Upper Mongols

Upper Mongols

Regions with significant populations
China 33,000 (1987)
Languages
Khoshut dialect of Oirat
Religion
Tibetan Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Oirats, Mongols, Mongols in China

The Upper Mongols (Mongolian: Deed mongol Дээд монгол), also known as the Köke Nuur Mongols (Mongolian: Хөх нуурын Монгол, Mongolian Script: ᠬᠦᠬᠡ ᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ, "Blue lake Mongol") or Qinghai Mongols (Chinese: 青海蒙古) are the Mongol people of Oirat and Khalkha origin who settled around the Qinghai Lake. They under name as Khoshuud Khanate of Tsaidam and the Koke Nuur are played a major role in Sino–Mongol–Tibetan politics of 17-18th centuries. The Upper Mongols adopted Tibetan dress and jewelry despite still using Mongolian ger and script.

Statue of Güshi Khan (right) in the Dalai Lama's palace, next to the statue of the Dalai Lama himself (left). (Drawing by Johann Grueber, 1661)

Although, the Mongols of the Gansu–Qinghai Lake areas under the Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty submitted to the Ming Dynasty after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, the Upper Mongols came there in 16th and 17th centuries. Many Mongol emperors and rulers of the Northern Yuan Dynasty such as Dayan Khan, Ligdan Khan, the Ordos and Tumed princes invaded, or took refuge, in Qinghai from 1509-1632. The Khoshut's leader Toro Baikhu Güshi Khan defeated all the Dalai Lama V's enemies in 1637-1642. He was enthroned by the Dalai Lama as Khan of Tibet. His grandson and successor Gonchug Dalai Khan (1669–98) welcomed dissident Zunghars when Galdan Khan began despising Guushi Khan's Oirats.

With the defeat of Galdan in 1697, Dalai Khung Taiji Dashi Batur submitted to the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in a personal audience. But the prince Lubsan Danzan rebelled in 1723, however he was defeated and killed by the Manchus in 1755. The Upper Mongols in North-West China revived their cultural ties with Inner Mongolia with the liberalization in 1979. The Tibetan culture strongly influenced them, however they use Mongolian script unlike other major Oirat tribes that use Zaja Pandita's Todo Bichig Clear script.

The separation of the Tibetans from the Mongolian banners weakened the Upper Mongols. After 1775, the Tibetans made increasingly bold attacks on the Mongols. Hence, small group of the Upper Mongols fled to Gansu to escape the Tibetan nomads and they formed Subei Mongol county. In 1821 the Tibetan nomads made a mass migration north, sweeping away the Qinghai Mongol banners between the Yellow River and Qinghai Lake due to the internal strife between the Tibetans. In 1897 the Hui Muslims plundered the Upper Mongols.