Dashdawa Elders Talking About Their Life

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