A Day in the Life
My name is Aygul, which means moon flower, and my town should not exist. I am eleven, and I live in an oasis at the edge of the Taklamakan, a desert so fierce its name is said to warn that you can go in but not come out. Yet my street is green. Poplar trees stand in rows, water runs in open channels beside the road, and our courtyard grapevine makes a roof of leaves over the supper table.
The secret is under my feet: ancient hand-dug tunnels called karez carry snowmelt from far mountains beneath the desert, where the sun cannot steal it. My town drinks mountain snow in the middle of one of the driest places on earth.
We are Uyghurs. Our language is written in flowing Arabic-style letters, our naan comes round and stamped from the tandoor ovens, and our melons, Hami melons, are famous across all of China. On market day the donkey carts clop past stalls of atlas silk, the rainbow-striped cloth our women wear for weddings. My grandfather remembers when the muezzin’s call sounded freely and the meshrep gatherings filled the courtyards with music and poetry all evening.
These have been hard years for my people. There are things my parents do not explain, relatives we do not see, words we do not say outside the house. I am a child, so I notice the way children notice: who is missing at the wedding, why my mother holds my hand tighter in the market. We are a people who love guests, melons, music, and God. Remember us.
Fun Facts
- The Uyghur homeland sits on the old Silk Road, where camel caravans once carried silk and spices between China and the West.
- Karez tunnels, dug by hand over centuries, carry mountain water underground to the oasis towns.
- Hami melons from the Uyghur oases are celebrated across China for their sweetness.
- Atlas silk, dyed in rippling arrows of color, is the festival cloth of Uyghur women.
- The meshrep, an evening gathering of music, poetry, and food, is recognized as world cultural heritage.
- The complete Bible exists in Uyghur, but believers among 12 million Uyghurs are only a tiny handful.
How to Pray for the Uyghur
Pray for comfort and justice for Uyghur families through years of widely reported hardship, surveillance, and separation. Pray for the tiny number of Uyghur believers, inside the region and scattered abroad, to be protected and to find each other. Pray for the Uyghur Bible, finished after decades of labor, to reach the oasis towns in print, audio, and whispered memory. And pray for Uyghur communities in other countries, where the good news can be heard freely and carried home.
How Kids Can Help
Find the Taklamakan desert in far western China on a map and the ring of oasis towns around it. Eat a slice of melon and remember the people famous for them. Pray for the children of a people the news often mentions and seldom explains. Your family can also meet a Uyghur family through a month-long unit study built around their world.
Scripture to Remember
“I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)
The end of the earth has poplar trees and melon carts. God has not forgotten the oasis towns.