Monguor people

The Monguor (; Tu: Mongghul), the Tu people (), the White Mongol or the Tsagaan Mongol, are Mongolic people and one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. The "Tu" ethnic category was created in the 1950s.

According to the 2000 census, the total population was 241,198, who mostly lived in the Qinghai and the Gansu provinces. The 2010 census gave their number as 289,565. The Monguor people speak the Monguor language, which belongs to the family of Mongolic languages but has been heavily influenced by both the local Chinese and Tibetan dialects. Today, nearly all Tu people also speak Chinese. Most are farmers and some keep livestock.

Their culture and the social organizations have been influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and local beliefs. A few Tu in Huzhu and Minhe are Christian, the result of on-going American and Korean missionary work in the area.

Ethnic origins

The ethnic history of the Monguor is contested. It has been variously suggested that their origins are related to the Tuyuhun Xianbei, to Mongol troops who came to the current Qinghai-Gansu area during the time of the Mongol conquests, to the Shatuo and/or to the Han Chinese.

Terminology

Origins

Some references argue that the Chinese term "Tu" was derived from the name of Tuyühu Khan, who was the older son of the King of Murong Xianbei who migrated westward from the northeast in 284. The last character of Tuyühu, pronounced as "hun" today, may have been pronounced "hu" in some dialect of ancient Chinese language. The contemporary reference of this name is rendered "Tuyuhun" in China and the West should be "Tuyühu." It came from the Chinese phonetic transcription of his original name "Teihu", which is still a common name seen among the Monguor today. Since the Chinese language cannot represent "Tei," two characters of "Tu" and "yü" were used. The ethnonym "Tu" in Chinese came from the abbreviation of "the Tuyühu people" or "the people of the Tuyühu Empire." Between the years 908 and 1042, the reference became simplified into "Tuhu" and "Tüihu" people.Carroll, Thomas D. (1953). Account of the T'ù-yü-hún in the history of the Chìn dynasty. Berkeley, University of California Press. As the other ethnic groups of the Tuyühu Empire came to be ascribed with different ethnonyms through subsequent history, the Xianbei who founded the empire remained to bear with the identity of "Tu."

The name "Tu" was most likely associated with a derogatory meaning and "indigenous people". Its derogatory undertone came from the concurrent meaning of the Chinese character "Tu" for "soil." The ethnonym "Tu" is increasingly a self-reference.

Monguor

The reference of "Monguor" in the Western publications came from their self-reference as "Chaghan Monguor" (or "White Mongols"). It was derived from their origins from the Murong Xianbei, from whom Tuyühu Khan separated and who had been historically referred to as "the White Section" or "Bai Bu," due to their lighter skin. The term "Monguor" was first used by the European Catholic missionaries, Smedt and Mosaert, who studied the Monguor language and compiled a Monguor-French dictionary in the beginning of the twentieth century. Subsequently, the Flemish Catholic missionary, Louis Schram, made it into an international name through three volumes of extensive reports based on his experiences from having lived among them from 1911 to 1922. The term is a variant pronunciation of "Mongol" in the Monguor language, characterized by the final "-r" in place of "-l" in the Mongolian language.

Despite that "Monguor" was made into an international name for the "Tu," it is not representative: the reference is only used by the Monguor in Huzhu and Datong counties in Qinghai, and when used, it should be combined with "Chaghan" (or "White") in order to be distinguished from the "Khara" (or "Black") Mongols. In Minhe County, which holds the most densely populated "Monguor" settlement and where everyone speaks their native "Monguor" language, it is never used as an autonym.

Genetic studies

Sequences in the DNA of the Tu people indicate that Greeks mixed with an East Asian population around 1200 AD, contributing about ~5% to the Tu genepool. The source of this European DNA might have been merchants travelling the Silk Road.. This admixture may come from an earlier period as many of their carnival-like festivals and masked fertility rituals have similarities in the Hellenistic times with Dionysian representations, not in Byzantine Christian-era Greek celebrations.

Distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups in Monguor:

O=38.85( O2=31.42, O1a=4.13, O1b=3.3)

D=14.87

R1=14.05( R1a=13.22,R1b=0.83)

N=11.57

C=9.09

J=5.79

others=5.78

History

Donghu

Their earliest origins from the Donghu are reflected in their account of the unique wedding ceremony attributed to Madam Lushi, who organized an ambush through an elaborate banquet combined with liquor and singing in order to subdue a bully named "Wang Mang". In historical terms, the "Wang Mang" people were recorded more than four thousand years ago as physically robust and active on the west of the present Liaoning, whose culture was associated with the Hongshan Culture. In archaeological terms, the Hongshan Culture gradually gave rise to the Lower Xiajiadian Culture and represented the transition toward the bronze technology. It eventually evolved into the Upper Xiajidian Culture, which was associated with the Donghu and characterized by the practice of agriculture and animal husbandry supplemented by handicrafts and bronze art. The Donghu was a federation formed from the Donghu, Wuhuan