Zunghar / Dzungar
In the days of Chinese supremacy, the country north of the Tian-shan Mountains was called Tianshan Peh Lu, or "the way north of the Celestial Mountains," and by the Mongols Zunghar, whence the Zungharia of European writers. The country to the south was called Tian-s/ian Nan Lu, or " the way south of the Celestial Mountains," or Kashgar, whence Kashgaria. Eastern Turkestan or Xinjiang was an area occupied by Western Mongols (Zunghars) in 16th century. Zhunghar was a large, independent Mongolian empire which stretched from Lake Balkhash in the north down to Kashgar, Hami and Barkol. Zunghars was defeated by the Manchus who founded Ching Dynasty in China.
The Qalmziq, or Oiri, people may be regarded as the western branch of the Mongol people, while this branch has been divided always into four sections (whence the name Durban-Oirdt), which were again more or less subdivided. As in the case of most, if not all, Mongol tribes, the western, or Oirfa, nation originally consisted of two wings, called the “Right-hand” or Boronghar and the “Left-hand” or Zunghar. The Right-hand is always the Western, and the Left-hand the Eastern. The former of these seems almost completely to have disappeared previous to the conquests of Chingiz Khan, at the beginning of the 13th century ; though in reality a remnant was left.
Kalmuk call themselves Olot, 'the peculiar people.' They also call themselves Durban-Oirad, the four allies. The meaning of the term Kalmuk is uncertain. The sections of this left wing alone latterly formed the Four Oirat. Their names are: the Zungar [the Choros or Cholos—the Cho-lo-sze of the Chinese). The Durbet (or Turbaté Tu-rh-po-té). The Turgut (or Turghud—Tu-rh-hu-té). The Khoshot (Ho-She-ts). Thus, the Zunghar tribe (the Chongkar of the Chinese), should mean, properly speaking, the whole of these four tribes, or all that exist of the Left-hand wing of the original Oirit.
The vanity of a chief, however, caused at one period a modification of this simple rule. On his accession the chief of the Chores tribe, known as Galdan Khan (about 1671) took the title of “Zunghar Khan", and from this circumstance his tribe and country, especially, became known (for a time it would appear) by the name of Zunghar. In this way the whole of the Zunghar seem to have been regarded merely as the Choros under another name, while the latter name had (and has since) almost fallen out of ordinary use. On the other hand, however, the Ghoros having become the predominant tribe, and being known as Zunghar, this last name became subsequently a synonym with Oirat, or Eleuthas indeed it more correctly should be. It may happen, therefore, that writings are to be met with where the term Zunghar is made to denote the Choros tribe alone, but if so it is incorrect.
Many of the Torgut, the westernmost of the Oirad Mongols, began to migrate westward in approximately 1620. Possibly the movement was a reaction to the growing dominance of the Dzungar Mongols, an Oirad subclan and neighbors of the Torgut to the south. In any event, the Torgut fought their way through Kirghiz and Kazakh territory, to cross the Embe River. The Turget tribe of the Kalmuk, feeling oppressed by the continually increasing power of the Zungar, emigrated to Russia in AD 1636, and were granted pasturage on both banks of the Lower Volga by the Czar Michael Feodorovitch. After the destruction of the Zungar power by the Chinese in 1706, in the reign of the Emperor Tsiau Lung, the remnants of the Kalmuks rejoined their compatriots in Russia.
Becoming better known as the Kalmyk tribe, they subsequently settled in the Trans-Volga steppe and raided Russian settlements on both sides of the river. Finally submitting to Russia in 1646, they maintained autonomy under their own khan. They became an excellent source of light cavalry for the Russians, who later used them in campaigns against the Crimean Tatars and in Inner Asia.
The Mongol interest in Tibet that had been aroused in Altan's campaigns seems to have been transmitted to the Dzungar. They inhabited a region east of Lake Balkash that extended eastward into northern Xinjiang. They carried out a number of campaigns into Tibet, and by 1636 they had established a virtual protectorate over the region. Because of the generally high quality of their leadership at this time, the Dzungar dominated Mongolia for much of the seventeenth century.
