 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Chahars" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Location of the Chahars in the northeast | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 China | 299,000 (1987)[1] |
| Languages | |
| Chakhar Mongolian | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyTibetan Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mongols,Mongols in China, Bortala Mongols andDariganga Mongols | |
TheChahars (Khalkha Mongolian: Цахар, Tsahar;simplified Chinese:察哈尔部;traditional Chinese:察哈爾部) are a subgroup ofMongols that speakChakhar Mongolian and predominantly live in southeasternInner Mongolia, China.
The Chahars were originally one of estates ofKublai Khan located around Jingzhao (nowXi'an). They moved fromShaanxi to southeastern region controlled by theNorthern Yuan dynasty based in theMongolian Plateau in the 15th century. The Chahar became atumen ofsix tumen Mongols underDayan Khan and were led by his successors, thus becoming personalappanage of theNorthern Yuan monarchs.
Oppressed byAltan Khan, the Chahars, led byDaraisung Guden Khan, moved eastward onto theLiao River in the middle of the 16th century. In the early 17th centuryLigdan Khan made an expedition to the west because of pressure from theManchu people (early namedJurchen). When he died inGansu on his way toTibet, his son,Ejei, surrendered to the ManchuLater Jin dynasty in 1635 and was given the title of Prince (Chinese:親王) and Inner Mongolian nobility became closely tied to theQing royal family and intermarried with them extensively. Ejei Khan died in 1641 and was succeeded by his brotherAbunai.
The Chahar royal family kept favorable relations with the Qing imperial family until Makata gege, who was a daughter ofHong Taiji and married to the Chahar Mongol prince, died in 1663. After Abunai showed disaffection with Manchu Qing rule, he was placed under house arrested in 1669 inShenyang and the Kangxi Emperor gave his title to his son Borni. Abunai then bid his time and then he and his brother Lubuzung revolted against the Qing in 1675 during theRevolt of the Three Feudatories, with 3000 Chahar Mongol followers joining in on the revolt.
The revolt was put down within two months; the Qing then crushed the rebels in a battle on April 20, 1675, killing Abunai and all his followers. Their title was abolished, all Chahar Mongol royal males were executed even if they were born to Manchu Qing princesses, and all Chahar Mongol royal females were sold into slavery except the Manchu Qing princesses. As a result of the rebellion, the Chahar Mongols were reorganized intoBanners and moved to aroundZhangjiakou. The Chahar Mongols did not belong to aleague but were directly controlled by the Emperor. The Qing authorities resettled some of their population from the suburbs ofHohhot andDolon Nor to theIli River after the fall of theDzungar Khanate in c. 1758. They were largely mixed with theDzungar people andTorghut of the region.
WhenOuter Mongolia declaredits independence from the Qing in 1911, 100 households under former vice-governor Sumya fled fromXinjiang via the Russian border to Mongolia. They were resettled by the Khalkha in the west ofKyakhta. Sumiya and his Tsahars contributed to therevolution of 1921. They are known as the Selenge's Tsahar since settled inSelenge.
Many of the Chinese troops during theoccupation of Mongolia in 1919 were Chahar Mongols, which has been a major cause for animosity between Khalkhas and Inner Mongols.[2]
| Sino-Tibetan |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austroasiatic | |||||||||||
| Austronesian | |||||||||||
| Hmong-Mien | |||||||||||
| Mongolic | |||||||||||
| Kra–Dai | |||||||||||
| Tungusic | |||||||||||
| Turkic | |||||||||||
| Indo-European | |||||||||||
| Others | |||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||
Underlined: the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups ranked by population in their language families according to2020 census | |||||||||||
