Kashgar

Kashgar has been the western gateway of the Tarim Basin for more than two thousand years. Chinese records of the Han dynasty name it Shule, a small oasis kingdom on the route where the caravan roads skirting the Taklamakan to north and south rejoined before crossing the Pamirs towards Ferghana, Bactria and India. Buddhism arrived early, and Tang-era accounts describe hundreds of monasteries in the oasis; it passed repeatedly between local rulers, Chinese garrisons, Turkic confederations and Tibetan armies.

From the 10th century the Karakhanids, who took Kashgar as a capital, adopted Islam, and the city became a centre of Turkic Muslim learning: Mahmud al-Kashgari, born here, compiled the first great dictionary of the Turkic languages after settling in Baghdad, and Yusuf Khass Hajib presented the Kutadgu Bilig to the prince of Kashgar in 1069 or 1070. Sufi lineages, above all the Khoja families commemorated at the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum, held religious and political power into the 18th century. The Qing conquered the Tarim oases in the 1750s and governed the area they called Xinjiang from a distance, through local officials and repeated revolts; Yaqub Beg ruled an independent state from Kashgar from 1865 until Qing armies retook it in 1877.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Kashgar was a listening post in the rivalry between Russia and British India, with consulates on either side of the city, and the base for archaeological expeditions into the desert. Short-lived East Turkestan republics were declared in 1933 and 1944. Since 1949 the city has grown, been connected by road, rail and air, and been transformed physically: most of the old city was demolished and rebuilt from 2009 in a programme the government presented as earthquake safety and critics described as the destruction of Uyghur heritage.

Kashgar is the cultural heartland of the Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim people whose language is written in a modified Arabic script and whose oasis towns share a tradition of music, poetry and craft. The muqam, a suite form of song, instrumental music and dance listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage, is the classical music of the region, played on the dutar, rawap and tambur; wedding celebrations and family gatherings are where most people encounter it.

Craft work is concentrated in the old city: coppersmiths, knife makers, hat makers producing the embroidered doppa cap, instrument builders and bakers all keep workshops on the lanes, often passed down within families. Carpets, silk from the southern oases, jade from Hotan and embroidered textiles fill the bazaar. Hospitality is formal and generous, tea is served constantly, and the right hand is used for eating and for passing food.

Religious and cultural life is tightly regulated. Religious practice is restricted across Xinjiang, long beards and face veils are banned, and researchers estimate that thousands of mosques have been razed or damaged, which the government disputes. Chinese state media present the old city and its markets as heritage tourism, and large numbers of domestic visitors now come for exactly that. Visitors are expected to keep away from political subjects; raising them in conversation can create serious difficulties for residents.

About 700,000 people live in the county-level city of Kashgar, within a prefecture of some four million, the great majority of them Uyghur; the Han share of the population is higher in the newer districts and among officials and business owners. Two languages run in parallel, Uyghur on the street and Mandarin in schools, offices and signage, with education increasingly conducted in Mandarin.

The oasis economy rests on farming — wheat, maize, cotton, and above all fruit: melons, grapes, figs, apricots and pomegranates — together with trade, food processing and, more recently, tourism from elsewhere in China. Kashgar was designated a special economic zone in 2010, and cross-border trade with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan passes through it when the mountain passes are open. Wages are low by Chinese standards and many young people work elsewhere in the country.

The rhythm of the day is distinctive because the whole country runs on Beijing time while Kashgar lies far to the west: the sun rises and sets about three hours later than the clock suggests, and many Uyghur households keep an informal local time two hours behind. Shops open late in the morning, the evening meal is late, and summer streets are busiest after dark. Daily life is shaped by surveillance and checkpoints, restrictions on religion and travel, and labour transfer programmes criticised by rights groups.

Kashgar eats the food of Central Asia rather than of eastern China. Laghman, hand-stretched wheat noodles under a stir-fry of mutton, peppers, tomato and onion, is the standard meal; suoman is a chopped version cooked together with the sauce. Polo, the rice pilaf with lamb and carrot, is the dish of feasts and of midday. Kebabs of mutton cubes on iron skewers are grilled over charcoal everywhere, and whole sheep are roasted for celebrations.

Bread is central. Nan, baked on the inside wall of a clay tandoor and stamped in a pattern in the middle, comes in many sizes, from thin discs to thick sesame-topped loaves; girde nan is small and ring-shaped. Samsa, lamb and onion pastries, are baked in the same ovens and sold hot from stalls. Offal soups, steamed manta dumplings and chickpeas with rice fill out the street repertoire.

Sweet and cold things matter in the desert heat: hand-churned ice cream from brass drums, shaved ice with syrup and fruit, and mulberries, figs and melons in season. Dried fruit and nuts — raisins in several colours, apricots, walnuts — fill sacks in the bazaar and are the standard gift. Tea is drunk constantly, often with rock sugar or spices, and fresh pomegranate juice is pressed on the street in autumn. Alcohol is uncommon in Uyghur restaurants.