MONGOLIAN
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The name Mongols specifies one or several ethnic groups largely located now in Mongolia, China, and Russia.
A narrow definition includes the Mongols proper (self-designation Monggol), which can be roughly divided into eastern and western Mongols. In a wider sense, the Mongol peoples includes all people who speak a Mongolic language, such as the Kalmyks of eastern Europe.
The name"Mongol" appeared first in 8th century records of the Chinese Tang dynasty, but then only resurfaced in the 11th century during the rule of the Khitan. At first it was applied to some small and still insignificant tribes in the area of the Onon River. In the 13th century, it grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic and Turkic tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan.
The specific origin of the Mongolic languages and associated tribes is unclear. Some researchers have proposed a link to languages like Tungusic and Turkic, which are often included alongside Mongolic in a hypothetical group called Altaic languages, but evidence for this line of argumentation is rather weak.
Today, people of Mongol origin live in Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia), Russia, and a few other central Asian countries.
The differentiation between tribes and peoples (nationalities) is handled differently depending on the country. The Tumed, Chahar, Ordos, Bargut (or Barga), Buryats, Dörböd (Dörvöd, Dörbed), Torguud, Dariganga, Üzemchin (or Üzümchin), Bayid, Khoton, Myangad (Mingad), Zakhchin (Zakchin), Darkhad, and Oirats (or Öölds or Ölöts) are all counted as tribes of the Mongols.
Other geographically dispersed Mongol peoples include the Moghol, Hazara, and Aimak in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
Greater Mongolia
Greater Mongolia, as a geographical region, is the contiguous territories primarily inhabited by ethnic Mongols. It approximately includes the modern state of Mongolia, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the Buryat Republic as well as a few smaller territories in Russia.
The people in this area share the traditional Mongolian culture to varying degrees, and they speak one of several Mongolic languages. With the exception of the Mongolian state, Mongols now only form a minority in most of these areas.
The notion of the people living in those territories being "Mongols" was established at the beginning of the 13th century, when Genghis Khan united the Mongol-Turkic tribes into a homogenous nation. After the collapse of the empire in 1368, parts of Greater Mongolia were invaded by the Han-Chinese Ming Dynasty, with the rest splintering between several Mongol domains, mainly the Oirad and the Khalkha. In the 17th century, all of the territory fell to the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty.
After Outer Mongolia's Declaration of independence in late 1911, the Bogd Khan government initially sought to unify both Inner and Outer Mongolia. Troops were sent into Inner Mongolia, but had to be called back after Russia became worried that these moves might provoke a conflict with Japan. In 1919, the Japanese set up a so-called pan-Mongolian movement under Grigory Semyonov in northeastern Inner Mongolia, but the Bogd Khan government refused to join. Roman Ungern von Sternberg also made some references to pan-Mongolism.
After Ungern von Sternberg's defeat by the Mongolian communists under Damdin Sühbaatar, the new socialist regime further considered the idea. But under pressure of the Komintern, which regarded alienating China for the sake of less than two million Mongolians as a non-issue, these policies had to be dropped in the mid-1920s.
Another revival of pan-Mongol sentiments came at the end of World War II, when Outer Mongolian troops took part in the Soviet Operations against Mengjiang (see Operation August Storm). However, Outer Mongolian troops were quickly withdrawn after the end of hostilities.
Following the democratic reform 1991, several non-governmental organizations reintroduced efforts to advocate pan-Mongolianism. In Mongolia those are the "Movement for Unity of the Mongol Nation", in Buryatia the "Movement for National Unity Negeden" and the "Buryat-Mongol People's Party". However, none of those organizations has gained any significant political influence.
Mongolia
The population of Mongolia consists of 85% Mongols, numbering approximately 2.5 million. Among those, the Khalkha, Uriankhai and Buryats are counted as eastern Mongols. The Oirats, living mainly in the Altay region, belong to the western Mongols.
Inner Mongolia (China)
Ethnic Mongols in China (蒙古族) are citizens of the People's Republic of China who are ethnic Mongols. They form one of the 55 ethnic minorities officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There are approximately 5.8 million ethnic Mongols living in China. Most of them live in Inner Mongolia, Northeast China, Xinjiang, etc. The Mongol population in China is over twice that of the independent nation of Mongolia.
Other peoples speaking Mongolic languages are the Daur, Monguor, Dongxiang, Bonan, and parts of the Yugur. Those do not officially count as part of the Mongol nationality, but are recognized as nationalities of their own.
Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) is distinct from Outer Mongolia. "Inner" and "Outer" imply a perspective centered on China proper and can be construed as being sinocentric.
Following the end of World War II, the Chinese Communists regained Manchuria with some Soviet support, and established the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1947 following Soviet nationalities policy. Initially the autonomous region included just the Hulunbuir region. Over the next decade, as the communists established the People's Republic of China and consolidated control over mainland China, Inner Mongolia was expanded westwards to include five of the six original leagues (except Josutu League, which remains in Liaoning province), the northern part of the Chahar region, by then a league as well (southern Chahar remains in Hebei province), the Hetao region, and the Alashan and Ejine banners. Eventually, near all areas with sizeable Mongol populations were incorporated into the region, giving present-day Inner Mongolia its elongated shape.
In 1969, during the Cultural Revolution, much of Inner Mongolia was distributed among surrounding provinces, with Hulunbuir divided between Heilongjiang and Jilin, Jirim going to Jilin, Juu Uda to Liaoning, and the Alashan and Ejine region divided among Gansu and Ningxia. This was reversed in 1979.
There are groups calling for the independence of Inner Mongolia from what they view as Chinese imperialism; these groups, however, have less influence and support within and outside Inner Mongolia than similar movements in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan.
Buryat Republic (Russia)
In Russia, the Buryats belong to the eastern Mongols. The western Mongols include the Oirats in the Russian Altay and the Kalmyks at the northern side of the Caspian Sea. Together they amount to roughly half a million people.
Gobi Desert
The Gobi (戈壁沙漠) is the largest desert region in Asia. It covers area in China and southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast. The Gobi is made up of several distinct ecological and geographic regions based on variations in climate and topography. This desert is the fourth largest in the world.
The Gobi is most notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road.
Human Rights in Inner Mongolia
In the 1980s, Xi Haiming, Huchuntegus, Wang Manglai and Hada, all students at universities in Hohhot, discussed establishment of the Inner Mongolian People's Party, for Mongolians in Inner Mongolia. Hada established the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance but he was arrested and he is currently a political prisoner. Xi Haiming fled his country and established the Inner Mongolian People's Party in New York, in March, 1997.
Historically, an Inner Mongolian People's Party had existed before the establishment of the PRC, but was merged with the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) after the CPC came to power in 1949. During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, certain elements within the Chinese government, including notorious security chief Kang Sheng, claimed that the party had covertly revived itself as a hostile separate entity and sought to extinguish it. This resulted in 790,000 people being persecuted in the witchhunt that followed. Of these 22,900 were beaten to death and 120,000 were permanently maimed.
* China: Minority Exclusion, Marginalization and Rising Tensions by Human Rights in China
* Politics, Language and Power: the Case of the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia, 1967-1969 By Kerry Brown
* China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update by Congressional - Executive Commission on China
Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
