Inter-ethnic relations in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia¹

Abstract

The article deals with the development of minority policies in Mongolia since independence from China, and focuses on the effects that these policies have had on inter-ethnic relations. The main groups studied are the Khalkha Mongols, the Kazakhs, the Tuvans and the Han Chinese. The definitions of these groups as either ündesten or yastan have also varied over time, which has created theoretically interesting complexities. The article contains a sociolinguistic study of the inter-ethnic relations, with particular emphasis on education, culture, media and publishing. Furthermore, the tendency of the Tuvans to identify ethnically with the Mongols rather than with the Kazakhs is analyzed from the point of view of a sub-minority–majority identification theory. In Inner Mongolia, the inter-ethnic relations are problematic, and there are also severe tensions between the Mongols of Inner Mongolia and those of Mongolia. These ethnic policies have also played an important role in the development of the inter-state relations between Mongolia and the People's Republic of China.

Keywords:

• Mongolia
• Inner Mongolia
• sociolinguistics
• Kazakh
• Tuvan
• ethnic relations

Notes

¹Revised version of a paper originally presented at the conference Contemporary Mongolia – Transitions, Development and Social Transformations, November 15–17, 2008, Vancouver, Canada.

²According to Maiskii, I, Sovremennaya Mongoliya (s.l. [Irkutsk], 1921), quoted from Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 30, the Chinese constituted some 100,000 in Mongolia in the year 1918.

³The parts related to ethnic classification in Mongolia and the inter-ethnic relations between Kazakhs and Tuvans are mainly based on Enwall, ‘Tuvan or Mongol: A Study of Inter-ethnic Relations and Ethnic Definition Strategies among Tuvans and Kazakhs in Western Mongolia’.

⁴For a further discussion on this classification, see Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 29ff.

⁵Thus, ündesten corresponds to ‘nation’, while yastan corresponds to ‘nationality’ in the traditional translation of the Soviet terminology.

⁶‘In the 1991–1992 Congress, they finally managed to elevate their status to a full ündesten as opposed to Mongol’, Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 96.

⁷Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 30.

⁸Ibid., 148.

⁹Brandt et al., A Documentary History of Chinese Communism, p. 217.

¹⁰ Renmin Ribao (People's Daily), September 9, 1953; Dreyer, China's Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China, 67.

¹¹Dreyer, China's Forty Millions, 75.

¹²Dreyer, China's Forty Millions, 96.

¹³Enwall, A Myth Become Reality: History and Development of the Miao Written Language, 39.

¹⁴Yang Zhengwang, Xin shiqi de minzu yuwen gongzuo (The minority language and writing work in the new period), (Beijing: Disanci quanguo minzu yuwen kexue taolunhui, 1980). English translation from Enwall, A Myth Become Reality, vol. 2, 101–102.

¹⁵The majority ethnic group of Mongolia, the Halh Mongols, constitute only around 0.4% of the population of Bayan–Ölgii province.

¹⁶Tuva was a part of Outer Mongolia under the Qing Empire, but was an independent state between 1921 and 1944. In 1944, Tuva was incorporated into the Russian Soviet Republic (RSFSR) as an autonomous oblast', and later, since 1961, as an autonomous republic. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Tuva became one of the federal subjects of the Russian Federation, and the official name was changed to Tyva. According to the 1989 census, the number of Tuvans in the Soviet Union was 207,000. The Tuvan language belongs to the southern branch of Siberian Turkic, and the written standard established in 1930 was based on the central dialect of the republican capital Kyzyl. In 1930, Latin script was used to write Tuvan, but in 1941–1943 this written norm was replaced by Cyrillic script, with three additional letters.

¹⁷Bayan-Ölgii aimgiin statistikiin heltes [Department of statistics of the province Bayan-Ölgii], Bayan-Ölgii aimgiin ediin zasag, niigmiin baidlyn tuhai taniltsuulga 2000 [Introduction to the economy and society of Bayan-Ölgii for the year 2000], 8. In this otherwise very detailed survey of many kinds of statistical information pertaining to Bayan-Ölgii, there is, interestingly enough, no information whatsoever on ethnic and linguistic issues.

