MONGUOR OR THE TSAGAN MONGOLS
Saturday, 21st July 2012
In 1227 Ghengis Khan left Karakorum leading his troop to invade Tibet. On the way, along the silk route, he stopped in present day Lanzhou. He left injured and exhausted warriors there. It is said that these soldiers married local women, and out of this union the Tsagan Mongols were formed. Monguor or Tsagan Mongols are to be mentioned, whenever there’s a discussion about descendants of Ghengis Khan, or about Mongol people. Tsagan Mongol is one of the officially recognized minority groups as Tu people in the PRC. We will refer to them as Tsagan Mongols in this article. They mainly reside in the province of Qinghai, which is in the northeastern part of the Tibetan plateau and also on the Yellow river basin. They number about 250 thousand. They refer to themselves Tsagan, sometimes earthly Mongols and call us the Khar or heavenly Mongols. Typically they herd livestock and also farm and make crafts. The Tsagan Mongols have their own traditional costume. If we examined it closely we can see patterns still used today by Mongolian silversmiths. The ladies like clothes with embroidery as colorful as the rainbow, and shoes decorated with flower patterns. They wear a black hat made out of felt. For special occasions the men wear a short del (a Mongolian gown). Only the elderly wear their traditional clothes every day. They speak an ancient form of Mongolian language with recognizable words such as names of livestock, utensils, pots and pans, and numerals.
First elderly person we met invited us to stay with her. She communicated that she will come to Mongolia with us. There’s a myth that Mongolians will return and take them. She believes it to be true and counted herself fortunate. Obviously it is impossible, but they still continue to hold on to this belief.
Tuntrakhiima is a traditional song which goes:
Set on a long journey
The sons and the daughters of the great King
Left us for a faraway land
The children of Mongol parentage
Have they reached that outer land safely?
The wind doesn’t bring back the news
Do they inhabit the outer land?
When will they return?
Set on a long journey
The sons and the daughters of the great King
Left us for a faraway land
The children of Mongol parentage
Have they reached that outer land safely?
The wind doesn’t bring back the news
Do they inhabit the outer land?
When will they return?
All the villagers were eager to have us over in their homes. No matter how late or early it was, people gathered outside, waiting to invite us to their homes. They also gathered every night and made a bonfire and wanted to dance and sing with us around the fire. They sang in their ancient form of Mongolian and we in our present day language. Mongolian songs seemed to enthuse them. As we saw it, our hearts ached at the thought how many ethnically Mongol people are waiting.
Although, we heard that Tsagan Mongols practice Tibetan Buddhism, yet we had hardly seen any evidence of it. But we had the opportunity to make footage of large religious ceremony. To see this annual event, we got up while it was pitch dark and rode on a farmer’ s truck for 5 hours to reach our destination in the isolated mountain. The temple was being built as a duplicate of Potala, temple in Lhasa, Tibet. Contributions were taken. Our friend told us that 5 loaves of bread and a block of tea unlock the gate of heaven. As we looked at the people, we couldn’t help thinking what we must have been like before 1921.
Many springs have passed since we visited our first Tsagan Mongol village. Each time when we left a village and the people said farewell, tears would well up in their eyes and they would tell us that they will be looking forward to welcoming us again.
We didn’t want to say they are Mongols just after one visit, but only now, having visited them many times, after collecting valid evidences, stories and legends, and hearing the views of the local people, we want to tell the people here that they are Mongols. We fondly remember our first visit. It was their time to meet Mongolians from the country of Mongolia they listened to us speak, shook hands with us and brushed our cheeks. Afterwards, they started telling us they were abandoned, forgotten by us, they were nobodies, and their language did not count for anything. We present you this information, so that you can also share our desire to recognize and visit these people. You can tell them that you have not forgotten them.
Over the past years, as we have studied the history of Tsagan Mongols and observed their way of life, we have seen a modern development take place. We are happy to see this region open up more. Remote villages with no infrastructure, now have a highway and even roads paved to their fields. Where we had to walk for 2 to 8 hours, now takes 15 to 90 minutes by bus. The families are becoming more open to share their joys and worries with us. They still haven’t grown weary of repeating the words that Mongolians will come and take them some day.
We like talking about the invasion of Ghengis khan. We are all proud of him. We mention his victories, the civilizations he built and destroyed. But where are the people who remained in the former empire territory? What identity are they bearing? Do they relate to us as people of one origin? Have they preserved Mongol tradition and customs? Our purpose lays in answering these questions through our documentary series.