1Several provinces (aimag) of Mongolia, such as Khövsgöl, Zavkhan, Arkhangai and Bulgan, are home to a group of Khalkh Mongols who call themselves Khariad (Classic Mongolian qariyad). A well-known Mongolian ethnographer S. Badamkhatan described the process of formation of the clan (oboγ) and lineage (yasu) of the Khalkh Mongols, based on the fieldwork materials collected among the Khariads of Khövsgöl province. But unfortunately, the written source in Mongol, entitled ‘The History of the Ach Khariads’ (Ach Khariadyn tüükh), which was used by Badamkhatan was recently lost (BNMAU 1987, p. 38). In his work about Mongol clan names, A. Ochir wrote that ‘Khariads, among the Khalkh and Oirads, probably originate from the Buryats of the lake Baikal and had an eagle for a totem’ (Ochir 2008, pp. 219-220). Bair Nanzatov lists Khariad and Buriad among the clans of the modern Mongols, who are, in his opinion, the descendants of the Buryat migrants in the 17th century (Nanzatov 2010, p. 90). In his recent paper on the population of the banner of Baγatur beyise of Khalkh Sayin noyan province, recently Ch. Mönkhtör suggested the Khariads who live in Zavkhan province of Mongolia were migrants from Buryatia who settled there between 1700 and 1730’s (Mönkhtör 2012). But there are still a number of questions about the Khariads which have not been resolved. So, hereinafter I shall try to answer the main questions regarding this problem based on the multi-language primary sources and the Khariad oral histories.
2As the Khalkh chronicle Erten-ü mongγol-un qad-un ündüsün-ü yeke sir-a tuγuji (henceforth Sir-a tuγuji) states :
- 1 [dörben oyirad gegči / qariyad. nigen i ögülüd / edüge sargis gegči ulus / bolba : nigen i qosiγud (...)
So called four Oyirads : Qariyad. The one [part] of them [called] Ögülüd, now known as Sargis people. Qosiγud, Torγud, Jegün-γar and Dörbed are together compound the one [of them]. Barγu, Baγatud and [Q]oyid are the one of them. These are the Four Oyirads.1
3Thus from the Khalkh chronicler’s point of view, the Oyirads were composed of Qariyad, Ögülüd (Sargis), Qosiγud, Torγud, Jegün-γar, Barγu, Baγatud, Qoyid. There is further evidence that Khariads were among the Oyirads in the 15th century. Both the anonymous ‘Golden summary (Altan tobči, 1604) and another compiled by Lubsangdanjin (1675), ‘The chronicle called Precious Summary on the roots of the hans’ (Qaγad-un ündüsün-ü erdeni-yin tobči) by Saγan Sečen (1662), ‘The Yellow chronicle on the roots of the ancient Mongol hans’ (Erten-ü mongγol-un qad-un ündüsün-ü yeke sir-a tuγuji) (late 17th century) and ‘History of Asaragchi’ (Asaraγči neretü teüke) by the Khalkh noble Byamspa (1677), all describe one jousting scene at the beginning of the battle between eastern Mongols and Oyirads, which took place at the middle of the 15th century. While both ‘Golden summary’ (Altan tobči) do not indicate ethnic identity of the Oyirad nobleman Guyilinči, Saγan sečen claims he was from the Buriyad of the Oyirads (Huraangui 2011, pp. 100, 270 ; Luvsandanzan 2011, pp. 242, 725 ; Sagan 2011, pp. 153, 477). Interestingly, both Khalkh chronicles ‘The Yellow chronicle on the roots of the ancient Mongol khans’ (Erten-ü mongγol-un qad-un ündüsün-ü yeke sir-a tuγuji) (Shar tuuj 2011) and ‘History of Asaragchi’ (Asaraγči neretü teüke) (Asragch 2011) identify the Oyirad nobleman as being of Qariyad origin (Shar tuuj 2011, pp. 90, 117 ; Asragch 2011, pp. 68, 239). We may therefore conclude that a branch of the Oyirads in the 15th century, known as Buriyad to other Mongols (such as Ordos of Saγan Sečen), was known to Khalkh Mongols as Qariyad. But which part of modern Buryats was known to the Khalkh people by the name of Khariad or Qariyad ?
4As we know, most modern Buryats were actually never referred to as such outside the Russian administrative system, where this name was the official designation of the Mongol-speaking people who became the subjects of the Tsar after 1727. Tuguldur Toboyin (1863), in his ‘Qori kiged aγuyin buriyad-nar-un urida-daγan boluγsan anu’ (The chronicles of khori buryat, Letopisi 1935), captures the moment when the Khori (who are now the majority of the Transbaikal Buryats) took the name Buryat in the following passage :
- 2 [tende-eče tesikin negüged, itanča quduru γoul ba : tende-če basa negüüjü, bayiγal mörün-ü köbege-b (...)
