copper and only played by the women.
For the Salar, divorce is a very easy procedure, although it can only be requested by the husband. In order to dissolve the marriage, the man only has to tell his wife that he no longer wishes to remain married to her. The woman abandons the conjugal residence and he remains free to be married again.
The Salars have been in
Qinghai Province, China since the Mongol
Yuan period.
For centuries they've maintained their
Oghuz language remarkably similar to the
Turkmen language spoken in the
Qaraqum.
However, culturally they've strictly conformed to the
Naqshbandi ways of their Hui coreligionists. Therefore many nomadic Turkmen traditions have been lost, and Turkmen music was forbidden. More secular minded Salars have resorted to appropriating Tibetan or
Moghol (a Qinghai Mongolic Muslim group) music as their own.
Language
The
Salar language has two large dialect groups. The divergence is due to the fact that one branch was influenced by the
Tibetan and
Chinese languages, and the other branch by the
Uyghur and
Kazakh languages. Only about one third of Salar speak their own language. In addition to Chinese, many Salar also speak
Tibetan. Salar isn't a written language. There are reported similarities with
Turkmen.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Salar'.
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