Uyghurs

Tea

香茶 xiāngchá — “spiced tea” of southern Xinjiang: 砖茶 zhuānchá, usually 茯砖 fúzhuān, broken up and boiled in a long-necked copper teapot; after five minutes of boiling, ground 姜 jiāng, 桂皮 guìpí and 胡椒 hújiāo are added and stirred for three to five minutes. Drunk three times a day — with breakfast, lunch and dinner, alongside 馕 náng, meaning the tea here is food rather than a drink. A strainer is fitted over the spout so leaf and spice crumbs do not enter the bowl. Kashgar, Hotan, Yarkand; in northern Xinjiang the same Uyghurs drink 奶茶, while in the south they drink 清茶 and 香茶.

Crown growth

A single curved spout-like growth in copper tone: a cone thick at the base, tapering upward, with one gentle bend in the upper third and an oblique cut; a fine-mesh strainer is set flush into the cut and does not participate in the silhouette, with leaf and cinnamon crumbs caught in its cells. At 6 mm — a curved horn with a clean oblique cut: a thin stem with a perforated disc at the top is the Tibetan’s mark — here there is no disc in the outline and the body is three times thicker; the bend forms no rings or spiral, the hook is Yanka’s mark.

Headwear

皮帽 pímào of the southern oases in its winter working form: fur inside, tanned leather in a warm tobacco tone outside, vertical walls, the cap worn deep and covering the ears, a thick dark leather edging along the lower rim, the crown gathered with a single circular seam and sitting low, the rim running as an even circle with no protruding corners. The headwear is everyday and non-religious. The notch for the spout is a slit in the front slope of the crown, bound with leather; the growth extends forward-upward, and the leather grips its base from both sides without lying over it.

Outline at 6 mm. A deep bucket: a round-in-plan fur cap with vertical walls and a low smooth crown, worn deep and sitting BELOW the ears, the lower rim running as a straight horizontal across the cheek and the upper closed as an even circle. At 6 mm this is a smooth block that has absorbed the top of the head along with the ears. It differs from the Hani in that the latter is a low dome a THIRD WIDER than the skull with a finely serrated arc from plaques, while here the wall runs flush along the skull, the arc is smooth and the ears are fully covered; from the Tajik — in that the latter is twice as tall and ends ABOVE the ears with a narrow astrakhan band; from the Hezhen — in that there a narrow ovoid hugs the head with a ragged ridge along the axis, while here there is a thick even wall and a crown without a ridge; from the Uzbek — in that the latter is square in plan, sits only on the crown and is a quarter of the volume.

Clothing

A striped chapan 袷袢 on a sash, a shirt underneath, soft boots, and a mesh cap tucked behind the belt as a spare.

Palette

Tanned leather in tobacco tone, copper of the spout, chapan stripes in ochre and cherry, cream shirt.