The Social Memory,Life And Production Of Chahar Mongols

The Chahar Eight Banners,Chahar Mongol Tribe and Kheshigten have been the diverse historical concepts in different historical times.And how they have been related to each other in historical discourse,and how the Chahar descendants understand and interprets their past,and how do the nomads represent the `past' in their life and production,all those qustions would be discussed in the dissertation.The descendents of Chahar Mongols are now distributed in Ulaanchab City,Shilingol League of Inner Mongolia as well as Bortal region in Xinjiang.Chahar Tribe had been the Central Tumen(literally 'ten thousand')directly subordinated to Khan administration during Northern Yuan Dynasty,and declined slowly from its primary position of being the `cutting edge of sharp sword,and side face of body armor' to safegurad the Khan authority.The rulers of newly emerging Qing Dynasty seized the chance to expands their power,and not only took in various Mongolian tribes under Qing administration,but also gave rise to unstablility among Chahars,and resulted in Ligden Khan,the last Mongolian Khan,moving westward with his people and died on the road,Erkhe Khongor Eje,the oldest son of Ligden Khan,finally surrendered to Qing Dynasty and was honored as Khoshui Chin Wang.He then married Solid Lun Princess,and governed his tribe and people.Burni Chin Wang,Eje's grandson,along with his younger brother Lubsang rose in rebellion taking advantage of Rebel in Three Frontier Defence Regions(San Fan Zhi Luan),however,was supressed very soon.For the sake of eliminating future troubles and severing the Khan lineage,Qing government redistributed Chahar people to outside Xuanhua,Datong area,and later send some Chahars to border regions of Xinjiang.So far,current distribution of Chahar Mongols were confirmed then.Being as the organized central Tumen directly subordinated to Khan administration,Chahar Tribe had comparatively complex membership,and lost its only link while the Khan lineage served,and experienced several times of seperation,recombination and changes.Neverthless,in present context,its pluralformation has become an advantage and resource,and played important role in conforming the 'Standard Mongolian'.Moreover,They have found even more 'ancient' position for themselves in historical.vein be:ing as Chahar Mongols.Chahar Mongols' memory is not expressed in ritual field,but formed `text coherence' in interactions among historians and Chahar elites.In everyday social space,their memory about the `past' is practiced in another contents and forms.The perceptions of 'Sulde' and 'Kheimor'in Oboo Sacrificing Rituals are stated through the activities of hanging,dispersing and horse competition,the relations of nature and herders are practiced through offering the prime of food,chanting 'Serchim Sang',rotating Oboo,sharing 'Kheshig' and free captivating llivestocks.The fire sacrificing and eternal heaven sacrificing rituals incorporated various symbolic meanings,and are repeated and memorized throu^gh 'homogenous time structure' in periodic cladender repeating structure.Milk products manufactuirng is a complex skill system combines livestock managenents and seasonal characters of nomadic products,and is practiced through systematic skills and diffiused by form of exercise to exercise,person to pearson.With the penefration of market economy,milk products and its concemd systematic skills,even the whole life and production has becxmie object of consunmption,and been given a new value in the maxket context,Hereby,the consumers exist as the outsiders in comparison with Chahar Mongols.Memory and reality support and enrich each other through interactions.