Rahile Dawut is currently Director of Xinjiang Folklore Research Center and Professor at the School of Humanities at Xinjiang University. She received her PhD in Folklore from Beijing Normal University in 1998. Her research mainly focuses on the folklore and local Islamic sacred sites of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. She has been visiting scholar in Pennsylvania University(2003), Indiana University(2004) and University of California, Berkeley (2007), Kent University, Canterbury,UK(2009). She awarded The Annemarie Schimmel Scholarship (2007) set up by The Institute of Ismaili Studies and also awarded grant from Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research(2008), and special grant from Royal anthropological institute, UK for her study on religious narratives among the Uyghurs(2008). And also conducted some  research sponsored by Chine Social Science Foundation .

Her publication included Weiwuerzu Maza Chaobai Yanjiu [Research on Mazar Worship among the Uyghur], Xinjiang University Press, 2002. (In Chinese); Uyghur Mazarliri [ Introduction to Uyghur Mazar], Xinjiang People’s Press, 2002. (In Uyghur).  And also published articles related to Shrine visitation  and  Meshrep tradition.

 In the year of 2012, She presented  paper “ Shrine visitation among the Uyghurs”  In the symposium Shamans, Buddhist and muslim Saints: The Layered History of Desert mazar, organized by Institute of East Asian Studies , California University, Berkeley, 23^rd, April;  Presented paper  “Function of the  Uyghur Mazars ” in the workshop Islam in China organized by Cornell University; and presented paper “Ordam Mazar: The Intersection of Varied Belief Systems in Trans-Cultural Xinjiang” in the workshop Kashgar Revisited: Workshop to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Ambassador Gunnar Jarring, organized by Copenhagen University, 10^th, May.