Fleeing from there [they] reached the rivers Itanča and Quduru. Then they left that place and reached the shore of the lake Baikal, the island of Olkhon, and camped over there. Because on the west and east shores of the lake Baikal there were living the people called Buriyad, who settled there earlier, the Russians named [us] after them, thus we became known as the Buriyads of the eleven Khori tribes.2
5Another indigenous group of the Transbaikal region — Tabunuty (Mo. tabunangγud) — were always referred to as Mungaly, i.e. Mongols, by Russian Cossacks. So, who were the ‘real’ Buryats ? As I shall show below, the ethnic groups who were referred to as the Buryats both by themselves and other Mongols, except for the Khalkh, inhabited the west coast of the lake Baikal and the Sayan Mountains. A few arguments may be made in support of this suggestion.
- 3 Obviously, Ööled’s Taizhi khan is related to the famous Oyirad rulers who were bore the title of Ta (...)
6a. The Cisbaikal Bulagads maintain that their ancestor was Bukha-noyon (lit. Bull-lord) the son of Khormusta Tengri, who descended to earth and had a son by Ööled’s Taizhi (Taiji) khan’s daughter3 (Khangalov 2004b, p. 350). A folk song of the Bulagad people’s marriage ceremony tells us the following :
- 4 [Buryaad khünei zayabari / Bulgad khünei tüükhe / Bukha noyon baabai / Budan khatan iibii] (Hangalo (...)
The fate of Buryaad people
The history of Bulagad people
Bukha — the lord father
Budan — the lady mother.4
7This personage was well known to the Khalkh and Darkhad shamans of the northern Mongolia as ‘the lord of the Buriads and Khariads’. In the collection of Yöngsiyebü Rinčen there are few examples of such shamanic invocations. One of these runs as follows :
- 5 [Sék, sék, ség ! / Xariáddiň edzeň Xarǎ Ildeň bátar, / Buriáddiň edzeň Buxǎ Ilden bátar, / Širýn ma (...)
Sék, sék, ség !
The hero Black Ilden, Lord of the Khariad,
The hero Bull Ilden,
Lord of the Buryat
Who puckers his cruel brow
And strikes his sword-like red horns
Ah ! My father !
Come [to us] bellowing
Stepping with your steel hooves — shir ! shir !
Smacking with your whip — sung ! sung !
[Come to us]
My hero Bull Ilden !5
- 6 [uγ teüke inu, činggis gedeg baγatur, buljiqu-dur / ariγ-un dooradu küriyen-ü tusiy-a buq-a noyan-i (...)
8As Rinchen mentions, the Khalkh shamans believed that this Bukha noyon was sent by Chinggis Khan to Arig River to supervise the Khariads and Buriads.6
- 7 [Darkhaty nazyvayut Buryat Irkutskoi doliny Kharyat ili Kharyas] (Potanin 1883, p. 25).
- 8 [qar-a / darqad-un arad yeke časun-dur tokiyalduju nutuγlaqu γajar / oldaqu ügei bolba : ede oros q (...)
- 9 For more about the case see Natsagdorj 2012.
9b. The Russian scholar G. N. Potanin noted that the Darkhads referred to their neighbours, the Irkutsk Buryats, as Kharyat.7 In 1784 the Urga governor Yündündorji decided to evacuate the Darhads from inside the borderline on the grounds that ‘the people of Qara-Darqad cannot find a place to camp because of heavy snow. They can move out to the Russian Qariyads’.8 One year before this, in 1783, the Russian Buryats of today’s Zakamensk region crossed the border and together with the Qing Uriyanghais robbed Chinese merchants on Qing territory. The incident caused an interruption of the Kyakhta trade up to 1792, when the two sides signed a new edition of the Kyakhta treaty. The Buryat robbers in the official Qing documents were identified as Khariads (Mo. qariyad, Ma. kariyat) from the very beginning of this case and even in the so-called ‘International protocol’ of the 1792 they were classified as Khariads (russ. харяты) (Sbornik 1889, p. 94).9 The Qing official Songyun who signed the new treaty wrote about the Russo-Qing border and explained that Khariads lived to the west of Kyakhta near the Tangnu Uriyanghai (Vestnik 1858, p. 48).
