The group of Uyghur students were amazed by ancient murals with Persian and Indian influences, text fragments and other art objects from caves in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region.
With their heads tilted upwards, the youths, aged between 10 and 15, gazed at the reconstruction of a Buddhist cave temple dating back to the sixth century and occupying two levels of the gallery. The murals adorned the walls of the Cave of Ringed Pigeons in Kizil, near Kucha, on the Northern Silk Road in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
But they weren’t seeing the rock art or the temple in their original locations. They were being viewed from more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) away at the Humboldt Forum, a Berlin museum dedicated to human history, art and culture.
Wall paintings, whose once vivid colors have faded with time, and other artifacts depicting both Buddhist legends and secular themes, are part of the history of ancient Xinjiang.
“We saw artifacts from our homeland, such as old carpets and clothing,” Kamil, a Belgian-Uyghur participant, told Radio Free Asia. “I never thought we had things in Europe. I felt proud when a man told us the story of them and our ancestors”.
Kamil was one of 26 Uyghur children who took part in a four-day trip to the German capital organized by the World Uyghur Congress research center, a Munich-based advocacy group.
The youngsters, who study at Uyghur language schools in seven European countries, were learning about their history and culture through artifacts taken from their storied homeland by a German expedition team that made four trips to Xinjiang in the early 20th century.he century, and are now kept in the museums of Berlin.
‘Back to the past’
The educational program called “Back to the Past” was the first gathering of its kind for Uyghur teenagers in Europe to come together and learn about their heritage at a time when the Chinese government has been eradicating Uyghur culture in Xinjiang in an effort to Sinicize the restless region.
“Mr. Ablet explained to us the value of the artifacts brought to Germany from our homeland that are on display in the museum,” said Atikem, a teacher at a Uyghur language school in England who brought six students to the event. He was referring to a Uyghur historian who is an expert on the artifacts on display at the museum and who served as a guide for the group.
The organizers of the WUC program sought to impart two lessons during the program: rebuild destroyed cities and remain strong as a persecuted people.
On the first day of the program, the instructors introduced the participants to Berlin, said Abduweli Ayup, director of the WUC Research Center and organizer of the event.
They drew parallels between the destruction of the city during World War II and the demolition in recent years of parts of the old Uyghur cities by the Chinese government, including mosques, cemeteries, old towns and markets.
“At the beginning of the show, we explained to them that Berlin was destroyed during World War II and similarly, Uyghur cities, Uyghur symbols and cultural relics now face destruction,” Ayup said.
“Just like the German people rebuilt Berlin, we need to rebuild Uyghur cities in the future, so we need to be inspired by the rebuilding of Berlin,” he said.
parallel
The show also drew parallels between the wartime genocide of the Jews and the genocide of the Uyghurs beginning in 2017, when Chinese authorities began detaining members of the largely Muslim minority group in “re-education” camps and prisons where some were subjected to torture, sexual assault and forced labor.
The US government, the European Parliament, and the legislatures of several Western countries have declared that mistreatment amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity.
During a visit to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, organizers highlighted the ongoing Uyghur genocide to youth and expressed hope that Uyghurs will one day stand up to China just like the Jews, Ayup said.
“By showing them the museum that depicts the history of the Jewish people’s struggle for freedom, we tried to explain to teenagers how a nation of genocide victims can and can rise up,” he later told RFA.
In a discussion exercise, some participants compared the genocide of the Jews to the genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
“I never thought they could make such comparisons,” Atikem said. “I was told that the Nazi government first impoverished the Jews and locked them up in ghettos. They compared the behavior of the Nazis to that of the Chinese (who) locked up the Uyghurs.”
“The Jewish people remained as one family in those ghettos and survived the oppression thanks to family support,” the teacher said. “The Chinese separated children from their parents and caused mental anguish for everyone. These kids told me that.”
“I think they missed their Uyghur identity,” he said. “I also thought that they missed their people, their culture and the chance to live as Uyghurs.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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