Outer Mongolia

Outer Mongolia (Mongolian script: or ， Mongolian Cyrillic: or , romanization: ''Gadaad Mongol'' or ''Alr Mongol''; Manchu: ''Tülergi Monggo''; )Huhbator Borjigin. 2004. The history and political character of the name of 'Nei Menggu' (South Mongolia). Inner Asia 6: 61-80. is a name of an historical territory that consists of the modern state of

Mongolia

, sometimes called "Outer Mongolia" in China today, plus the Russian republic of

Tuva

. From 1691 to 1911, Outer Mongolia was under the Qing dynasty.

While the administrative Outer Mongolia only consisted of the four Khalkha aimags (Setsen Khan Aimag, Tüsheet Khan Aimag, Sain Noyon Khan Aimag, and Zasagt Khan Aimag), in the late Qing period "Outer Mongolia" was also used to refer to Khalkha plus Oirat areas Khovd and the directly ruled Tannu Uriankhai.

Names

The name "Outer Mongolia" is contrasted with

Inner Mongolia

, which corresponds to the region of

Inner Mongolia

in China. Inner Mongolia was given its name because it was more directly administered by the Qing court; Outer Mongolia (which is further from the capital

Beijing

) had a greater degree of autonomy within the Qing empire.

There are three alternate terms including Ar Mongol, Mobei Mongol, and Outer Mongolia.

Ar Mongol

The term ''ar mongol'' or ''Mobei Mongol'' () is sometimes used in Mongolian (or Chinese) language to refer to North Mongolia when making a distinction with South Mongolia, so as to elide the history of Qing rule and rather imply a geographic unity or distinction of regions inhabited by Mongols in the Mongolian Plateau. There also exists an English term ''Northern Mongolia''.

Ar Mongol can also be used to refer to

Mongolia

synchronically, during that time period. In the

Mongolian language

, the word ''ar'' refers to the back side of something, which has been extended to mean the northern side of any spatial entity, e.g. a mountain or a yurt. The word ''öbür'' refers to the south (and thus protected) side of a mountain.cf. Norcin, C. (1999): ''Monggol kelen-ü toli''. Ömnud monggol-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriya. Page 169, 580. ''ömnud: agula dabagan-u engger tal-a-yin gajar''. So the difference between South Mongolia and the Mongolian state is conceived as the metaphor of the backward northern side and the south side of a mountain.

In contrast to Mobei Mongol (), there is also Monan Mongol (), roughly referring to the region now known as South Mongolia.

Modern usage

Today, "Outer Mongolia" is sometimes still informally used to refer to

Mongolia

. To avoid confusion between the nation of Mongolia and China's Inner Mongolia, media in China generally refer to the former as "State of Mongolia" (); that is, the translation of the official name in Mongolian, /, instead of just "Mongolia" (), which could refer to the whole Mongolian area.

See also

* Mongolia under Qing rule
* Southern Mongolia
* Tannu Uriankhai
*

Dzungaria

* Outer Northwest China
* Outer Manchuria
*

Inner Mongolia

*

Mongolia

References

{{Territorial disputes in East, South, and Southeast Asia

Geography of Mongolia
History of Mongolia
Inner Asia
.
States and territories established in 1644
States and territories disestablished in 1922
1644 establishments in China
1922 disestablishments in China
17th-century establishments in Mongolia
Territorial disputes of the Republic of China
Historical regions of China