10We may conclude from the above that Khalkh and Darkhads designated the Buryats from Cisbaikal Tunka and Sayan Mountains region, specifically the Bulagads, who had the bull totem, as Khariad (qariyad). At the same time there is no mention (at least, none that I have found) that the Cisbaikal Bulagad Buryats called themselves Khariad. I suggest that Khariad was the exo-ethnonym of the Buryats, given to them by their southern Khalkh neighbours. So, for Khalkh Mongols, Qariyad and Buriyad were two different names of the same Mongol-speaking ethnic groups of the northern shore of the lake Baikal.
- 10 Pаvel Kulvinsky was a Pole from Lithuania. As a prisoner-of-war he was exiled to Siberia and served (...)
11In 1675 the envoys of the Khalkh left wing’s ‘Faithful and powerful’ Vajra Batu Tüsiyetü khan (Mong. Süsüg küčün tegüsügsen Wčirai batu tüsiyetü qaγan ; russ. Ochiroi sain kan) Čaqundorji handed over the letter of their khan to the Russian Tsar in Moscow. The fragments of this original Mongol letter are now kept in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. I shall provide below my translation of it, while the Russian translation of the 17th century made by Pavel Kulvinsky does not agree with the original Mongol text of the letter (see Shastina 1960).10
- 11 [oom sayin jirγalang boltuγai. / süsüg küčün tegüsügsen wčirai tüsiyetü /...(.)aran (…)ki eketü γar (...)
Let there be happiness. The faithful and strong Vajra Tüsiyetü … in the […]th month the thirty quivering fugitives headed by Čakir baγatur… were not given back to us, claiming as they were the subjects of the White khan. Five yurts of Erke tayiji … two subjects of Erdeni baγatur, altogether five groups of men and eighty-two head of cattle, were taken [from us]. You have caused these kinds of troubles. Now settle them. If any of our subjects ever cause you trouble, let us know. Send one good person to Irkutsk and Selenginsk fortresses. We will send a good person [over there]. Let them discuss and investigate who is [guilty]. This is all we know. There may be more cases we do not know. If you do not give us our Qariyads back or find the guilty parties, you cannot live in the fortresses of Selenginsk, Irkutsk and Irgen. You cannot come to trade. If you give our Qariyads back and find the guilty, you may live in those fortresses and come to trade. Accompanying [this missive] are presents of green silk, blue silk, brown silk and red silk brocade [together] with a silver salver.11
12Russian clergyman translated the word qariyad as yasachnye (russ. ясачные), meaning those who pay taxes in fur (Materialy 1996, p. 281). Obviously, Pavel Kulvinsky mistook the word qariyad for another word qariyatu, meaning ‘taxable subject’. But qariyad is not the same as qariyatu as becomes clear from another letter of the same Khalkh khan to the Qing emperor Kangxi sent in 1687, in which he provided information about the mission of Fyodor Alexeevich Golovin as follows :
- 12 […basa oros-yin čaγan qaγan-u tabun / mingγan elči ilegegsen kemejü bičig-tei elči ireji qariba. üg (...)
...Also, a [Russian] messenger came here with a letter and went back. In the letter it was said that the Russian White khan has sent five thousand messengers. The main point of his words was that [they] are willing to conclude the peace [with you] here or at the east side gathering together at the assembly. There are also many troops advancing at the east side, as [we] have heard. Although they took our Qariyad people and made many troubles on our frontiers, it seems that their khan wants to conclude peace. But as his people are very uncertain, rebellious and untrustworthy, for a long time I could not decide [whether to conclude peace]. Now, as this envoy said that there are answers to the questions that were asked from the White khan, I have sent my men to understand the situation.12
13When the letter was received in Beijing, the translators of the Lifanyuan court translated the underlined phrase into Manchu as ‘meni harangga kariyad gebungge jušen be gaifi, jecen i / bade nungneme bisirengge labtu bicibe, esei han doro acara cihangga / gese bime, ceni jušen umesi yargiyan akū facuhūn toktohon akū / ofi, lashalame muterakū goidaha’ (Dayičing 2005b, p. 332) which means ‘Although they took our subjects called Kariyad and made many troubles on our frontier lands, it seems that that their khan wants to conclude peace. But as his people are very uncertain, rebellious and untrustworthy, for a long time I could not decide [whether to conclude the peace]’.
14There is also another letter of Tüsiyetü khan Čaqundorji to the Qing court, dated 1685, in which again he mentions the Qariyads, this time together with the Russians.
- 13 [süsüg küčün tegüsügsen vačirai batu tüsiyetü qaγan-u bičig. ○ yamun-u sayid-tu medegülkü. oros-yin (...)
