Miscellaneous Information About Bayan Nurgan

Togoji came to Inner Mongolia from Mongolia in 1932 at the age of 5 with her two sisters and in 1949 she moved to Bayan Nurgan. In this video, she and her son mostly talk about herding life in Bayan Nurgan. They herd about 70 camels and 300 goats, the upper limit allowed by the government. Now they have about 20,000 mu land, but due to drought they have to buy extra hay and other animal feed from Han Chinese. As she said, Mongols in Bayan Nurgan are mostly herders but they have bought apartments in the town centre. Some Mongols have moved to the banner centre to take care of their grandchildren or for health reasons.Their house on the farm is in the process of refurbishment as part of the so-called “Ten Complete Covers” programme initiated by the Inner Mongolian government. They have to pay about 30,000 yuan for it and the rest will be covered by the government.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi

Watering Camels and Goats

Due to the lack of sufficient shallow water wells, the Togoji family use a deep well to provide water for their goats and camels. As shown in the video, they are using a solar powered watering machine to pump water from the deep well. Goats drink water every day while camels once in a few days.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi

Felt embroidery

Adiya is a felt embroidery specialist. She commenced her work after they sold domestic animals and settled down in the township centre. In July 2015, Adiya mobilised her relatives to make a series of felt products, a work receiving strong encouragement from the local cultural bureau. A documentary has been made about her work and products. Even though she has many followers, she laments that her children are not interested in embroidery.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi

Gentrifying the Grassland

The video shows a group of Han Chinese workers from Shanxi province working on the Ten Complete Covers project in Bayan Nurgan. As they said, they are painting all the herders' houses located along the main road in the government designated white and yellow colours. The project will complete painting the entire village within three months by a team of 60 workers who are paid by the local government.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi

Release of the Album “Ejnee Folk Songs”

The “Ejine Folk Songs” album is an output of the government supported Ejine Torghut Folk Song Conservation Project. It has 5 DVDs with 130 songs sung by 55 singers. 34 singers in the album have already passed away. Choidandar, a professor from the North Western Nationalities University and the academic consultant of the project, suggests that in the next stage they will urgently collect every piece of folklore from elders. In the release ceremony as recorded in the video, the album is officially presented to the Ejine banner’s government departments, cultural associations and singers.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi

The Western Banner Monastery

The Western Banner Monastery was rebuilt in 2008 and currently has 17 permanent resident lamas. The monastery, as Daranzan explains, was designed after an old monastery photo that is stored in the Khorol city museum of the Bayangol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture. It looks very similar to the style of Buddhist monasteries in the Republic of Kalmykia. The monastery was built with large financial donations from some Chinese charities and with domestic animals and money donated by Torghut herders.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi

Seeing like a minority: political tourism and the struggle for recognition in China

This paper outlines the operation of what may be called "political tourism" in China, and analyses the role of the sensorial technology of "seeing" in the kind of narrative this tourism engenders. Beginning in 1950, the newly established People's Republic of China launched an annual tradition of inviting non-communist elites to attend the May Day and the National Day (1 October) parades on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and in some metropolitan cities. Unlike contemporary ethnic tourism, wherein minorities and their cultures become the objects of the tourist gaze, Chinese political tourism aims at bringing minority leaders out of their putative "isolation", treating them with hospitality, and ultimately making them "see with their own eyes" China's "true face"

Inventing Sulde Woshipping Tradition among Alasha Mongols

Duan Gerel is in charge of the Torghut White Sülde worship in Bayan Nurgan, which he established following the model of Chingis Khan’s White Sülde in Ordos. He explains that a couple of years ago, he often dreamed about a special triangle iron object wrapped in silk but he never recognised what it was. After consulting many local knowledgeable people and lamas, he got to know that his ancestors used to worship a sülde but lost it after hiding it in a cave during the Cultural Revolution. In 2008, he went to Ordos to learn how to worship sülde and built 9 white süldes next to his house. Due to the local governmental restriction, he had to organise his first inaugural ritual under the name of “herders’ summer tour” (牧家游). Nowadays, there are annual, monthly and even daily rituals at small scale, but a grand ritual is held once every 13 years.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwi