The Physiography of northwestern Sinkiang
It is probable that Kazakhs are a majority here, with the Chinese(11) minority concentrated in the small urban areas.(12) Another minority is the Mongols. The overwhelming religious majority is the Moslems--both the Kazakhs and the Hui Chinese. The non-Moslem (Han) Chinese are, when observant(13), an eclectic mix of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianist and folk religions. The Mongols are Lamist Buddhist.
No city is very large. Shihezi, just west of the Manas river on the road west from the provincial capital is the largest, considerably more populous than the adminstrative centers.
The Tokharians(14), an Indo-European group, moved into the Ili Valley from the east, but eventually were driven farther west. The Sakas(15), another Indo-European group, lived in this area, outlasted the Tokharians, and expanded southward after the invaders departed. By this time the Chinese had expanded along the silk roads. They brought Confuciansim, which later evolved into the current syncretic blend. Turkic groups from Mongolia seized control starting in the sixth century.(16) These worshipped Tangri, the sky, with annual sacrifices and also held yearly sacrifices in an "ancestral cavern" honoring metallurgy. The Uighurs moved southwest across the Altay Mountains and continued through this area and beyond--across the Tien Mountains. Their empire pushed the state religion of Manichaeism--followers of the Persian prophet, Mani. Next confederations of Islamic Turks took over prior to the Mongols, ending Manichaeism. The Mongols did not covert people here to their religion, but instead were converted by Tibetans from south of Sinkiang. After their empire disintegrated the Oirat(17) moved over the Altay in the 15th century and continued to expand southward in the 18th century. The Chinese regained the area by 1760. The Kazakhs are probably an offshoot of the Kyrgyz who had conquered the areas northeast and south of here, and probably arrived at the same time--starting in the ninth century.
north
east
southeast
southwest
southwest of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
west and northwest
(1) More strictly transliterated as Xinjiang or Hsin-chiang; it can be translated as the New Frontier.
(2) Transliterated from Chinese as Zhongguo or Chung-hua; it can be translated as the Middle Kigndom or Middle Land.
(3) More strictly transliterated from the Chinese as Ili Kazak. Alternately transliterated as I'li-ha-Sa-K'o.
(4) Zizhizhou or Tzu-chih-chou in Chinese.
(5) Alternately transliterated as T'a-ch'eng. Also called Chuguchak.
(6) Ti-ch'u in Chinese.
(7) Alternately transliterated from Chinese as A-le-T'ai.
(8) Alternately transliterated from Chinese as Po-erh-T'a-La-Meng-Ku. Also called Boro Tala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture.
(9) Alternately transliterated as K'o-la-Ma-I. Also spelled Karamai.
(10) Shih in Chinese.
(11) Including the Hui, Chinese-speaking Moslems. The Chinese consider them racially distinct.
(12) Kazakhs are 15 percent of Sinkiang's total. The Chinese, including Moslems, are 40%. The rural Uighurs are south of the Tien Mountains and the Kazakhs are here found beyond urban areas. I presume the urban Chinese, including Hui, are here outnumbered by the rural Kazakhs, based in turn on a presumption that most of the autonomous region's population is found in eastern Sinkiang, and that the Chinese, including the Hui, are a majority there.
(13) Communism discourages religion so it is difficult to determine genuine versus feigned aetheism.
(14) They called their language Arshi-kantu.
(15) Or Shakas.
(16) Some scholars believe that their immediate predecessors, the Hephthalites, spoke an Iranian language.
(17) Usually called the Kalmuks or Kalmyks in this period. Now also called the Altay. Oirat is a Mongolian dialect.