دزونگاريا (Dzungaria ؛ //، وأحياناً تُخط زونگاريا Zungaria أوDzungharia أوZungharia أودژونگاريا Dzhungaria أوژونگاريا Zhungaria أودجونگاريا Djungaria أوجونگاريا Jungaria) هي منطقة جغرافية في شمال غرب الصين تناظر النصف الشمالي من شين‌جيانگ، وتُعرَف أيضاً بإسم بـِيْ‌جيانگ (بالصينية: 北疆; پن‌ين: Běijiāng; حرفياً "شمال شين‌جيانگ"). وتحدها سلسلة جبال تيان شان من الجنوب وجبال ألطاي من الشمال، وتغطي نحو777,000 كم²، تمتد إلى غرب منغوليا وشرق قزخستان. وسابقاً كان المصطلح يضم مساحة أكبر، بنفس حدود خانية دزونگار، الدولة التي حكمها العويرات في القرن 18 والتي كانت متمركزة في المنطقة.

Although geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct from the Turkic-speaking Tarim Basin area, the Qing dynasty and subsequent Chinese governments integrated both areas into one province، شين‌جيانگ. وكمركز للصناعات الثقيلة في شين‌جيانگ، generator of most of Xinjiang's GDP, as well as containing its political capital Ürümqi ("beautiful pasture" in Oirat), northern Xinjiang continues to attract intraprovincial and interprovincial migration to its cities. In comparison to southern Xinjiang (Nanjiang, or the Tarim Basin), Dzungaria is relatively well integrated with the rest of China by rail and trade links.

أصل الاسم

The name Dzungaria or Zungharia is derived from the Mongolian term "Zűn Gar" or "Jüün Gar" depending on the dialect of Mongolian used. "Zűn"/"Jüün" means "left" and "Gar" means "hand". The name originates from the notion that the Western Mongols are on the left-hand side when the Mongol Empire began its division into East and West Mongols. After this fragmentation, the western Mongolian nation was called "Zuun Gar".

خلفية

Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions, Dzungaria north of the Tianshan Mountains and the Tarim Basin south of the Tianshan Mountains, before Qing China unified them into one political entity called Xinjiang province in 1884. At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe dwelling, nomadic Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar people, while the Tarim Basin was inhabited by sedentary, oasis dwelling, Turkic speaking Muslim farmers, now known as the Uyghur people.

The Qing dynasty was well aware of the differences between the former Buddhist Mongol area to the north of the Tianshan and Turkic Muslim south of the Tianshan, and ruled them in separate administrative units at first. However, Qing people began to think of both areas as part of one distinct region called Xinjiang . The very concept of Xinjiang as one distinct geographic identity was created by the Qing and it was originally not the native inhabitants who viewed it that way, but rather it was the Chinese who held that point of view. During the Qing rule, no sense of "regional identity" was held by ordinary Xinjiang people; rather, Xinjiang's distinct identity was given to the region by the Qing, since it had distinct geography, history and culture, while at the same time it was created by the Chinese, multicultural, settled by Han and Hui, and separated from Central Asia for over a century and a half.

In the late 19th century, it was still being proposed by some people that two separate parts be created out of Xinjiang, the area north of the Tianshan and the area south of the Tianshan, while it was being argued over whether to turn Xinjiang into a province.

الحوض الدزونگاري

The core of Dzungaria is the triangular Dzungarian Basin, also known as Jungar Basin, or in Chinese as الصينية المبسطة: 准噶尔盆地; الصينية التقليدية: 準噶爾盆地; پن‌ين: Zhǔngá'ěr Péndì, with its central Gurbantünggüt Desert. It is bounded by the Tian Shan to the south, the Altai Mountains to the northeast and the Tarbagatai Mountains to the northwest. The three corners are relatively open. The northern corner is the valley of the upper Irtysh River. The western corner is the Dzungarian Gate, a historically important gateway between Dzungaria and the Kazakh Steppe; presently, a highway and a railway (opened in 1990) run through it, connecting China with Kazakhstan. The eastern corner of the basin leads to Gansu and the rest of China. In the south, an easy pass leads from Ürümqi to the Turfan Depression. In the southwest, the tall Borohoro Mountains branch of the Tian Shan separates the basin from the upper Ili River.

Ürümqi, Yining and Karamai are the main cities; other smaller oasis towns dot the piedmont areas.

المستحاثات

Dzungaria and its derivatives are used to name a number of pre-historic animals hailing from the rocky outcrops located in the Dzungar Basin:

• Dsungaripterus weii (pterosaur)
• Junggarsuchus sloani (crocodylomorph)

A recent notable find, in February 2006, is the oldest tyrannosaur fossil unearthed by a team of scientists from George Washington University who were conducting a study in the Dzungarian Basin. The species, named Guanlong, lived 160 million years ago, more than 90 million years before the famed Tyrannosaurus rex.^[]

البيئة

Dzungaria is home to a semi-desert steppe ecoregion known as the Dzungarian Basin semi-desert. The vegetation consists mostly of low scrub of Anabasis brevifolia. Taller shrublands of saxaul bush (Haloxylon ammodendron) and Ephedra przewalskii can be found near the margins of the basin. Streams descending from the Tian Shan and Altai ranges support stands of poplar (Populus diversifolia) together with Nitraria roborovsky, N. sibirica, Achnatherum splendens, tamarisk (Tamarix sibirimosissima), and willow (Salix ledebouriana).

التاريخ

The first people to inhabit the region were Indo-European-speaking peoples such as the Tocharians in prehistory and the Jushi Kingdom in the first millennium BC.

الاقتصاد

Wheat, barley, oats, and sugar beets are grown, and cattle, sheep, and horses are raised. The fields are irrigated with melted snow from the permanently white-capped mountains.

Dzungaria has deposits of coal, iron, and gold, as well as large oil fields.

المراجع

الهوامش

المصادر

وصلات خارجية

• Media related to Zungharia at Wikimedia Commons

نطقب:Paleartic deserts and xeric shrublands

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