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This video shows the Dashdawa Mongol activist Wang Yanhong singing a song at the site in Ulan Butun where the Jungarian Khan Galdan Boshugt was defeated by the Qing army. Entitled ‘Father’s Grassland, Mother’s River’ (父亲的草原母亲的河), the song was written by a famous Mongolian diaspora poetess called Xi Murong. Through this song, Wang grieves his loss of the Mongolian culture and language, but insists that he is still a son of the steppe. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

The Dashdawa Mongol Studies Centre was established in 2014 by Wang Yanhong at the Chengde Normal College for Nationalities. The office contains some books related to the Dashdawa Mongols including photos he took with the Ööld Mongols in Zhaosu county of Xinjiang. He says that he wants to promote a close connection with those people via academic work and cultural exchanges, a wish also shared by other Dashdawa Mongols in Chengde. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

This video shows Wang Yanhong explaining the Dashdawa Mongol history to the representatives of five Dashdawa Mongol surname groups. He says that initially, about 1,000 Ööld people arrived at Chengde in 1757, followed by another group two years later, the same year when the Anyuan monastery in Chengde was built. Some years later, however, about 500 people were dispatched to Xinjiang to protect the Qing-Russian border areas. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

This video focuses on the morning prayer session in the Puning monastery in Chengde. The Puning monastery is the only monastery that has Mongol lamas and holds regular prayer sessions in Chengde. It has 60 resident lamas from Inner Mongolia and Qinghai province. It is fascinating to see some of the lay Chinese attendees chanting in the Chinese version of the sculptures, while the lamas chant in Tibetan. Most of those who attend the morning prayer sessions are however Mongols from the neighbouring Inner Mongolia. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

This video shows an oboo worshipping ceremony in Chengde. Built on the site of their former community Mongol Camp by the Dashdawa Mongol activist Wang Yanhong, the ceremony is attended by his family members and scholars who participated in a conference Wang Yanhong organised for marking the 256th anniversary of the Dashdawa Mongols’ migration to Chengde (承德市达什达瓦蒙古东迁256年研讨会). Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

This video shows that representatives from five Dashdawa Mongol surname groups – Bai, Kou, Xu, Du, Zhao – get together and talk about their memory of their ancestors in Chengde, the Ööld Mongols. These are close relatives.In the past, they say that Ööld Mongols in Chengde wore Mongolian dresses on importance occasions. They used to live in the Mongol Camp (蒙古营) which is also known as the Ööld Camp (厄鲁特营); the former name was used by the Chinese and the Manchu to refer to them, whereas the Dashdawa Mongols called their residence Ööld Camp. Kou Zixin says that he lived in the Mongol Camp until he was 10, and his grandfather was the head of the Mongol Camp. Kou Tianqing remembers that his grandfather had a Mongolian name called Bayanhu, but he adopted the surname Kou during the Republican period. Zhao Huiyan also remembers that her grandparents used to say, ‘we do not belong to the eight banners, we are from the Ili river’. It is clear from the video that they all know they are the descendants of the Dashdawa Mongols originally hailing from Xinjiang, but they do not know too much about details of their history. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

This video shows the Dashdawa Mongols and Oirat scholars getting together at the Anyuan Monastery celebrating their eastward migration 256 years earlier. The monastery was built for their ancestors in 1764. As shown, apart from members of the five main Dashdawa Mongol surname groups, Du, Zhao, Xu, Kou and Bai, there were also Ööld Mongols from Xinjiang attending the ceremony. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

This video shows Wang Yanhong, the Dashdawa Mongol activist, building an oboo with his relatives at the spot of the former Mongol Camp in Chengde. A couple of years ago, the Mongol Camp was demolished in a campaign called ‘Big Change in Three Years’ (三年大变样). In August 2015, Wang convened a conference in Chengde marking the 256th anniversary of the easterly migration of the Dashdawa Mongols (承德市达什达瓦蒙古东迁256年研讨会) which was attended by scholars from Xinjiang, Beijing and other places. Using this occasion, Wang and his relatives put up a temporary oboo as shown in the video. He says that he modelled it after oboos he saw in Zhaosu county in Ili, their ancestral homeland. After completing the construction, Wang Yanhong taught his family members customs of oboo worship, such as burning incense, circumambulating the oboo clockwise three times, and adding stones to the oboo. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

Digital Archive for Chinese Studies (DACHS) - Citation Repository

Zhao Zixin says that the Zhao family of the Dashdawa Mongols guarded the Summer Capital during the Qing dynasty, but their duty came to an end abruptly at the collapse of the Qing. Since there was no more income, his grandparents turned to herding a few sheep and cows. They could barely make ends meet as there was not enough land. During the Second World War, Chengde was occupied by the Japanese, but there were only a battalion of about 100 Japanese soldiers in Chengde. Zhao recalls that the Japanese did not harm the locals, but they suffered in the hands of what he calls Erguizi (二鬼子), a nickname for Korean soldiers in the Japanese army. The locals called them Hengkeng (横啃), literally meaning ‘gnawing at corn horizontally’. He also says that the Japanese first tested the Mongols but found they did not have any military skills. In 1945, the Soviet red army came to Chengde. He says that the yellow-haired and blue-eyed soldiers were mostly officers, but the black-haired solders appeared to be Mongolians. The black-haired soldiers were very undisciplined, liked to drink, and were often beaten by yellow haired soldiers. Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin