Introduction
The Mongour or White Mongols are called Tu in China and live mainly in Qinghai province. They are part of the Southern Mongolic branch in contrast to the Central Mongolic branch in Mongolia.
This article will narrate the origin of the Mongour and their closely related tribes.
This article will narrate the origin of the Mongour and their closely related tribes.
Homeland
Most Mongour live in Huzhu 互助, Minhe 民和 counties in Haidong city and also Datong 大通 county in Xining city which is the capital of Qinghai province.
Original homeland
The ancestors of the Mongour original homeland was in western part of Liao (遼) River in modern-day Inner Mongolia during China's Jin dynasty.They were the Murong clan of the Xianbei tribe. Murong Tuyuhun left his homeland around 290 AD after a power struggle with his half-brother Murong Wei.
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| Migration path |
They first reached the Hetao region of the Yellow River before being forced to migrate further west due to conflicts with the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei tribe in the Hetao region.
Tuyuhu kingdom
During the Invasion of the Five Barbarians in northern China between 304-316 AD, their ancestors managed to breach the defense of the Great Wall of China and finally reached modern-day Linxia (臨夏) in southwestern Gansu province.There they established a kingdom called Tuyuhu aka Tuyuhun in 313 AD. Their tribe name Tu is an abbreviation of their ancient kingdom and also the name of their first king Tuhuyu.
Tuyuhun kingdom was eventually destroyed by the Tibetan kingdom in 663 AD and the ruins of its capital is depicted in the photo below.
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| Ruins of their capital |
Southern Mongolic subgroups
The Southern Mongolic subgroups are Mongour, Sarta aka Santa aka Dongxiang, Bonan, Kangjia. They are distributed in eastern Qinghai province and south-western Gansu province as shown in the map below.
The Mongour tribe believes in Tibetan Buddhism instead of Chinese Buddhism whereas the rest of the subgroups are Muslims.
The 14th Tibetan Dalai Lama was born in Haidong city of Qinghai province where the Mongour lives. He is an ethnic Mongour and not ethnic Tibetan as commonly mistaken. His original name was Lhamo Thondup. He doesn't speak Lhasa nor Amdo Tibetan language when he was a child which is consistent with his origin (source: The story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama).
The Sarta, Bonan, Kangjia are the descendants of Tuhuyun judging from the Southern Mongolic language that they speak and their locations. They are not the descendants of Genghiz Khan's army stationed there who spoke Central Mongolic language as speculated by some people.
The Sarta's current location in Lingxia prefecture in Gansu province was where the Tuyuhun established their first capital. The Bonan's earliest recorded location in 16th century was in Tongren county in eastern Qinghai near to where the Mongour and Kangjia live.
Each of the Sarta, Bonan, Kangjia seems to have converted to Islam at different times. The Sarta intermarried with the Muslim artisans who were brought over from Central Asia by the Mongol army during the 14th century AD when China was under Yuan Mongol rule.
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| Sarta aka Dongxiang |
Bonan people were originally Mongour people but were converted to Islam by Ma Laichi (1681-1766 AD) who was a Muslim preacher in modern-day Linxia (then called Hezhou).
Note that Shira Yughur aka Eastern Yughur is originally a Turkic speaking tribe descended from the ethnic Uyghur; thus, they are not considered Southern Mongols.
Closest ethnic relative
The closest ethnic relative of the Southern Mongolic tribes are the Central Mongolic tribes in Mongolia. |
| Genghiz Khan and Central Mongol warrior |
Conclusion
The Southern Mongolic tribes are nomadic people who originated from south-eastern Inner Mongolia during the 4th century AD. Their descendants are found in two main groups which are the Mongour and the Muslim subgroups.
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| Mongour tribe |
Related links
http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2020/04/ethnic-origin-of-mongol.html
Sources
- Murong ancestral book 慕容氏大宗族譜
- Jin dynasty history: Murong《晉書 慕容廆》
- Dillon, Michael (1996). China's Muslims. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
- Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. Hong Kong University Press. Lipman, Jonathan Neaman (1998).
- Tibet: A History. London and New York: Yale University Press, 2011. By Nathan Hill. Review of Sam van Schaik.
- The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama. By Thomas Laird
- https://kknews.cc/history/98o5vl.html
- https://kknews.cc/history/5mkvrp8.html
- https://kknews.cc/history/qylmypr.html
- https://kknews.cc/culture/z39lng3.html
- https://kknews.cc/news/mjkmg.html
- https://kknews.cc/history/n9p58.html
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