The Salar people are a
Turkic ethnic minority in China who speak
Salar, a
Turkic language
The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...
of the
Oghuz sub-branch. They numbered 165,159 people in 2020, according to that year's national census.
The Salars live mostly in the
Qinghai
Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...
–
Gansu
Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
border region, on both sides of the
Yellow River
The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...
, namely in
Xunhua Salar Autonomous County and
Hualong Hui Autonomous County of Qinghai and the adjacent
Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County
Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County is an autonomous county of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, in Gansu province, China. It is located in the mostly mountainous area to the south of the Yellow River, near Gansu's border wit ...
of Gansu. There are also Salars in some parts of
Henan
Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
and
Shanxi
Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...
, as well as in northern
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
, in the
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in northern Xinjiang, China. Its capital is Yining, also known as Ghulja or Kulja. Covering an area of 268,591 square kilometres (16.18 per cent of Xinjiang), Ili Prefecture shares ...
. They are a
patriarchal
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
agricultural society and predominantly
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
.
History
Origin
According to Salar tradition and Chinese chronicles, the Salars are the descendants of the
Salur tribe, belonging to the
Oghuz Turk tribe of the
Western Turkic Khaganate. During the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
, the Salur tribe moved within China's borders and have lived since then in the Qinghai-Gansu border region.
Over the centuries, they mixed with neighboring
Tibetans
Tibetans () are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in t ...
,
Hui,
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...
and
Dongxiangs
The Dongxiang (autonym: ''Sarta'' or ''Santa'') are a Mongolic peoples, Mongolic people and one of 56 List of ethnic groups in China, ethnic groups officially recognized by the China, People's Republic of China. Half of the population live in ...
, developing the distinctive modern
Salar language and culture.
Islamic legend
According to a legend, two brothers named Haraman and Ahman, possibly forefathers of the present day Salar tribe, lived in the
Samarkand
Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...
area. They were highly ranked at local Islamic mosques, which led to persecution from local rulers. The two brothers fled along with eighteen members of the tribe on a white camel with water, soil and a
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
before heading east. The group trekked through the northern route of the
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the "Mountains of God/Heaven", is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak is Jengish Chokusu at high and located in Kyrgyzstan. Its lowest point is ...
range into the
Jiayu Pass, passing through what is now
Gansu
Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
(
Jiuquan,
Ganzhou, Zhangye;
Ningxia
Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous ...
,
Qinzhou, Tianshui, and
Gangu County), eventually stopping at the present
Xiahe County. Later, another forty people from
Samarkand
Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...
joined the group. The group passed through the southern route of the Tian Shan and entered
Qinghai
Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...
. They arrived at the present
Guide County and twelve of them settled there.
The
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
the two brothers brought on their journey to China is to this day still preserved in
Xunhua Salar Autonomous County at Jiezi Grand Mosque in
Haidong, Qinghai The
Nanjing Museum has repaired the Quran to protect it from decaying.
Ming dynasty
The Salar clan leaders voluntarily capitulated to the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
around 1370. The chief of the four upper clans around this time was Han Baoyuan and the Ming government granted him office of centurion, it was at this time the people of his four clans took Han as their surname. The other chief, Han Shanba, of the four lower Salar clans got the same office from the Ming government and his clans were the ones who took Ma as their surname. The ethnogenesis of the Salar started from when they pledged allegiance to the Ming dynasty under their leader Han Bao. Han Bao's father was Omar and Omar's father was Haraman, who led the Salars on their journey from Central Asia to China.
According to Salar oral history, Tibetan women were the original wives of the first Salars to arrive in the Qinghai region. Supposedly, they were only permitted to marry the women after a compromise between the Tibetan ruler of Wimdo Valley and the newcomers. He demanded that the Salars install
prayer flags, which are a
Tibetan Buddhist
Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Prades ...
practice, on the four corners of their homes, that they pray with
prayer wheels with
mantra
A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...
s on them, and to bow before statues of
Buddhas. The Salars initially refused the demands based on their religion but eventually compromised on the flags by placing stones on the corners of their houses instead, which is still practiced to this day. For this reason, Salars are often bilingual in
Amdo Tibetan and the two groups often use the term "maternal uncle" to refer each other, referencing the Salars' Tibetan ancestry. Many Salar customs and practices have been influenced by Tibetan culture and there are numerous Tibetan loanwords in the Salar language.
