Salar Education
Introduction
On this trip 6 people went to Xunhua together. I and Xiao Zhang, my classmate, organized the trip there. How beautiful the scenery is in Xunhua! After arriving we never wanted to return home. Now we will take a look at the beautiful scenery of Xunhua, as described below. There is a Camel Pool, Mengda Heavenly Lake, the Jiezi Mosque, and the banks of the Yellow River.
Salar Education
The Salar pioneers became a distinct ethnic community at the end of the Yuan dynasty and beginning of the Ming dynasty. The Islamic education was carried out through family and household education eventually even transforming the people into a society. Salar people mainly live in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County. Xunhua is the homeland of the Salar people. Of the entire population of 80,000 Salar people, 60,000 live in Xunhua County. Jiezi Township is the cradle of the Salar people, and the place where the grave of the Salar pioneers can be found. The holy Jiezi Mosque, the Camel Spring, and a handwritten copy of the Koran which has been preserved for over 700 years are all to be found there. The DongGuan area of Xining, Gandu town of Hualong, and DaHeJia town of Gansu are also all places where larger populations of Salar can be found.It is said that the leaders of the original Salar people, Galarmang and Akherman, were famous local imams in Samarkand. Because their fame increased daily, the local governors became jealous of them to the point of framing the brothers. This forced the two brothers to take their people, as well as a camel carrying a Koran, and their homeland’s water and earth, and go east toward where the sun rises to search for a new promised land in which to live. They finally arrived at Jiezi town in Xunhua and made it their new home. By this fairly credible legend we can affirm that these 2 brothers would not only be familiar with the teachings of the Islamic religion and the Koran, but that they also held a high position of Islamic knowledge among the people. This also demonstrates that all of their followers were also Muslims who grew up under the teachings and customs of Islam.
A Brief Introduction of the Salar People
The Salar are one of 10 Muslim ethnic groups that follow Islam. They have a distinct language, but no written script. They have legends, but no written history. The Salar pioneers used a camel to carry their Koran, and their homeland’s earth from their Central Asian home of Samarkand to China in order to establish a settlement with a foundation of Islamic teaching that would lead to the growth of the Salar people. In other words the Salar are a unique ethnic group that is growing under the Islamic education system, without which the Salar people would have never historically developed. The historical development and characteristics of the Salar Islamic education system has practical significance in regards to our current harmonious social establishment.