Wednesday 19 November 2008 URUMQI, China — An exhibit on the
first floor of the museum here gives the government’s
unambiguous take on the history of this border region: «Xinjiang
has been an inalienable part of the territory of China», says
one prominent sign. But walk upstairs to the second floor, and
the ancient corpses on display seem to tell a different story.
One called the Loulan Beauty lies on her back with her shoulder-
length hair matted down, her lips pursed in death, her high
cheekbones and long nose the most obvious signs that she is not
what one thinks of as Chinese. The Loulan Beauty is one of more
than 200 remarkably well-preserved mummies discovered in the
western deserts here over the last few decades. The ancient
bodies have become protagonists in a very contemporary political
dispute over who should control the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region. At the heart of the matter lie these questions: Who
first settled this inhospitable part of western China? And for
how long has the oil-rich region