15This letter of the Faithful and powerful Vajra Batu Tüsiyetü khan is to inform the officials of the court about the Russians. ‘[They] live together with the Qariyads of our frontier. Having heard that they are treating those Qariyads badly and stopping the travelers who go there, I have sent [the envoy] to discuss those cases. [They] have not come back yet. When they have returned, [I] shall immediately inform you about their words. I am sending [this] after finding out that you were asking our envoys about the Russians. In addition, there are words that the envoy will convey to you orally.’13
16So, the Tüsiyetü khan of the Khalkh’s left wing complained to the Qing emperor that the Russians had taken the Qariyad people who were his subjects. In the above quoted fragment from Sir-a tuγuji the Qariyads were mentioned as a part of the Four Oyirads. Why then did the Khalkh’s Tüsiyetü khan in the second half of the 17th century consider those Qariyads, i.e. Cisbaikal/Irkutsk Buryats, as his subjects, who were taken from him by Russians ?
17As is known from various sources, the period of the 16th and early 17th century was the time of the Mongol-Oyirad wars, in which the Oyirads were suffering substantial losses including the territories to the west of the Khangai Mountains (Okada 1972, pp. 69-85). Taking an active part in those wars, the northern Khalkh’s two wings could expand their territories greatly to the Altai Mountains. Therefore I suggest that, during these wars the Khariads — that is, the Buryats — of the northern shore of lake Baikal and the Sayan Mountains, who were among the Four Oyirad’s allies, were subdued by the Khalkh nobles and began to pay tribute to the latter.
- 14 [buriyad sečen čögekür temür takiy-a-tai (buriyad sečen čögekür [was born] in [the year] of the iro (...)
18In the historical legends of the western Buryats, the Mongol nobles are described as alien invaders who tried to extend their power over their lands, as well as to disseminate Tibetan Buddhism among them. According to a widespread legend, called Mongolian noble Söökher (Mongol Söökher noyon), at the beginning the Bulagads decided to submit without any resistance to the cruel Mongol, i.e. Khalkh, noble, when he invaded their lands and killed the Buryat shamans (Baldaev 2012, pp. 317-318). This account, one of the many versions of the legend, was recorded by an eminent ethnographer Sergey Baldaev in 1937 from a descendant of the captured warrior of the legendary Söökher noyon in tenth generation. This means that the real prototype of this Sööher noyon lived at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. Obviously Söökher, or Šüükher, is a Buryatized version of the Mongol title Čögekür. There were many Čögekürs at the beginning of the 17th century among the Khalkh nobility. One of them, the founder of the Khalkh Sayin noyan’s dynasty Tümengken Köndelen Čögekür Noyan, is mentioned in Sir-a tuγuji as Buriyad Sečen Čögekür.14 Probably, the faithful patron of the Yellow-hat school of Buddhism — Tümengken Köndelen Čögekür noyan, who received the title Sayin noyan from the Dalai lama for his protection of the religion, was the same person as the one mentioned in the Buryat legend.
19Nevertheless, the western Buryats, called Khariads, who were among the Oyirad’s allies in the 15th century, remained in their homelands, while the other Oyirads were driven out to the west after suffering heavy losses in the wars with the eastern Mongols in the second half of the 16th century. The remaining ‘Oyirads’ begun to pay tribute to the Khalkh nobles, but saw them as foreign invaders, as one can see from their historical legends cited above. When the new players from the northwest came to the local scene to gather yasak, the Khalkh nobles were dissatisfied with the actions of the Russian Cossacks who were ‘untrustworthy and uncertain’ people.
20Since the chronology of the Cossack expansion to the western Buryat lands in the first half of the 17th century has been given in detail by A. Okladnikov, I will not elaborate this issue (See Okladnikov 1937). One of the strategies the Buryats used while fighting with the Cossacks was to escape to their far encampments or even further to Khalkh Mongolia. In 1655, the Ekhirid nobles Bura and Tagasai, the Tsar’s new subjects, came to Verkholensk fortress and informed the Cossacks about the group of Buryats headed by Tishirei, who had stolen 400 of horses and were intending to flee to Mongolia. The nobles were seeking military support (Zalkind 1958, pp. 33-34).
