Uyghur Doppa Cultural Festival

Uyghur Doppa Cultural festival, also called Doppa Cultural Festival, Doppa festival, Doppa Day, Uyghur Doppa Medeniyet Bayrimi, Doppa bayrimi, 维吾尔花帽文化节，花帽节，朵帕节 in Chinese，Uygur Doppa Kültür Festivali In Turkish, is one of the most prominent cultural festivals for Uyghur people living in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

According to some scholars, doppa means "top bar" in Old Uyghur. In English this means "there is our group".

History

This festival does not have a long history as other Uyghur religious festivals, such as Qurban (kurban Eiyt Festival) and rozi eyit (eyit ramizan), which are popular among the Muslim community. The festival was created by Tahir Imin, an independent researcher on political philosophy. In Urumqi in 2009, it was broadcast by the central China broadcasting station In Beijing and publicized through Uyghur websites. In Xinjiang in 2010, this festival was held and organized by the students of Beijing Normal University, supported by the Beijing Municipal religious and ethnic affairs administration bureau officials.

By 2011, it was celebrated all around China, especially in the southern and northern parts of Xinjiang, and a meeting and seminar on Uyghur Doppa was organized by the Yakan (shache) county and Kashgar Prefecture local Government. The festival Is about culture and development.

Content

According to the festival, on May 5 each year, all people who like to take the doppa on their heads are called to take their doppa together and celebrate it as a national identity day. People are called to do good things as helping others by all means. In this way, people form other cultures could understand part of Uyghur culture and find a cultural bridge to understand each other.

Events :

2007 ,december ,Tahir Imin wrote the first plan of Uighur Doppa Cultural Festival (In Uighur and Chinese) 2008 ,april ,Tahir imin prepared first plan of introduction of Uyghur Doppa Cultural Festival (50 pages draft -In Uighur and Chinese )to the influential Uighur scholars and social leaders including Imin tursun , Mijit Nasir, and Abdul Qadir Jalaluddin one by one and got their spritual supprot and advice . 2009,May 4, Firts Uighur Doppa Cultural Festival Committe had a meeting to discuss about name ,date ,events ,legal eligibility ,impact of the new artifical festival and confirmed that it could biring a new revival and awareness of Uighur identity and cultural unity among the Uighurs around the world and it shoud get support from the government in order to avoid from involving in to any political suspect of local authoroties . and some scholars D.Hesenjan Abliz,Abdubesir shukir are adviced by Tahir imin as the responsible researchers of The Doppa Culture and Festival . 2009 ,May 5 The News of Uighur Doppa Cultural Festival was introduced by prominent Uighur website www.salkin.cn fisrt .and diyarim.com secondly . The most infulential news about The festival was it was broadcasted by CNR Uighur program from Beijing ,It made the festival news recognized by wider people .This is the contribution of Memetjana reporter of CNR from Qarmay ,who later sentenced for life for his writing aricles about 7.5 riot ) ,who interviwed Tahir Imin by Telephone and wrote the news to Abduqadir Hashim ,A famous speaker of Uyghur CNR ) 2010,May 7 Uighur Doppa Cultural Festival was celebrated by more than 2 thounsand Uighur Students from all universities in Beijing Normal University and they publised news,pictures ,videos of the event and it made big influnce among the young uighur students across inland China and Xinjiang . 2011,May 3. The Festibal was celebrated in Yarkan county of Kashgar in official way with more than 5000 Uighurs including local officials ,prominent and famous writers of Uighur people . 2012 -2017 since 2012 ,The Festival have been celebrating by all Uighurs around world ,including kazakistan ,Turkey,Germany ,USA. and they have been organizing different cultural activities around the world to revive the unity and cultural identity in Kazakistan Uighur young people have established an organization related to Doppa named Doppa Life . and Turkish Media TRT would broadcast Doppa News every year in its Uighur language Channel : 2017-May 7,Turkey Uighur Academy have celebrated the festival and had academic intorudction and research to the participants of the meeting

References

Most of the references are In local newspapers, Uyghur Local websites, radio programs, and prominent Chinese websites.