9 replies to this topic

[General_Zhaoyun]

All I know is that the Tajiks in China were turkic people (but many looked like Afghanistans). They inhabited mostly in Xinjiang province (home to large number of turkic ethnicities in China), within the region of kashgar.




Does anyone know the historical origin of Tajiks in China? I heard that many migrated from central asia (Tajikstan) to Xinjiang during Tang period. Was this true?

Any contribution of their history would be appreciated.

[Karakhan]

they are not ethnically Tajik. They are actually Wakhi and Shughni.
Within Tajikistan they have their own autonomous areas that border China.

They are related to Tajiks but not Tajiks.

[GreyShades]

I read about that also. The Tajiks in China are not ethnically Tajiks, but a related subgroup whom speak Wakhi and Sarikoli.

Mind you Sarikoli is not spoken outside of Western China.

[mehranjangh]

In Tadjikistan, people speak a close variant of the persian language (as a matter of fact, the word Tadjik was used to denote persians by the Turks), what about these Chinese Tadjiks? Do they also speak a similar language?

[William O'Chee]

Please forgive my ignorance, but who are the Wakhi and Shughni? I would be fascinated to earn more!

[Sinoid]

The Wakhis are an ethnic group that populate areas near the Pan-Handle of Afghanistan and areas roughly parallel to it in Pakistan and Tajikistan.

[Moonstone]

Nearly all the so-called "Tajiks" (Tajike-zu) in China are speakers of the Sarikoli language, which belongs to the Shugni-Yazgulami language/dialect continuum of the Pamir subgroup of the Southeastern branch of the Iranian language family. The majority of real Tajiks (in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, etc.) speak a dialect of the Persian language dominant in Iran, which belongs to the Southwestern branch of the Iranian language family. The language of the so-called "Tajiks" in China is actually more closely related to Pashto (spoken by Pashtuns, a major ethnic group in Afghanistan and Pakistan) than it is related to the language spoken by most people who are called Tajiks. A small number of "Tajiks" in China have the Wakhi language as their primary language; Wakhi is mainly the language of the Wakhan region, that little arm of Afghanistan that extends eastward toward the border with the PRC. It is a very rugged, mountainous region.

Many "Tajiks" in China also speak the Uyghur language as a second language, however.

[GreyShades]

The Tajiks in Taxkorgan are interesting looking.

[baybal]

Most of Chinese Tojicks are actualy a pollitical immigrats from 1900-1940

[XiaoXiao]

All I know is that the Tajiks in China were turkic people (but many looked like Afghanistans). They inhabited mostly in Xinjiang province (home to large number of turkic ethnicities in China), within the region of kashgar.

Tajiks is not Turkic people. They are Indo-Aryan people including Iranian, Afghans and Tajiks.