21But the most massive flights were yet to come. In July 1658, the Buryats of the Balagansk fortress, after being reduced by the Cossack ataman Ivan Pokhabov to a desperate situation, fled to Mongolia, killing all the Russians on their way and collecting the Cossack horses from the fortress outskirts. The captured Buryat Kursun told the Cossacks, under torture, that the Mongol merchants named Abavak and Badan, who had come to trade with them in winter, suggested that they should flee to Mongolia (Okladnikov 1937, p. 119). Just after the first flight, the Buryats of the Bratsk fortress, headed by Baakhai and Dakhai, followed the Balagansk Buryats. Someone called Azigidai Buyantin, who did not want to join the flight, came to Bratsk fortress and gave the Cossacks a detailed account about the Buryat flight. As he said, ‘all the Buryats of the Udinsk and Verkholensk fortresses were going to flee with them. 300 Mongol troops came to their support and brought them many camels for flight and sheep for food’ (ibid., p. 123). The Cossacks sent to chase the fugitives in September, but could not catch up with the Buryats who had passed the so-called ‘Mungal’ Mountains (Eastern Sayan Mountains) and reached Khalkh Mongolia (ibid., p. 127).
22It was still not clear where exactly in Khalkh Mongolia the Buryat migrants subsequently settled. Below I shall try to answer this question. In 1660, major Cossack forces headed by Druzhina Popov were sent from Yeniseisk fortress to contact the fugitive Buryats and, if possible, bring them back under Tsar’s rule. The Buryat, named Moksoi, captured at Irkut River told them :
- 15 [prezhnie de tvoi gosudarevy yasachnye lyudi Brattskie knyaztsy, s svoimi ulusnymi lyudmi, ot Balag (...)
Buryat nobles, your former subjects, left Balagansk fortress with their subjects and passed over [Sayan] Mountains to the Mongol lands. Those Buryat nobles live with their people in the Mongol steppe under Mongol taizhis. At [Sayan] mountains, the Mongol Tsar and his taizhis established an outpost consisting of 500 Mongols and Girot nomads in order to guard the Buryats to be sure they cannot flee back to Balagansk fortress from Mongol land and also to watch out that your troops do not pass over the mountains to Mongolia.15
- 16 Administrative unit among the Mongols between 15th and 20th.
23It seems that the Girot nomads (Rus. Girotskie kochevnye lyudi) were related to the Gerüd otoγ16 of the Khalkh which was given to Noγonoqu üyijeng noyan, the third son of Geresenje, together with Gorlos otoγ, after the death of his father. Most of the researchers read the name of this otoγ as Khergüüd, Kherüüd (Gongor 1970, p. 179 ; Ochir 2002, p. 43) thus following the opinion of the Vladimirtsov who claimed they might be descendants of medieval Yenisei Kirgiz (Vladimirtsov 1934, p. 134). But many ethnographic expeditions to the Khalkh Mongols of the former Tüsiyetü khan and Sayin noyan provinces (the domains of the descendants of the Noγonoqu üyijeng), never detected any group of people referred to as Khergüüd or Kherüüd. At the same time there were those who designated themselves as Black and White Gerüüd or just Gerüüd (Mong. gerüüd, har gerüüd, tsagaan gerüüd). Nowadays they live in the neighborhood of those Khariads mentioned at the beginning of the paper, on the territory of the former Sayin noyan provinces’ banners — Dalai Čoyingqur and Baγatur jasaγ (Mongolyn 2011, p. 263). When the Muscovite envoy Ivan Petlin travelled to Ming China in 1619, on his way in Khalkh Mongolia he met the noble Čečen noyan (Tümengken/Buriyad sečen čögekür noyan — the founder of the Sayin noyan’s domain), whose people were called Giryut (Russko-Kitaiskie 1969, p. 79).
24So the Mongol Tsar, Tüsiyetü khan Čaqundorji, settled the Buryats on the territory of Sayin noyan’s domain, among the Gerüüds. Evidence for this can also be found in a written source of the modern Khariads from Khövsgöl province, entitled ‘The History of the Ači Abaγ-a Dumda Qariyads’ (A che a pa ga tung tu ha ri ti thu hu ‘u).
- 17 [thung hung zas ’ing no yon la mjal ’phrad rgyu mtshan thams cad rgyas par zhus phyag ’dud la ngo m (...)
25When they met with the Tümengken sayin noyan (Tib. thung hung zas ’ing no yon) they told him about the reasons [of their flight] in detail and kowtowed to him. The marvelous [lord] commended them for this and granted them many sheep to enjoy felicity.17
Picture 2. The title page of the manuscript ‘A che a pa ga tung tu ha ri ti thu hu ’u’
Ts. B. Natsagdorj, XVII zuuny Mongol-Orosyn khariltsaan dakhi khariyatyn asuudal [The problem of the subjection between Mongolia and Russia in the 17th century] (Ulaanbaatar, Admon) 2013, p. 88
26The Buryats of Tunka region, who moved back to Buryatia from Mongolia during the Mongol-Dzungar war at the end of the 17th century, still remembered two centuries later how the Khalkh Mongols had met them and helped them with everything when they arrived there as fugitives from the cruel Bagaba i.e. Pokhabov.
