Written by | Gao Yuyang
I was caught by the soldiers of reverie and imprisoned in a castle reminiscing about the past, and the goddess of imagination asked me if I could tell me about your past: My bald pen is powerless to leave too many traces of suffering in the past
The poem is from Timur Dawamat, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Eighth and Ninth National People's Congresses.
Today (December 19) his life came to an end. In an article published by Xinhua News Agency, he said: Comrade Timur Dawamat, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a loyal communist fighter, an outstanding leader of the party and state ethnic work, an outstanding son of the Uyghur people, and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Eighth and Ninth National People's Congresses, died in Beijing at the age of 92 due to illness at 14:20 on December 19, 2018.
Today, he can no longer tell the stories of the past in person, but fortunately there are words to circulate.
Timur was born in 1927 in Irahu Township, Toxon County, Xinjiang.
As a teenager, his family was poor, a family of ten people crammed into two dilapidated houses, the whole family only three felts, a quilt.
In 1937, he had the opportunity to attend primary school in the county seat of Toxon, but at that time there was no systematic primary, junior high, and high school education even in the county town, and he studied in the same school for 6 years, then went to the senior class for 2 years, and returned from school to his hometown in 1944 and became a farmer.
Timur was the eldest of the six siblings, and at the age of 17 he took on the responsibility of helping his father maintain the family's life, and his father died in 1946, when he was only 19 years old.
The Timur family had no land, and leased land from the landlord, according to the regulations at that time, half of the harvest must be handed over to the landlord for rent, and the remaining half was left to himself after paying the usury, at that time the interest rate of the usury was very high, and the Timur family had been in a state of eating grain and carrying debts that could not be exhausted.
In order to earn money to support his family, he took time to dig a well for the landlord, which was tiring and dangerous, and if he did not meet the landslide, he might be crushed to death, but despite this, he had to often dig the well for his family, digging a day to get 5 sorghum, barely maintaining the family's life.
In November 1949, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army marched into southern Xinjiang, passing through the county seat of Toxon, Timur drove a carriage to deliver wheat grass to the People's Liberation Army, which was the first time he saw the Communist army. At that time, the People's Liberation Army surrounded him, some helped unload the car, some brought boiling water, and paid according to the price when he left, which surprised him, which was different from the army he had encountered before. Previously, he had encountered troops who not only did not give money, but also slapped him.
Soon, the villages of Toxon County organized peasant associations, and Timur actively participated, and was also elected as the deputy director of the three townships of Lake Ira.
In 1950, an election meeting was held in the three townships of the second district of Lake Ila, and Timur was elected as the mayor of the township. In 1952, he became deputy district governor of Toksun County II and joined the Communist Party of China in December of the same year.
In 1954, Timur was elected county magistrate at the first people's congress of Toxun County and served as the first party branch secretary of the county people's government. In September 1956, he was elected secretary of the county party committee. In the same year, he was appointed deputy secretary of the Turpan Central County Party Committee and secretary of the Toxun County Party Committee. After that, at the second representative meeting of the CPC Toksun County, he was elected as the first secretary of the Toxon County Cpc Committee.
He was the first Uyghur in Xinjiang's history to serve as the first secretary of the county party committee after the founding of New China. At the time, he was 29 years old.
Timur later successively served as chairman of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region People's Congress, chairman of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region People's Government, and deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Cpc Committee. Since 1993, he has served as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Eighth and Ninth National People's Congresses.
During his tenure as vice chairman and chairman of the autonomous region, he conducted four large-scale investigations and studies on the three poverty-stricken areas of Kashgar, Hotan, and Kyzylsu in southern Xinjiang, so as to promote poverty alleviation and regional economic development there.
