Daur People 达斡爾族
Daur People 达斡爾族, numbered about 140,000, are one of the ethnic group officially recognized by China. The Daurs are a Mongolic-speaking people and most of them live in the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner 莫力達瓦達斡爾族自治旗 呼伦贝尔市 in Hulun Buir, Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China. There are also some near Tacheng 塔城 in Xinjiang, where their ancestors were moved during the Qing Dynasty. The Daur, along with the Ewenki 鄂温克族 and the Oroqen 鄂倫春族, are three little known groups live near each other in the extreme NE of China, western edge of the Greater Khingan Range 大興安嶺.
The Daurs are descendants of the Khitan, a nomadic Mongolic people, who lived in NE China from the 4th Century onward. The Khitans were destroyed by the Mongols during the 13th Century when they established a kingdom further west. The descendents of the Khitans, now the Daurs, served the Qing courts and today they live in the extreme NE corner of China bordering both Mongolia and Russia.
Many Daurs are shamanists. Each clan has its own shaman in charge of all the important ceremonies in the lives of the Daur. However there are a significant number of Daurs who have taken up Lamaism. The Daur speak a Mongolic language and used Qing writing during the Qing rule but today they adopt the Chinese characters as their written script.
Official portrait of a Daur family
An old photo of a Daur family
Distribution of Daur people in NE China
There are about 6,700 Daur living in Tacheng 塔城市 in NW Xinjiang. They are the descendents of the 500 Daur soldiers/families in the great "Westward Migration" 西迁 of the Xibe.
The xinjiang Daur on their "Westward migration" holidays
A watercolor masterpiece by a famous Daur artist depicts the lives of Daur herders in the grasslands of the greater Khingan range
Nenjiang 嫩江, the mother river of the Daur
An old photo of a Daur bride