- 18 [Khalkhastsy, kak i mozhno bylo ozhidat’, prinyali svoikh rodstvennikov radushno, vykazali ne skaza (...)
27The Khalkh, as might be expected welcomed their relatives very well, showing full compassion for their misfortunes, not to mention the clothes and food (which were given to everyone in need free of charge). The poor men were given sheep, cattle, horses and camels, while women received silk and cloth. The guests received the finest land for their encampments, with full rights to be ruled by the Mongol-Buryat law of the northern side of the Lake Baikal, which had been used by them from ancient times. Most importantly, all the migrants were granted full exemption from local tribute. That is how the Khalkhs were delightful for us — concludes the storyteller.18
28But soon after this, the internecine war in Khalkh Mongolia, known in Mongolian historiography as ‘Lubsang’s rebellion’, broke out. Massive migration from Khalkh’s right wing to the left wing or even further to Qing Mongolia across the Gobi obviously caused a shortage of lands for encampments. Probably, the army draft also caused return flights of the Buryats. The Buryats from the Bükhed clan headed by Kinkun daruga arrived in Irkutsk in April 1667, fleeing from Mongolia (Okladnikov 1937, p. 136). Just before them, two men from the Bulud clan came to Irkutsk and informed the Cossacks that about one hundred Buryats had fled from Mongolia but had been stopped by Mongol troops and brought back (Okladnikov 1937, p. 137). The Mongol outpost troops were guarding the route of the fugitives (ibid., p. 137).
- 19 Tanguto-Tibetskaya 1893, p. 103 ; Mongol ard 1979, p. 63 ; BNMAU 1987, p. 38 ; Ochir, Serzhee 1998, (...)
29But not all the Buryats, i.e. Khariads, fled back to their homeland. Many of them remained among the Khalkh. Beginning with G. N. Potanin, various scholars have traced the Khariad clan among the Khalkh Mongols from the Dalai Čoyingqur and Baγatur beyise banners of Sayin Noyan’s province, territories included in today’s Ikh-Uul district (sum) of Zavkhan province, Shine-Ider, Galt and Zhargalan districts of Khövsgöl province and Tariat, Khangai, Tsahir districts of Arkhangai province of Mongolia.19 Moreover, there are other clans in that region and other places that are descendants of the Buryat migrants of the 17th century, and these will be considered in the next section.
- 20 A handwritten copy of S. Badamkhatan was not among the items of the Centre of Historical Documents (...)
30Khariad (ach Khariad, avga Khariad, dund Khariad) — At the beginning of the paper I noted that the Mongolian manuscript called ‘The History of Ach Khariads’ (Ach Khariadyin tüükh), which was discovered and copied by S. Badamkhatan in 1981 during his field research at the home of B. Dagvasambuu (the brother of Mongolian academician B. Shirendev) in Shine-Ider district of Khövsgöl province and later used by him in The Ethnography of the MPR (BNMAU-yn ugsaatny züj), was lost.20 The handwritten copy of that manuscript, which was kept by A. Gochoo and his son G. Lhagvasüren was published in the form of genealogical tables in 2004 by a member of the same Khariad clan, T. Dan-Aazhav (Dan-Aazhav 2004). When I met with Dr. Dan-Aazhav in 2012 while trying to learn more about the original Mongol text of the source, he told me that he had a Tibetan manuscript that was identical in terms of content with the Mongol manuscript, and he kindly agreed to make me a copy of it. As he said the manuscript was kept in the monastic library of the Nükhtiin khüree (which was located in the same Shine-Ider district of Khövsgöl province). When the monastery was closed in the 1930s it was among other books and sutras of the library kept by Khariad V. Tsogdog, a former student of the monastery.
31The manuscript deals with the origin of the Khariads, their migration to Khalkh, the granting of various titles by Khalkh Sayin noyan to their leaders and genealogy of the whole tribe, divided into twenty-odd patronymic groups. According to the source, the Buryat migrants Tabdai and Khongkhadamar received various titles and privileges from Khalkh’s Tümengken Sayin noyan. Since we know the exact date of birth of the two descendants of the mentioned Tabdai, who received the title darkhan tsoorch (Tib. tar hang tshor che ; Mong. darqan čoγorči) from Sayin noyan, we can calculate his approximate date of birth.
