On Darkhad Tribe—The Guardians Of Chinggis Khan's Eight White Yurts

Darkhads are the guardians of Chinggis Khan's Eight White Yurts and deities enshrined in it,as well as the inheritors of Chinggis Khan's sacrificial culture.They have been making indelible contributions to the inheritance and protection of Chinggis Khan's sacrificial culture and known as the "living classics" and "living fossils" for studying Chinggis Khan's sacrificial culture.They played an irreplaceable role in the protection and development of Chinggis Khan's sacrificial culture by guarding this national spiritual culture with their lives.Therefore,it is necessary to understand the Eight White Yurts,its deities and the complete connotation of Chinggis Khan's sacrificial culture by studying the Darkhad people.The paper,themed on Darkhad,tries to restore the historical facts of the Darkhad people and their culture during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China through analyzing the formation of the Darkhad people and their five hundred families,deities,organization system,methods and usage of raising sacrificial expenses,pastoral lands,livelihoods,residence booklet,and religious life for the first time,based on the historical archives in Mongolian,Manchu and Chinese languages of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.The main contents of this paper are:First of all,the formation of Darkhad people,the five hundred families,their origin,the Ordo and deities guarded by them are reviewed respectively.The Qing Court excluded the Darkhad people,who were headed by “Jinong”,from Banner System and let them continue to engage in Chinggis Khan's sacrifice since their special status of living close to Chinggis Khan's Eight White Yurts and guarding his Ordo and deities.Therefore,they were officially named “Darkhad”.And Jinong turned from a leader of Ordos Tumen into an official who was responsible for the affairs of Chinggis Khan's Eight White Yurts and his soul-keepers.As for the five kinds of claims about the origin of the Darkhad people,the paper,based on a large number of manuscripts and archives,argues that the hypothesis that the Ordos tribes and the Darkhad people are from the guards of Chinggis Khan's four Ordos is the closest historical facts.Moreover,the paper also clarified the Ordo and deities guarded by the Darkhads in the archives.The second,the Darkhads are a special group of people.They were not restricted by League and Banner System during the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China,and they claimed to have their unique management system.This paper outlines the organizational systems of the Darkhad tribe based on historical archives,that is consists of the administrative and the sacrificial organizations headed by Jinong who is the highest tribal leader of them.Based around Darkhad's administrative and sacrificial organizations,the paper also reviews the appointment and dismissal of Jinong and his main duties,and the roles of Daruga,Dagagamal,Yamutad,Khariyan,Kheshik and so on.The accurate birth and death years and terms of office of 24 Jinongs in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China were verified,and the related research errors were corrected.In the textual research of Darkhad sacrificial organization,the paper systematically restored Yamutad's titles of Darkhad's left and right-wing and the name of Kheshik and pointed out the subordinate relationship between the 18 Kheshiks and Harans.Furthermore,some names of Kheshiks have been standardized,and verified other names such as "Hatan" and "Urud".The third,based on the historical archives,this paper systematically summarizes the way and usage of the fundraising of Chinggis Khan's sacrifice by Darkhads during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.It mainly includes:the income and expenditure of five hundred taels of silver from the five hundred Darkhad families,the income and expenditure of the property that Darkhads collected through recruitment,the Yoson Alba,the alms of believers and the financial support from the National Government for Chinggis Khan's sacrifice during the westward movement of the Mausoleum of Chinggis Khan.The fourth,based on the records in the archives at that time,the paper illustrates pastoral lands and livelihoods of the Darkhad people.Meanwhile,the paper also analyzes the Darkhad residence booklet formed at that time,examining many issues concerning their population,chanting lamas,family servants.Moreover,it also points out the affiliation relationship between the Kheshik and the eight Yamutads of the Holy Darkhads and Suld Darkhads.At the same time,using the archives and related manuscripts,the paper explains the situation of the eight Darkhad temples built in the forbidden area around the Great Ejin Horoo from the thirty-second year of Emperor Qianlong(1767)to the fifteenth year of Jiaqing(1810).Then,it concludes that Buddhism directly influenced the religious belief of the Darkhad people during the spread of Buddhism in the Ordos area.