For the first time, from March to May 1977, a team of 120 people was formed and penetrated into 8 poverty-stricken counties. He personally visited more than 500 farming households. After investigation, it was found that the masses had insufficient rations, no meat to eat, no oil or vegetables, and their lives were extremely difficult. Women carry dung in sacks, and the labor intensity is very high. In Pishan and Bachu counties alone, there are 40,000 women with droopy uterus, and many men suffer from tinea nigra. Timur reported the investigation at the enlarged meeting of the regional party committee and formulated six sets of policy measures. The second time, between March and May 1981, lasted 41 days. From Urumqi, it passes through 27 counties and cities in Bayingolin, Hotan, Kashgar and Kyzylsu Prefecture. In both the counties of Tashkurgan and Tashkurgan he climbed a mountain at an altitude of 4,000 meters to visit the herders there. The third time, in March 1986, this time, 47 people from 25 ministries, commissions, offices, departments, and bureaus were organized to participate in the working group and conduct a one-and-a-half-month investigation and study in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kyzyl-Su prefectures. After holding an on-site meeting in southern Xinjiang in May, he went to Beijing with the executive vice chairman of the autonomous region to give a report. Through this report, the relevant departments of the State Council have adopted various measures, which has further developed the work of poverty alleviation and poverty alleviation in southern Xinjiang. Subsequently, in July, a pastoral work conference was held in Altay in the northern Xinjiang region, focusing on solving the problem of settlement of herders in northern Xinjiang and the problem of poverty alleviation. The fourth time was in May 1995, when Timur and his party of 12 visited 14 prefectures, cities, 54 counties, and 84 townships. Visited 198 farmers and herdsmen, 108 agricultural, forestry and water husbandry sites, and 66 factories and mining enterprises. There are also many schools, hospitals, government agencies, etc., which have obtained a large amount of first-hand information for the decision-making of the central and autonomous regional leaders.
He himself was a farmer and was very considerate of the peasants. After he went to work at the Npc, he once said at a meeting that he would like to say a few words for his peasant brothers, saying that from his many years of work practice, he realized that in China, without the peasants, nothing will be achieved.
During his work at the Npc, he deeply felt a heavy burden and was determined to do more investigation and research work as before. Less than two years after arriving in Beijing, he had already inspected one-third of the country's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
On December 21, 2001, the China Arab Friendship Association was solemnly established in the Great Hall of the People, and the conference invited Qian Qichen, then vice premier of the State Council, to attend and deliver an important speech. The congress announced Timur's appointment as president of the Arab Association of China.
The beginning of the article may have made the reader feel that Timur is also a poet, joined the Chinese Writers Association in 1993, and has published 6 poetry collections and two prose collections, including "Song of Tianshan Mountain", "Love dedicated to the motherland", "The Call of the Times", "The Torch of Life", "Oasis Song", and "Footprints of Life".
Timur became a township chief at the age of 22, a county magistrate at the age of 27, and a vice chairman of the autonomous region at the age of 37, but never used his power to arrange an official and a half-job for his family. He taught his children to create a life by their own efforts, saying in his poem "To The Son":
May you wear a red flower for your contributions to make people thank me for raising such a boy to make myself not regret spending time and strive for the realization of the lofty ideals of life
There was also an important achievement in Timur's life.
On November 25, 2005, the good news came from UNESCO in Paris, France: the Chinese Uyghur Twelve Muqam successfully applied for heritage. Sun Jiazheng, former minister of culture and former vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who is well aware of the experience of the twelve muqams in applying for the heritage, said: "The application for the twelve muqams was handled by Timur, and without Timur, there would be no declaration of the twelve muqams, and there would be no successful declaration so quickly." ”
In his memoirs, "The Course of Life", Timur said: "I have loved the Twelve Muqams since I was young and regarded them as my own life, and for this reason I have worked hard for them together with all the experts and scholars of the Twelve Muqams. ”
In 1987, Xinjiang established the Muqam Research Society, and Timur, who was already the chairman of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was unanimously elected as the president of the conference, and he personally organized the establishment of the Twelve Muqam Foundation.
Under his organizational leadership, China has held three international Muqam academic seminars.
Later, according to the opinions of most scholars, he organized the staff to spend many years compiling and publishing the 13-volume version of the Uyghur Twelve Muqams. Why did the twelve muqams become thirteen muqams? This 13th volume is that experts and scholars have sorted out the "Ishirti Engezmukam" composed by Amanisha Khan in the process of research, and has become a written musical score form that can be played and sung according to the score, so this book has a total of 13 volumes.
Timur led the team to produce VCD and DVD on Uyghur Twelve Muqam in 2001.
Information | Xinhua News Agency People's Daily
He Bingji, "From Peasants to Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress - Comrade Ji Timur Dawamat"
Mao Yushan, "The Light of Life: A Documentary on the Rescue and Protection of Uyghur Cultural Heritage by Timur Dawamat"