32This means that their ancestor Tabdai could have been born in the early 17th century and could indeed have been a contemporary of Sayin noyan Tümengken. Anyway, I consider it likely that this group of Khalkh, who used to be referred to as the Khariad, are the descendants of those Buryat migrants of the mid-17th century. Over the years they have forgotten to which clan or tribe of the western Buryats they belonged and have accepted the general name given to Buryats in Khalkh — Khariad. From the ethnographic data collected by Mongolian scholars, one can clearly see that these Khariads considered themselves to be Khalkh, and distinguished between themselves and the neighboring Khotogoids (Mongolyn 2011, p. 259).
33But there is one clue in the Tibetan manuscript that might be useful for ascertaining the origin of these Khariads. The subtitle of the manuscript reads in Tibetan : pho mi[ =mes] grags pho mi yod yen hus thes ha ri ta’i riT brgyud po ri ta’i rus can brtan bzad[ =zhugs] so// which means ‘Here lies the glory of the Yenghudei Khariads of Buryat origin’. In two other places the text mentions the Yengkhüdei Khariads (tib. yen hus thes ha ri ta ; yeng hus thes ha ri ta). The syllables ‘yeng hus thes’, which are meaningless in Tibetan, resemble the Buryat clan name Yengüüd. According to Buryat genealogical legends they are included in Bulagad clans (Rumyantsev 1969, p. 81). According to a legend of the Alar’s Khongodors, when they fled back from Khalkh, the Yengüüd’s nine sons were left behind in Mongolia, for their support of Sain khan (Skazaniya 1890, pp. 126-130). It may be true that the modern Khariads of the above-mentioned districts (sums) of Khövsgöl, Arkhangai and Zavkhan provinces, originate from the Bulagad-Buryat clan of Yengüüd. According to ethnographic records, those Khariads were divided into twenty-odd patronymic groups such as Khudgiin khar malgaitan, Orosynkhon, Zantgarynkhan, etc. They were also subdivided into Ach Khariad (Nephew or Grandson Khariads), Dund Khariad (Middle Khariads), Baruun and Züün Khariad (Right and Left Khariads), Sakhlag tsagaan Khariad (Bearded white Khariads).
34Bööchüüd — In the same districts of the above-mentioned provinces of the Mongolia, in the neighborhood of the Khariads, Mongolian ethnographers have noted a people who call themselves Bööchüüd (Ochir, Serjee 1998, pp. 10-11, 27-29, 40-42). In 2007, B. Zinamidar published the photographic copy of the genealogical table of this clan, which was kept by G. Luvsansodov, a resident of Galt district of Khövsgöl province (Zinamidar 2007, p. 67). As Zinamidar made a number of misspellings while transliterating the Mongol text into Cyrillic Mongolian, I shall use here a photocopy of the text. The beginning of the source reads as follows :
- 21 [doloγan bögečüd-ün omoγ uγ inu qariyad yasutai šaγajaγai mergen šaγdur qosiuči kemekü aq-a degüü q (...)
The origin of the seven Bögečüd is related to two brothers of the Qariyad origin (lit. bone), Šaγajaγai mergen and Šaγdur qosiuči. The son of Šaγdur qosiuči was Ayusi jayisang qosiuči. His sons by his senior spouse were Qara bürgüd, Sira bürgüd ; his sons by his junior spouse were Lajab, Lamajab ; together they are the forefathers of this people.21
35As Zinamidar states, there are two opinions about the name Bööchüüd (Mong. bögečüd). One explains the name in terms of the massiveness of migrants (Mong. bögem means many, massive) ; others say they were named after their good shamans (Mong. böge – shaman) (ibid., p. 57). When the Buryat refugees arrived in Khalkh in the middle of the 17th century, Buddhism had already been flourishing there for about 70-80 years under the patronage of Khalkh nobles. So, it is quite possible that shamanist Buryats were labeled as ‘shamanists’ by the neighbouring Khalkh. As their oral history maintains, the Bööchüüds had good shamans until recent times (ibid., p. 57).
36Barnuud — In the same places where the above-mentioned Khariads and Bööchüüds live, ethnographers found people belonging to the Barnuud clan (Ochir, Serzhee 1998, pp. 10-11, 27-29, 40-42). In ‘History of the Ači Abaγ-a Dumda Qariyads’ there is a fragment about the origin of the Barnuuds :
- 22 [hong ha ta mar ’di skyes bu’i yon tan smin bzang dpa’ po mi zhes pa dmag dang g.yas ru’i jo bo’i l (...)
As Khongkhadamar was a heroic skillful man in martial arts, he was appointed a pathfinder and leader of the right wing of the troops. When there was a competition among the troops he caught a young tiger. Thus his descendants are referred to as Barnuud down to the present day.22
37This Khongkhadamar was younger brother of Tabdai, from whom the abovementioned Khariads are descended. Is the Barnuud clan of Khar Darkhads of Jebzundamba shabi administration in modern Khövsgöl province related to these Barnuuds ? I cannot make any conclusive statement at the point and would just mention here that among the Darkhads, there was also a clan named Khariad, which was sometimes referred to as Buriad (Badamkhatan 1965, pp. 66-67).
