The population is about 131 thousand. The Salar people mainly reside in the Xunhua Salar Autonomous County of Qinghai Province, the Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County in Gansu Province and the vicinity. They use the Salar language which belongs to the western Xiong branch of Turkic languages of the Altaic language family. Many Salar people can speak Chinese and Tibetan. The ethnic group does not have its own script and Chinese is generally used. Some people think that the Salar people are the descendants of Salur of ancient western Turkic Oghuz. "Salur" means "person who wields swords and maces everywhere". The Salar people are mainly engaged in agricultural production, and also in animal husbandry and horticulture. They believe in Islam. Their main festivals include the “Eid al-Fitr”, the “Kurban Bairam” and the “Mawlid”. In addition, there are “Lailah al-Barat”, “Fatimah Festival” and “Lailah al-Qadr”.