{"id":1584,"date":"2020-01-21T09:41:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T09:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2020-01-21T09:41:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T09:41:54","slug":"an-ancient-uighur-town-yarkand-battered-but-resilient-after-chinas-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1584","title":{"rendered":"An Ancient Uighur Town, Yarkand: Battered but Resilient After China\u2019s Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Uighur men watching a movie at a teahouse in the old city of Yarkand, in the Xinjiang region of China.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Chris Buckley<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Steven Lee Myers,\u00a0 <\/span>Photographs by\u00a0Gilles Sabri\u00e9<\/span><\/p>\n

Jan. 18, 2020<\/p>\n

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YARKAND, China \u2014 The winding, crowded lanes of old Yarkand, an ancient Silk Road town, preserve patterns of life that go back centuries.<\/p>\n

On a recent morning, smoke wafted from sputtering grills of lamb and ovens lined with baking flatbread. Clangs rang from a coppersmith shaping bowls with a hammer. Twangs from a dutar, a two-stringed lute, floated from a store selling traditional musical instruments. In a dimly lit teahouse, old men in Muslim head caps murmured in conversation.<\/p>\n

Sitting on the fringe of the Taklamakan Desert, Yarkand remains a cultural cradle for Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority in China\u2019s far western Xinjiang region. But their way of life is under intense pressure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n