Kahar Barat (; born 1950) is a Uyghur American historian known for his work on Buddhism and Islam in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

. Kahar Barat was born in Yili in 1950. He earned his M.A. degree in

Turkology Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative conte ...

from the Central University for Ethnic Minorities ( Minzu University of China) in Beijing; he received his Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1993. Uyghur Historian Kahar Barat Discusses Xinjiang History, Part 1
an English translation of Kahar Barat's interview by

Wang Lixiong Wang Lixiong (, born 2 May 1953) is a Chinese writer and scholar, best known for his political prophecy fiction, ''Yellow Peril'', and for his writings on Tibet and provocative analysis of China's western region of Xinjiang. Wang is regarded as ...

. (The Chinese original
新疆的古代王朝与宗教转换
"The old kingdoms of Xinjiang and religious conversions")
/ref> He later taught at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and other institutions. In 2000, Kahar Barat published an annotated English edition of parts of "The Uygur Turkic biography of the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist Pilgrim

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

". Barat's recent book, named ''Maymaq Uyghurlar'' ("Warped Uyghurs", in Uyghur) discusses the plight of Xinjiang's artists, who find themselves in the position of packaging the Uyghur culture for consumption by outside audiences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barat, Kahar Uyghurs Historians of China American Turkologists Living people 1950 births Harvard University alumni Yale University faculty Minzu University of China alumni People's Republic of China emigrants to the United States American people of Uyghur descent 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers