Minority Ethnic Clothing

Mongolian

Population: 5.8 million

Distribution: Almost 70% of the Chinese of Mongolian decent live in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of northern China that borders Mongolia. The remaining Mongolian population resides in neighboring areas to the east in Hebei, Henan, Qinghai, Gansu, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning provinces.³⁷

Economy: This autonomous region has a mixture of river valleys, lush grasslands, and urban areas.³⁷ Wheat farming takes place along the rivers and goats and sheep are herded in the grasslands. The urban areas are quickly growing and large complexes and apartment buildings are being built. This region thrives on coal, energy production, and forestry industries.

Language: Three dialects of the Mongolian language are spoken while the traditional Mongolian script is used for writing.³⁷

Traditions: The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is far in the northeastern part of China, a cold area characterized by vast grasslands that are not idea for agriculture. This area is, on the other hand, perfect for maintaining herds of small animals. As the animals deplete the pastures, the Mongolians move around the area from pasture to pasture to allow the grass to grow back. The Mongolian people have a long history of being nomads with housing that is easily transportable but have recently been maintaining permanent residences along the pastures.²³

There is a traditional Mongolian fair called Nàdám, translates as “amusement and games”, that is held each year in July. ²³ At the fair, people wear their holiday best and participate in various activities including the three main attractions: archery, horse racing, and wrestling. Both men and women participate in archery contests. These are characterized by not consisting of just one target, but a wall of targets. This is played as a team sport with the winning team members named national marksman or national markswoman.³⁸ There is also a more complex archery on horseback contest in which competitors must hit targets while atop a horse in a full run. The horse racing events are very simple: they first horse to reach the finish line wins. Jockeys compete not only for their own glory but mostly for the glory of the animal. Horses are an important part of the Mongolian culture and both men and women are accomplished equestrians. Wrestling is a sport reserved for men. Mongolian men travel a far distance to compete for the title of “giant.” While this is a highly competitive sport, the men abide by match courtesy and congratulate each other on a good fight.

Dress for both male and female Mongolians is very similar. Due to the colder climate, they often dress in layers.³⁹ The under garment is a long sleeved loose fitting robe that goes all the way down to the ground. Worn on top is either a long sleeved garment hitting below the waist or a long, sleeveless garment with slits either on the sides or front and back to accommodate horseback riding. This sleeveless robe is called an uudji and is more commonly worn by women than by men. Hats are worn for warmth as well as decoration. In the extreme cold, animal hide is worn with the fur facing towards the body for warmth rather than facing away from the body for aesthetics.

This work by China Learning Library @ George Mason University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.