Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

higher official positions, but still the Chinese – the master race - were a negligible minority in
their own country.
By the end of the Mission period it became increasingly common to refer to the Turks as
Uighurs, their original name. The Turks themselves wanted it that way. 49 Uighurs was the
name of the ancient ethnic group living in these parts, from which the Turks originated. 50
The Chinese converts to Islam were called Tungans. Having accepted Islam and become
Muslims they had become so isolated that they came to make up a separate group of the
population. They were strangers to everybody. The Turkish Muslims did not approve of them.
They were not allowed to pray in the Turkish mosques but had their own mosques away from
everybody else. Their own people, the Chinese, also rejected them. Having accepted “the
religion of the foreigners”, “the faith of barbarians”, they were regarded as semi-barbarians.
The Tungans, on the other hand, deeply despised the “idolatry” of the Chinese. 51 Still they
wore their hair plaited in a queue just like all other Chinese. The Tungans were stricter than
the Turkish Muslims in their religious worship. The latter could for example happily have tea
with the missionaries, but the Tungans refused to do so without exception. 52
Owen Lattimore points out that in times of political crises, the Tungans found themselves
in a severe dilemma. If they sided with their Muslim friends, they were regarded as unreliable.
In spite of their Muslim faith, they were after all Chinese! And if they sided with the Chinese,
the tendency was the same. There was always the fear that their faith might prove stronger
than their patriotism. When Tungan armies from other provinces had invaded Eastern
Turkestan, continues Lattimore, the Tungans in this country have always thrown in their lot
with the invaders. They have sided with them not only as fellow-believers but also as
relatives. Together they had then not only fought non-Muslim Chinese but they had also
massacred entire communities. 53 This is what happened during the revolution in the 1930s.
However the Tungans were a fairly small group; during the Mission period, maybe no more
than 150 000 persons, but being very militant they were a political power. During the latter
part of the 1930s and during the 1940s they became very unpopular because of their martial
character and many of them were liquidated. 54
The Kyrgyz lived in the mountains. They were of Mongolian descent but spoke a Turkish
dialect. They were all Muslims. But the Turkish Muslims looked down on them considering
them to be culturally very much inferior. The Kyrgyz came to play an important part during
the revolution in the 1930s. 55
There were also Indians in Eastern Turkestan. They were tradesmen and British subjects.
Their presence was one of the reasons why there had to be a British Consulate in Kashgar. 56
49
Törnquist’s report, 1935. In official Chinese circles, the Turks were formerly called ”turban heads”.
(Teichman, 1937, p. 188.) From 1921, the official name was “Uighurs”. (Nyman, 1977, p. 12.)
50
Gunnar Jarring has done research on Uighur language and history. During a research trip to Eastern Turkestan
he was also the guest of the Mission for a couple of months. He relates an episode about an early contact
between the Uighurs and Christian Sweden. When the army of Charles XII was taken prisoners in Russia, the
Swedish soldiers were sent to different places in eastern Russia. Some officers enrolled in the Russian army,
made journeys and did scientific research. Johan Gustaf Renat was one of them. Already when in custody he met
the Swedish born Birgitta, widow of a soldier in the Swedish army, whom he married. Birgitta had been in
service with the Kalmucks and they sent her on a mission to Jarkend in Eastern Turkestan. When the couple
went back to Sweden in 1733, they brought two Uighurs from Khotan along with them. They were both later on
baptized in Storkyrkan in Stockholm. (Jarring, 1939, p. 388 and 1970.)
51
Ahlbert, 1935, p. 12 f.
52
Hem Hem, 1916, p. 21 f.
53
Lattimore, 1950, p. 119 and 143 f.
54
Towards the end of the 1940s there were some 100 000 Tungans in the province (McLean, 1948, p. 139.)
55
Ahlbert, 1935, p. 12 ff. In the northern part of the province there were 475 000 Kazhaks and a Mongolian
minority of some 120 000. (Jackson, 1962, p. 12.)
56
Interview with Carl Persson, September 23rd, 1972.
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