Sala Ethnic Group: Survey of Shitoupo Village, Xunhua County, Qinghai

Author: Zhu Heshuang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The Salar people primarily inhabit Xunhua Salar Autonomous County in Qinghai, with others distributed across various prefectures and counties in Qinghai, Gansu, and Xinjiang. The Salar people, whose ancestors were the Samarqand people from Central Asia, migrated long distances through Xinjiang to Xunhua as early as the Yuan Dynasty. Over time, they lived in close proximity with surrounding Tibetan, Hui, Han, and Mongolian ethnic groups, gradually forming the modern Salar ethnic group. The Salar people refer to themselves as "Salarer" or "Salar Hui," which are terms used by the Han people to describe them. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, based on the wishes of the ethnic group, the name "Salar" was officially adopted. The Salar people have their own language, which belongs to the Uyghur branch of the Turkic language family under the Western Hun branch of the Altaic language system. Due to interactions with neighboring Han, Hui, and Tibetan ethnic groups, they have also absorbed many words from Chinese and Tibetan. They do not have their own script and use the Chinese writing system. The Salar people adhere to Islam, and their living customs are largely similar to those of the Hui ethnic group.