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01 ／ Overview

Culture and daily life in the oases of the Silk Road.

This site introduces the Uyghur land and people, their history, food, music, culture and language.

The Uyghurs are a Turkic people. Most live in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, above all in the Tarim Basin between the Tian Shan and Kunlun mountains. The Taklamakan Desert covers most of the basin, and oasis towns on its edge, such as Kashgar and Hotan, were long-standing stops on the Silk Road. Uyghur communities also live in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and elsewhere.

Daily life and food

Alongside nan, an essential part of the daily diet, well-known Uyghur dishes include polo, laghman, kawap and samsa baked in a tonur clay oven.

Arts and crafts

Uyghur Muqam, a tradition of song, dance and instrumental music, is inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and crafts such as silk ikat and the embroidered doppa cap live on.

Language and dictionary

Uyghur is a Turkic language, written mainly in a 32-letter Arabic-based script. This site's dictionary is one tool for looking it up.

Source (9)
  1. [1]Wikipedia (English), “Uyghurs”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  2. [2]Wikipedia (English), “Uyghur language”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  3. [3]Wikipedia (English), “Tarim Basin”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  4. [4]Wikipedia (English), “Hotan”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  5. [5]Wikipedia (English), “Uyghur cuisine”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  6. [6]Wikipedia (English), “Etles silk”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  7. [7]Wikipedia (English), “Doppa”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  8. [8]Wikipedia (English), “Uyghur Arabic alphabet”. Viewed 2026-10-19.
  9. [9]UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, “Uyghur Muqam of Xinjiang” (2008). Viewed 2026-10-19.
02 ／ The Uyghur language

A Turkic language written in 32 letters based on the Arabic script.

Family
Turkic
Script
32 letters based on the Arabic script

Uyghur is a Turkic language. It is written in 32 letters based on the Arabic script, and every vowel is written. Start with a greeting.

yaxshimusizHello / Good morning / Good evening
What is Uyghur? — the introduction
03 ／ Explore

Five ways into the Uyghur world

ئۇيغۇر تىلى

Language

How Uyghur works: its 32-letter Arabic-based script, subject–object–verb word order and more.

Nan, polo, laghman, kawap, samsa

Food

Dishes such as nan, polo, laghman, kawap and samsa.

Muqam and the rawap and dutar

Music

Muqam and string instruments such as the rawap and dutar.

Oasis towns of the Silk Road

History

The story of a land where East and West met along the oases of the Silk Road.

Silk ikat and the embroidered doppa cap

Culture

Everyday culture through dress and handcraft, from silk ikat to the embroidered doppa cap.

04 ／ Featured stories

Featured stories

See all stories

Polo: meat, vegetables and rice in one pot

Food ／ پولۇ

The dutar, an instrument of two strings

Music ／ دۇتار

Uyghur history through its scripts

History ／ تارىخ

05 ／ Dictionary & Tools

Look words up from Japanese, English or Uyghur.

Dictionary
Popular searcheshellothank youwaterfamilybookeat
Word of the day
تار
Meaningnarrow; confined; small [形容詞]
Pronunciationtartar
Exampleبۇ يول بەك تار. ― This road is very narrow.
See in dictionary
Language tools
Script converterType or paste Uyghur in Arabic, Latin (ULY) or Cyrillic script to see it in the other scripts and a katakana reading as you type.Machine translationTranslates a short text between Japanese or English and Uyghur with machine translation.DownloadsFree tools for writing Uyghur and for reading text in images: Windows programs and a tool that runs in the browser.