¹⁸Tömör-uyal (Director of the department of education at the provincial administration of Bayan-Ölgii. and former director of the Tuvan school in Tsengel), interview by the author, Ölgii, 28 July 2001. According to Galsan Chinag, the first Kazakhs came to the Tsengel area as late as 1898. Chinag, Galsan (shaman and writer), interview by the author, Kuskunnug, Tsengel sum, Bayan-Ölgii, 30 July 2001.

¹⁹Sarai, Revoliutsiiadan būrynghi Mongholiia qazaqtary, 21.

²⁰The area now constituting Tsengel sum of Bayan-Ölgii province, was furthermore marked as part of China on official maps as late as 1957. Taube, ‘Zur gegenwärtigen Situation der Tuwiner im westmongolischen Altai’, 214. The map she refers to is Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo dituji (Beijing and Shanghai, 1957), 44–45.

²¹Finke, ‘The Kazaks of Western Mongolia’, 110.

²²A. Sarai (former governor of Bayan-Ölgii province), interview by the author, Ölgii, 27 July 2001.

²³Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 98–99.

²⁴B. Baabar (Batbayar), History of Mongolia, 396–397.

²⁵Hashimoto and Pürevjav, ‘Baruun Mongol dah' tuva, uygur helnii ügsiin tuhai’, p. 145. Translation by the author.

²⁶Taube, ‘Zur gegenwärtigen Situation der Tuwiner im westmongolischen Altai’, 218.

²⁷Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 30.

²⁸Isagaliev, Kairat Isagalievich (Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Mongolia), interview by the author, Ulaanbaatar, 18 June 2001. According to information received from discussion partners in Almaty, however, this quota system has not only led to less immigration to Kazakhstan from Bayan-Ölgii, but also to a larger number of people returning to Bayan-Ölgii, as the regions assigned for settlement generally are located in the northern part of the country, which is inhabited almost exclusively by ethnic Russians.

²⁹ Čislennost' naličnogo naselenija i kazakov proživajuščix v Mongolii (po predvaritel'nym itogam perepisi naselenija 2000 g.), na 15 nojabrja 2000 g. (Population figures and number of Kazakhs living in Mongolia (according to the preliminary results of the 2000 census), for Nov. 15, 2000). Document provided to the author by the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Mongolia, Kairat Isagalievich Isagaliev, 18 June 2001.

³⁰The Urianhai of Bayan-Ölgii were previously Tuvan speaking, but during the last century, Mongolian has become their spoken language. Nonetheless, the Urianhai shamans in Bayan-Ölgii still use the Tuvan language in shamanist practices. Ariunaa (Director of the Mongolian School in Ölgii), interview by the author, Ölgii, 29 July 2001.

³¹Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 30.

³²Taube, ‘Zur gegenwärtigen Situation der Tuwiner im westmongolischen Altai’, 213.

³³Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 69.

³⁴Taube, ‘Zur gegenwärtigen Situation der Tuwiner im westmongolischen Altai’, 216.

³⁵Ibid., 224.

³⁶Finke, ‘The Kazaks of Western Mongolia’, 137–138.

³⁷See Benson, ‘Osman Batur: The Kazak's Golden Legend’, 141–187. She mentions an agreement concluded in 1942 between Osman and the Mongolian authorities on Mongolian aid to Osman's Kazakh fighters in the form of weapons and advisors.

³⁸Bulag, Uradyn E., Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, p. 99.

³⁹Chinag, Galsan, interview by the author, Kuskunnug, Tsengel sum, Bayan-Ölgii, July 30, 2001.

⁴⁰Qarzhaubai (Professor of turkology, Yevraziyskiy universitet), interview by the author, Astana, February 8, 2002.

⁴¹Bulag, Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia, 100–101.

⁴³An Huayi, ‘Neimenggu shijie renda changweihui di31 ci huiyi juxing fenzu shenyi’, Neimenggu xinwenwang. Available from http://www.nmgnews.com.cn/information/article/20071129/119549_1.html

⁴² Neimenggu zizhiqu menggu yuyan wenzi gongzuo tiaoli (Regulation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Mongolian Language Work ) (s.l. (Huhhot): Neimenggu zizhiqu renda changweihui fazhi gongzuo wenyuanhui, 2004).