This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

The Chahar (Chinese: 察哈尔) are a tribe of the Mongols that speak the Chahar dialect of Mongolian.

The Chahar were originally one of estates of Khubilai located around Jingzhao (now Xian). They moved from Shaanxi to Southeastern Mongolia in the 15th century. The Chahar became a tümen under Dayan Khan and were led by his successors, thus becoming personal appanage of the Khagans.

Oppressed by Altan Khan, the Chahar, led by Darayisung Gödeng Khan, moved eastward onto the Liao River in the middle of the 16th century. In the early 17th century Ligden Khan made an expedition to the west because of the Manchu pressure. When he died in Gansu on his way to Tibet, his son Ejei surrendered to the Manchu in 1635.

The Chahar royal family kept favorable relations with the Manchu imperial family until Makata Gege, who was a daughter of Hong Taiji and married to the Chahar prince, died in 1663. When the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories erupted in 1673, the Chahar prince revolted against the Qing Dynasty. He was soon crushed and, as a result, the Chahar were reorganized into the Chahar Eight Banners and moved to around Janjhuu Hill. The Chahar did not belong to a league (chuulghan) but were directly controlled by the Emperor. The Qing authority resettled part of them from suburbs of Huhhot and Dolonnur to Ili after the fall of the Zunghar Khanate in c. 1758. They were largely mixed with Ööled and Torghuds of the region.

When Outer Mongolia declared its independence in 1911 from the Qing, 100 households under former vice-governor Sumya fled from Xinjiang via Russian border to Mongolia. They were resettled by the Khalkha in the west of Kyakhta. Sumya and his Chahars contributed to revolution of 1921. They are known as Selengyin Chahar.

[edit] See also

• Chahar, a province of China from 1912 to 1936.