Saintly teachers and workers of miracles, claiming descent from Mahomed, and known as Khwajas or Hojas, acquired great influence, and the sectaries attached to the chief of these divided the people into rival factions, whose mutual hostility eventually led to the subjugation of the whole country. For, late in the seventeenth century, Hojah Appak, the leader of one of those parties called the White Mountain, having been expelled from Kashgar by Ismail Khan, the chief of that state, who was a zealous supporter of the opposite party, or Black Mountain, sought the aid of Galdan Khan, sovereign of the Eleuths or Kalmuks of Dzungaria. Taking the occasion offered, that chief in 1678 invaded the states south of the Thian Shan, carried off the Khan of Kashgar and his family, and established the Hojahs of the White Mountain over the country in authority subordinate to his own.
The most celebrated member of the Khoja family was Hidayat Ulla, known as Hazrat Apak or "His Highness the Presence," head of the Ak Taulins, who was regarded as a Prophet second only to Mohamed. Expelled from Kashgar he took refuge at Lhassa, where the Dalai Lama befriended him and advised him to seek the aid of the Zungars. In 1678 the latter seized Kashgar, which remained in their power for many years, and Hazrat Apak ruled as the deputy of the Khan, paying tribute equivalent to £62,000 per annum. In his old age the saint retired from the world to end his days among his disciples.
Under Khan Haldan Bokosha, one of the outstanding figures of the period, their power stretched northwards to Siberia and southwards to Kucha, Karashahr and Kunya-Turfan; but Haldan rebelled against the Chinese and was decisively beaten. His nephew and successor, Tse Wang Rabdan, ruled from Hami on the east to Khokand on the west, and, until his murder in 1727, was the most powerful of Zungarian rulers. The Torgut Mongols from fear of him fled to the banks of the Volga. Sir Henry Howorth gives an interesting account of the relations between Tse Wang and the Russians, from which it appears that Peter the Great, attracted by rumours of gold in Eastern Turkestan, despatched a body of 3000 men up the Irtish with Yarkand as their objective; but the Zungars assailed the column and forced it to retire.
Some years later internal disorders enabled Amursana, one of the Zungar chiefs, to declare himself and his tribe Chinese subjects, and to persuade other tribes to follow his example; he also induced Kashgar to tender allegiance to the Chinese. It was the policy of the Emperor Keen Lung to reconquer Hi and Eastern Turkestan for the Celestial Empire; and in 1755 he despatched an army 150,000 strong, which met with little resistance and enabled him to consolidate the allegiance tendered through Amursana, who was appointed Paramount Chief.
The Zungar soon tired of Chinese rule and massacred a detachment of the Celestial forces. Great discords for many years succeeded, sometimes one faction and sometimes another being uppermost, but some supremacy always continuing to be exercised by the Khans of Dzungaria. In 1757, the latter country was conquered by the Chinese, who, in the following year, making a tool of the White party, which was then in opposition, succeeded in bringing the states of Turkistan also under their rule.
The Chinese reoccupied Zungaria in 1757, and in the following year crushed the tribe. Kulja was founded on the site of the Zungarian capital, and the modern name of Hsin-Chiang or the "New Province" was formally bestowed on the reconquered countries.
On the 5th January 1770, the great portion of the tribe, 150,000 souls of them, iu 30,000 kibitkas, set out from the Lower Volga to return to China. They were beset on their route by the Kirghiz Kazak, by the Cossacks of the Ural, and by the Burut or Black Kirghiz, and by other Turk tribes; but 70,000 of the emigrants eventually reached their ancient pasturages — about half the number of those who started from the Lower Volga.
The Chinese, realizing their numerical weakness, settled soldiers and landless men in the fertile districts of the " New Province," to which they also deported criminals and political prisoners, among the latter being Tunganis deported from Kansu and Shensi. Chinese rule was evidently less harsh than Russian; for in 1771 the Torgut Mongols to the number of 100,000 famines fled back to the Hi valley from the banks of the Volga, as narrated in dramatic fashion by De Quincey.
In 1827, Jehangheer Khan Khoja invaded Altyshahr with a large rabble of armed fanatics, and captured Yarkund and Kashgar; but after an eight months’ occupation of those cities, he was defeated by the Chinese, and obliged again to fly across the Bolor.
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