The Mongolian Tribe of Torgut Went Never to Return

Lei Fu-shun
Chinese Culture University

35^th Meeting of the PIAC, Taipei 1992

The Torguts are one of the four Mongolian tribes of Oirats. They originally lived in the area from Tarbahatai to the Ili River in Xinjiang Province. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the Dzungar tribe was powerful and prosperous, Therefore, in 1630 the Torguts were forced to migrate westwards up to the grassland at the downstream of the Volga River in Russian territory.

After they moved to Russia, the Torguts continued to pay tribute to the Ch’ing court. From 1646, all the khans from Ayuchi to Chelingtuantopu sent envoys to offer various presents as tribute. They kept this habit until 1730 when they were prevented by Russia to do so.

At this time, the Torguts had increasing difficulties with Russia. People were drafted to fight for Russia and many of them perished on the battlefield, They were obliged to change their religion and to believe in Orthodox Church. The Russians sent armies wherever they were to keep watch on them all the time.

During emperor Ch’ien-lung’s reign, at the time when the Torguts became aware of the fact that their previous powerful enemies — the Dzungars — had already been subjugated by the Ch’ing court, they began cherishing the intention of returning to their homeland. Led by the khan Wobasi, more than 169,000 people swarmed eastwards. They began their travel which was plagued by frequent ills back to their native land. Throughout their journey, they were pursued and attacked by the Russian troops. Although in 1771 they finally reached their homeland that they had left more than one hundred yrars before, there only remained more than 70,000 persons.