Inner Mongolia

Torghuts in Inner Mongolia largely concentrate in two places: Ejene banner and Hohhot. Numbering about 2,000, Torghuts in Ejene are descendants of a 500-person mission sent from Kalmykia to Tibet in 1698 but failed to return due to the Qing-Jungar war. In the 1930s, the banner became a major destination of the Khalkha refugees from the Mongolian People’s Republic, resulting in wide-scale inter-marriages and cultural fusion of the two Mongolian communities. Having lost many of their best knowledge-bearers, in recent years, they have been on the fore-front of cultural revitalisation, promoting themselves as the world-centre of Oirat culture, which is the umbrella culture of the Kalmyk/Torghuts.

Hohhot is home to some Oirat/Torghut intellectuals from Xinjiang and Ejene. In recent years, young Oirats from Xinjiang have been streaming to universities in Hohhot for classical Mongolian-medium education.

On this page, you can view videos and photos related to local cultural preservation activities in Ejene and narratives about the Torghut culture, such as dress, music, language, literature, history, and the relationship between Oirat Mongols in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, given by Torghut intellectuals based in Hohhot.