From Hovd Travel in Mongolia

Torguud Mongols in Hovd Aimag

Photo of a Torguud man and woman in traditional Torguud clothing

Here are some examples of the brands of the Torguud people. These brands are pressed into the right legs of animals, and are also carved into cliffs and stones within the Torguud territory. 1) Circle 2) Span of the distance between the index finger and the tip of the thumb 3) Saddle thongs 4) Steel crook 5) Tumgal 6) Bird 7) Karaach (aperture in a ger's roof)

About the Torguud

The Torguud are one of the four major sub-groups of the Oirat confederation. As of the year 2000 there were 6,995 Torguuds in Hovd aimag, making them the fourth-largest ethnic group and accounting for 8.06% of the aimag's population. There are far more Torguud people across Hovd's southern border in China's Xinjiang province, which has been their home for centuries. There are about 60,000 Torguuds in Xinjiang. Within Hovd aimag, Torguuds can be found in Hovd City, but they are primarily found down south in Bulgan, by far Hovd's largest soum.

Portrait of Toghrul, a.k.a. Wang Khaan - A Christian convert (hence the religious depiction) and the uncle of Chingis Khaan. An oral tradition states that the 12th century ancestors of the present-day Torguud ethnic group were his bodyguards.

The Torguuds trace their ancestry back to the 12th century, where an oral tradition claims they are descended from Wang Khaan's bodyguards. Wang Khaan was the title given to Toghrul (the leader of the Keirat, a cluster of tribes in central Mongolia that pre-dated the Mongol nation) by the Jin Emperor Shizong in 1183. Toghrul was the brother of Chingis Khaan's father, and the Torguuds believe they are descended from his bodyguards.

Along with the Durvud, their fellow Oirat brethren, the Torguuds began leaving their ancestral home in Xinjiang, China (south of western Mongolia) to look for better pasturelands in the lower Volga, west of the Caspian Sea. They settled into their new homeland around the year 1630, and would be absent during the wars in their homeland between the Oirats and the Khalkhs, and later between the Oirats and the Qing. Their new land soon came under Russian control as a result of the Yermak Expedition

In this new land the Oirats practiced self-government, and established their own Khaanate which reached its military and political peak under Ayuka Khan (1669-1724), during which time the Oirats prospered. After the death of Ayuka Khan, the Tsarist government began chipping away at the autonomy of the Oirats in the Volga region. Russian and German settlements were established that took land from the Oirats, and the Russian Orthodox Church pressured the Oirats to adopt the state religion. A council was imposed that greatly reduced the authority of the Khaanate, while still expecting the Oirats to fight on Russia's behalf.

Drawing of a Torguud woman

Tired of the new impositions on their livelihood, on January 5, 1771 many of the Torguuds and Durvuds who had settled in the Volga set out to return to their ancestral homeland near western Mongolia. The group that left numbered about 200,000, and after several months of grueling treking, 96,000 reached their destination. The remainder died of starvation or thirst, or fell victim to ambushes along the way.

Not all of the Oirat Mongols made the journey home. Another 70,000 stayed behind in the Volga because, according to one legend, they were on the far side of the unfrozen Volga River and couldn't cross. This group remained in the grasslands west of the Caspian Sea and live there to this day (excepting a disastrous deporation period started by Stalin in 1943 and ended by Kruschev in 1957) and are now known as Khalimags. The name is often written as Kalmyk, though it is Хальмаг in Mongolian, which means "remnant", or "to remain".

The Torguud people's home in Hovd aimag, Bulgan soum

The Torguuds re-settled in a place called Khovog in present-day Xinjiang province in China, but eventually several thousand of them left the area, possibly to avoid the instability between Chinese soldiers and a freedom fighter of Kazakh origin known as Osman Batur. These Torguuds took asylum in Mongolia in 1943, and many of them settled in Hovd's Bulgan soum. This soum has flourished as a border town with China, becoming Hovd's largest, and is one of the few soums in Mongolia that is large enough to have its own airport.

Traditional Torguud Clothing

The clothing drawings below (and the ethnic brands illustration above) are from "The Cultural Monuments of Western Mongolia", an outstanding book written and illustrated by M. Amgalan, an ethnographist from Hovd's Mankhan soum.

The Torguud man wears a white silk gown trimmed with black velvet. The black lace of velvet is called "tojoo". The vent at the hip of the gown is short and square, with cross-stitching over the top of the vent.

Torguud women wear this black, coral-studded round cap in the summer and the winter. In the winter they also use forehead, ear, and chin covers. The cap stays on the head very well, and the conical top makes a person seem taller. The ribbons suspend from the coral knot of distinction on the top. The border of the cap is laced with a "Grass Dragon" pattern.

The hat on the left is usually worn by male youths. There is a blue square on top, and a sharp angle pointing south. There is a red knot with four points on its top and a button of rank. This red knot is laid and covered, stitched and braced. Instead of a knot, children attach three pieces of the red cloth to their hats. The covers of the forehead and ears can be furred with sable, velvet, or lambskin. The hat on the red is for older Torguud men. It is a very suitable hat for older people because the wide nape covers the back of the neck and the space between the shoulders, and the long drooping peak in front covers the forehead. There is a short red tassle on top, a red button of rank, and a pair of ribbons on the back. It is furred with the ends of fox skins.

Torguud women wear gowns of bluish, blue-black, green, or black and white colors. This gown has a loose white collar. One thing that distinguishes this Torguud gown from other Mongol ethnic dresses is the sleeves are narrow and the waist is tight. The bosom and cuff are trimmed with red brocade and laced with ribbons of rainbow colors. The skirt has a hem, and the skirt of the western Mongolian gown is cut out in a square and then the square is evenly pleated, which makes the waist of the gown tight. To the right is a close-up of the gown's choker. The ladies of the Torguud, Zakhchin, Uriankhai, Durvud, and Bayad ethnic groups stitch a white choker and wear it exposed to outsiders. The white chokers is decorated to the individual woman's tastes. They sometimes make them heavy by adding silver or coral buttons so they do not flutter. The choker is stitched to the inside of the gown's collar. The choker may have once been a cloak that covered the whole body, but now it is it out of use and the choker is just a vestige of the cloak. There is a legend that the white choker was a sign of heaven's respect that protected the woman wearing it and didn't expose the woman's body to anybody.

This boot was produced during the Torguud's Khalimag migration. They made socks of black and white wool, the socks were then laced with dress leather. The Torguuds wear black boots for ceremonial occasions and white ones for routine work. To make the felt for the boots they mix autumn fleece with lamb fleece. The toes and heels of these boots are covered with horse and cow hides. These boots are both for summer and winter wear.