In eastern Qinghai and Gansu, there were cases of
Tibetan women who remained Buddhists while marrying
Hui men; they had sons who would be Buddhist or Muslim. The Buddhist sons became
lama
Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...
s while the other sons were Muslims.
The
Kargan Tibetans, who live next to the Salar, have mostly become Muslim due to their influence.
Hui and Salar often intermarry due to their cultural similarities and shared religion, especially after the Ming Dynasty established control over the Xunhua Salars in 1370 and gave control to Hezhou officials. Many Hezhou Hui began to migrate to the region afterwards On the other hand, there are comparatively few Han-Salar marriages. The Salars do use Han surnames, however. Compared to Salar men, few Salar women married outside; the sole exception is Hui men taking Salar women as their wives while Tibetan women make up the majority of the spouses of Salar men who marry outside their ethnicity and it has been reported that Salars have a total avoidance of marriages with Han. As a result, Salars are heavily mixed with other ethnicities.
Salars in Qinghai live on both the northern and southern banks of the Yellow River; northern Salars are called Hualong or Bayan Salars while southern Salars are called Xunhua Salars. The northern region is a mix between discontinuous Salar and Tibetan villages while the southern region is more solidly Salar, as the Hui and Salars pushed out the Tibetans prior.
After moving in, the Salars originally practiced the same
Gedimu
Gedimu () or ''Qadim'' () is the earliest school of Islam in China. It is a Hanafi, non-Sufi school of the Sunni tradition. Its supporters are centered on local mosques, which function as relatively independent units.
It is numerically the larges ...
variant of Sunni Islam as the Hui did and adopted Hui practices, such as Hui Islamic educational practices, which were derived from Yuan Dynasty era Arabic and Persian primers. One such Salar primer was called the "Book of Diverse Studies" (雜學本本).
Salars were often multilingual, having knowledge of Salar, Mongol, Chinese, Tibetan due to historically trading on the Yellow River in Ningxia and Lanzhou in Gansu. The Salars were permitted an enormous amount of autonomy and self-rule by the Ming dynasty, which gave them command of taxes, military and the courts. The Ming and Qing dynasties often mobilized Salars into their militaries as soldiers, with the Ming government recruiting them at 17 different times for service and the Qing government at 5 different times.
Qing dynasty
The
Kangxi Emperor incited anti-Muslim sentiment among the Mongols of
Qinghai
Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...
in order to gain support against the
Dzungar Oirat Mongol leader
Galdan. Kangxi claimed that Chinese Muslims inside China, such as Turkic Muslims in Qinghai, were plotting with
Galdan, who he claimed had turned his back on Buddhism and the Dalai Lama in favor of Islam. According to Kangxi, Galdan was plotting to invade in conspiracy with Chinese Muslims and wished to install a Muslim as ruler of China.
In the 1670s, the
Kashgarian
Sufi
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
master
Āfāq Khoja (and possibly his father
Muhammad Yūsuf) preached to the Salars and introduced
Sufism
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
into their community. In the mid-18th century, one of Āfāq Khoja's
spiritual descendants,
Ma Laichi
Ma Laichi (1681? – 1766?; ), also known as Abu 'l-Futūh Ma Laichi, was a Chinese Sufi master who brought the Khufiyya movement to China and created the Huasi ''menhuan'' ( Sufi order) - the earliest and most important Naqshbandi (نقش� ...
, began to spread his teachings, known as
Khufiyya
Khufiyya (; borrowed as zh, c=虎夫耶, p=Hǔfūyé) is a tariqa (Sufi order) of Chinese Islam. It was the first tariqa to be established in China and, along with the Jahriyya, Qadiriyya, and Kubrawiyyah, is acknowledged as one of the four o ...
among the Salars, as well among their
Chinese-speaking and
Tibetan-speaking neighbors.
Throughout the 1760s and 1770s, another Chinese Sufi master,
Ma Mingxin
Ma Mingxin (1719–1781) () was a Chinese Sufi master, the founder of the Jahriyya ''menhuan'' (Naqshbandi Sufi order).