The Khatso people (), commonly known as the "

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

", is a Mongolic ethnic group, mainly distributed in

Tonghai County Tonghai County () is located in Yuxi Prefecture-level City, Yunnan Province, China. Geography Tonghai County occupies the fertile valley of Qilu Lake, surrounded on all sides by mountains. The county seat is located on the south side of the lak ...

in the

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

of southwestern China. The Khatso people are descendants of the army personnel of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

History

Before the mid-13th century, Yunnan was held by many war-like independent states such as the

Nanchao Nanzhao (, also spelled Nanchao, ) was a dynastic kingdom that flourished in what is now southern China and northern Southeast Asia during the 8th and 9th centuries. It was centered on present-day Yunnan in China. History Origins Nanzha ...

and

Dali Kingdom The Dali Kingdom, also known as the Dali State (; Bai: Dablit Guaif), was a state situated in modern Yunnan province, China from 937 until 1253. In 1253, it was conquered by the Mongols but members of its former ruling dynasty continued to a ...

s. The Mongol Empire under

Möngke Khan Möngke ( mn, ' / Мөнх '; ; 11 January 1209 – 11 August 1259) was the fourth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251, to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reform ...

conquered the Dali Kingdom in 1253. Until 1273, a

Chinggisid A Borjigin, ; ; russian: Борджигин, Bordžigin; English plural: Borjigins or Borjigid (from Middle Mongolian);''Histoire des campagnes de Gengis Khan'', p. 119. Manchu plural: is a member of the Mongol sub-clan, which started with ...

prince received

viceroyalty A viceroyalty was an entity headed by a viceroy. It dates back to the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century. France * Viceroyalty of New France Portuguese Empire In the scope of the Portuguese Empire, the term " Viceroyalt ...

over the area. Kublai Khan appointed the first governor, Turkmen Sayid Ajall, in Yunnan in 1273. Yunnan and

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

were main bases for Mongol military operations to

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

. It was called Yunnan district with Kunming as the headquarters during the Yuan. After the expulsion of the Mongols from China in 1368, the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

destroyed the Yuan loyalists in Yunnan under

Basalawarmi Basalawarmi ( xng, ᠪᠠᠵᠠᠯᠠᠸᠠᠷᠮᠠᠢ, , died January 6, 1382), commonly known by his hereditary noble title, the Prince of Liang, was a Yuan dynasty prince and loyalist who fought against the ascendant Ming dynasty in China p ...

in 1381 and occupied it. In 1381, "Ming Dynasty troops routed the Yuan army by the shore of the

Baishui River The Baishui River () is a short tributary of the Yangtze River in Yunnan Province, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by populati ...

. The Mongol soldiers, their hopes to return to their homeland having been dashed, had no alternative but to settle down in the province." In the early 1980s, village elders sent a delegation to

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

to re-learn about their long lost

Mongolian culture The culture of Mongolia has been shaped by the country's nomadic tradition and its position at the crossroads of various empires and civilizations. Mongolian culture is influenced by the cultures of the Mongolic, Turkic, and East Asian peoples ...

. They adopted customs similar to Mongols in the north gradually, and wrestling became their favorite sport when they saw how popular it was with other Mongols. Xingmeng Township - P1360339

There are about 13,000 Khatso people, whose culture is heavily influenced by the local Yi culture.

Language

Khatso people speak the

Katso language Katso, also known as Kazhuo (autonyms: ', '; ), is a Loloish language of Xingmeng Township (兴蒙乡), Tonghai County, Yunnan, China. The speakers are officially classified as ethnic Mongols, although they speak a Loloish The Loloish language ...

, a

Loloish language The Loloish languages, also known as Yi in China and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of fifty to a hundred Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of China. They are most closely related to Burmese and its rel ...

, to communicate with each other, and use the Southwestern Mandarin with outsiders.Jiang Ying, Zhao Yan-zhen etc, "New Problems for Kazhuo Young People in Their Mother Tongue Acquisition", ''Journal of Research on Education for Ethnic Minorities'', Beijing, 2008 (No.2), General No.85, Vol.19

References

{{Ethnic groups in China Ethnic groups in China Mongol peoples

History

Language

See also

References