38Khariads of the Doloon Görööchin. From the Qing dynasty up to 1924 Tüsiyetü khan’s banner had an enclave territory in the north, in today’s Tarialan district of Khövsgöl province, which was officially called ‘North hunters’ otoγ of the forest’ (Modun-u aru görügečin otoγ’). They consisted of 7 clans (oboγ/ovoγ), allegedly descendants of the 7 hunters who came here from the outskirts of Erdeni-Zuu monastery. These 7 clans are Khalbagad, Khar süreg, Sharagchuud, Olgonuud, Khongiid, Salgaid and Khariad (Banzragch, Ichinnorov 1999, p. 173). One of them, called Khongiid in the ethnographic reports of some Mongolian scholars, is named Khongoodor, just like the Buryats of the Alar and Tunka regions. I have found a document, dated 1785, in which this administrative unit was referred to as ‘Evenki hunter people’ (Görügečin qamniγan arad) (NCA Mongolia, М1D3-49.5). Obviously not all those ‘hunters’ were migrants from the steppe zone. ‘Local’ Buryats and Evenkis, who were migrants from the north, took part in the formation of this administrative unit as well. The territory of this unit was detached from the banner of General Tüsiy-e güng of Sayin noyan province, the rulers of which were the descendants of Dalai Sečen noyan (Rus. Dalai Tsetsen noyon) who provided active ‘Buryat’ policy and even attacked Tunkinsk fortress with his Buryat troops in 1684 (Dopolneniya 1867, pp. 256-257). I suggest that some of his Buryat subjects under the name of Khariad became the one of the 7 clans of Görööchin otoγ.
- 23 The official letter of General Authority for Registration of Mongolia to the author.
39During his field research in 1925 in MPR, near the Terelzh River, the famous Russian Mongolist Boris Vladimirtsov made some notes about two Khalkh shamans, one of whom, named Gombozhav, was a shaman in the 10th generation of the Khariad clan (Vladimirtsov 1927, p. 21). The former banner of Darqan čing wang of Tüsiyetü khan province, where the shamans lived, was ruled by a descendant of Galdandorji, a son of the Tüsiyetü khan Čaqundorji. The ethnographer S. Badamkhatan placed the Kharid clan among the disciples of Zaya pandita of Khalkh, in today’s Bulgan district of Arkhangai province (CHD IH MAS VII3-7-22). It shows that Buryat migrants were settled almost everywhere and that even in the early 20th century some of them still remembered their origin. According to the official census of 1 August 2013, there were 1017 Bööchüüds, 2898 Barnuuds and 6991 Khariads in Mongolia. Most of the Khariads lived in Khövsgöl province and in Ulaanbaatar.23
Picture 3. Khariad clans
Mongol ard ulsyn ugsaatny sudlal, khelnii shinzhleliin atlas [The ethnographic and linguistic atlas of the MPR], Rinchen (ed.) (Ulaanbaatar, ShUAKh), p. 63
40Our data show that the Qariyads mentioned in Khalkh chronicles ‘Sir-a tuγuji’ and ‘Asaraγči neretü-yin teüke’ were most probably none other than the Buryats of Cisbaikalia, Sayan and Tunka regions, who were among the Oyirad allies from the 14th to 16th centuries. Beginning from the mid-16th century, the Oyirads were driven out to the far west by eastern Mongols, and the former ‘Oyirads’ — Buryats — were subdued by Khalkh nobles and Tüsiyetü khans of the left wing who considered themselves as their sovereign rulers. But real direct rule over them was in the hands of the Sayin noyan’s nobles who were formally subordinated to Tüsiyetü khan. I suppose that the Buryats previously belonging to the Oyirad confederation were put under the rule of the first Sayin noyan Tümengken/Buriyad sečen čögekür (Söökher and Šüükher noyon in the Buryat legends) on the eve of the Muscovite expansion into the Buryat lands. Not willing to pay double tribute to Cossacks and Khalkh nobles, the Buryats fled to Khalkh Mongolia. Contrary to a widespread opinion among Soviet scholars, it seems that not all the Buryat migrants fled back to their homeland from Khalkh, seeking for the fair governance and lower taxes of Muscovite administration : most of those Buryat migrants from various clans remained in Khalkh and are still known by the name of Khariad, which was actually the general Khalkh designation of all western Buryats.