Monguor


Monguor

 

(self-designations, Khor, Mengule, Menguer Kun, and others), a Mongolian-speaking people living in Tsinghai and Kansu provinces in China.

The Monguor number 53,000 (1953 census). Their language, which constitutes a separate branch of the Mongolian language, has two dialects. The Huchu dialect has been appreciably influenced by Tibetan, and the Minho dialect has been influenced by Chinese. The ethnogenesis of the Monguor shows traces of western Mongolian, Turkic, Tibetan, and Chinese elements. The chief occupation of the Monguor is farming, supplemented by livestock raising, hunting, and fishing. Their beliefs are a mixture of Lamaism, shamanism, and Taoism.

REFERENCE

Narody Vostochnoi Azii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1965.