ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the case of the Tajiks of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a small, ethnic, religious, linguistic and racial minority group residing at the western end of the PRC's borders. The Tajiks are one of the fifty-six official nationalities of the PRC and, one of the ten Muslim minorities of the country. They are also one of the historical resident nationalities of the Xinjiang region along with other indigenous inhabitants. The Tarim Basin is home to the Turkic-speaking Uyghur people, with few small Tajik enclaves dotted here and there in the oasis towns of southern Xinjiang. The majority of the Tajiks in Xinjiang live in the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County. Tashkurgan Town is the regional centre and a semi-urban mountainous border town perched at the westernmost end of the PRC's national border.
