SCANDINA VIAN INSTITUTE STUD/ES ON AS/AN OF ASIAN STUDlES STUDlES ON ASIAN TOPICS NO. 13 rop/es l. THE METHOD OF HOLDING THE THREE ONES Poul Anderson 3. INDIA-CHINA COMPARA'IWE RESEARCH Erik Baark and Jon Sigurdson (Editors) 4. THE KAMMU YEAR Kristina Lindell et al. 6. WOMEN IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES Bo Utas (Editor) 8. LEADERSHIP ON THE CHINA COAST Ooran Aijmer (Editor) 9. CHINA IN THE 1980s - AND BEYOND Birthe Arendrup et al. (Editors) 12. ISLAM: STATE AND SOCIETY Klaus Ferdinand and Mehdi Mozaffari (Editors) 13. ASIAN TRADE ROUTES Karl Reinhold Haellquist (Editor) ASIAN TRADE ROUTES Edited by KARL REINHOLD HAELLQUIST CURZON PRESS 7 ., THROUGH THE SAYAN MOUNTAINS~ TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN MONGOLIA AND SIBERIA Magdalena Tatar Asian trade routes have always interested historians, but most of our knowledge is limited to the long-distance routes and those with major uuffic. We know much less about local routes leading to the periphery uf the world as know n by Europeans in olden times. Mongolia, however, was not so peripheral as many seen to have believed. The St',ret History of the Mongols (§ 182) mentions a Muslim merchant rulled Asan (= Hasan) coming from the south to the Argun River, where he wanted to trade sheep for sable and weasel furs. This huppened before Jenghiz Khan unified the Mongols into a mighty state. III this paper I would like to speak about a little-known direction nnmely that from the south, the Chinese-influenced Mongolia, to the north, Siberia; and about a very little-known peripheral area, namely the Sayan mountains and the area of the Xovsgol Lake, in Mongolia. 'l'oday the Sayan area is divided politically: Tuva, South Xakassia and purt of Buryatia belong to the Soviet Union, whereas the Darxat region helongs to Mongolia. In olden times this area was one political entity with a mixed population, speaking the Turkic, Samoyed and Mongolian lnnguages. The existence of Chinese connections with Siberia is clear enough from the Chinese sources and from the Chinese-inspired influence expressed in the culture of the Siberian peoples. The best-know n contact zone is the region of the River Amur, in Mongolia and Central Asia. These connections extended to the Yukaghirs by the Lena, who Informed the first Russians in this place about the route from the Lena through the region of the Lamut people to the Amur.i It was easy onough to follow the River Selengge from Mongolia to the north. This is the most important route to Siberia; at the present time the railway hctween the Baykal and Ulan Bator follows this track still. But were there any possible routes through the Sayan mountains? One orten readss that this area was very isolated, but the reindeer-breeding people in Eastern Tuva did not even know about money as late as in this rcntury. At the same time archaeologists found a lot of remains of different ancient cultures, among others Uygur and Chinese buildings, 51 52 I C\.fA, TATAR agriculture, e.g. near Ulln uul,' which is traditionally held to be the most isolated place in Mongolia. The first written documents about a road in this area are from the eighth century. The Turkic Empire had many connections - mostly of a military kind, of course - with the Khirgiz and As and other peoples in the Sayan, as well as with peoples on the northern side of the mountains. Tonyuquq's inscription by the Orkhon informs us about the road the Turkic army followed when conquering these peoples. They could not follow the only route through the Kogmen, (= the Sayan mountains), because of deep snow; so an As man led them from a place called Ak termel through the Ibar mountains, passing the northern Sayans bes ide the Ani River. The dramatic journey from Ibar to the Ani took ten days. The way beside the Ani was so narrow, that there was place for just one horse beside the river. After the victory, they came back on the northern side of the mountains. From this description it is clear that there were three routes through the Sayan mountains, of which one was the most commonly used. It was possibly the same route that Bilge hyan took in his campaign against the tik and As people crossing1ne Kem, i.e. the Yenisey River. War, robberies, taxes and gifts between foreign peoples all have a mercantile character. These martial trading methods between the barbari ans and China or among the barbari ans themselves, were very important in times when normal trading connections were disturbed by politics. This was the relevant situation between Mongolia and China up to the twentieth century. Such martial methods were used also by the Mongols when they looted furs from the country of darkness, Le. Siberia, as Marco Polo (Chap. 61) reported it. But he also reported about the difficulties the Mongols had in finding the way there. At the time of Jenghiz Khan conquering the Sayans, the Mongols took the route east of the Darkhat region to the west, to the Altay, with the help of local people (The Secret History, § 239). This is an interesting fact because such a route was not mentioned in our sources for many centuries after this occasion. In Western Tuva the Mongolian army went on the ice of the River Kem-Kernjiut (i.e. Kem = Yenisey; Kemcik > plur. Kemjiiit was the people staying by the river).» The Mongolian army sent by Jenghiz Khan spread false news about the campaign along the usual roads and ways, and followed a track called the way of the red ox. The soldiers cleared the way, passed the mountains unexpectedly and pacified the Tiimet tribe (The Secret History, § 239 - 240). It is quite evident that the routes followed the rivers in this mountainous country. It looks as though travel occurred mostly in winter, on the ice. It is interesting that there are some routes called 'usual ways'. Basing my conclusion on the se facts I judge that there was relatively heavy traffic in this area. We do not know what happened to these connections after the Yuan dynasty. The Mongolian l~ MONGOLIA AND SmERIA 53 khans, especially the West Mongolian khans of Dzungaria used their diplomacy, and sometimes their weapons, too, to enforce the trade with China which was being carried on at different places along the Mongolian border since 1571 at four market-places. By a Chinese law of 1488, silk textiles and some products of iron were bartered for unirnals, furs, manes of horses, etc. After the sixteenth century the trade in tea, a state monopoly, was used to pay for Mongolian horses.s The Sayans were a part of the Dzungarian interest area, so some of this merchandise possibly came also from this territory, first of all from Western Tuva. The Oyrat khans of Dzungaria tried to build up close trading connections with the Russians, too, who came now to Siberia lind Central Asia. Trade was the easiest way to wealth for the first generation of the se Russian Cossacks. I would like to mention here Yerifey Khabarov, the founder of the town Khabarovsk. He was a warrior who ate aborigines in wintertime, if necessary, possessed farms lind mines, and traded a lot in fur and horses along the Lena River. The latter he could buy only from the Mongols.s It is know n that the first Russian colonists bought livestock from the Mongols. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Oyrats went to the market-places in the Russian forts such as the one by the Yamiscevo Lake, and to towns as far off as Tobolsk, Tjumen', Tomsk and Tara. In 1640 they invited Russian and Bukharian merchants to Dzungaria. Trading at Tunkin Fort in Buryatia is documented from 1685.7 To reach this place they had to cross the Sayan mountains. The Russians, rivals with Dzungaria for dominance in Tuva, built a fort on the Kemcik River in 1629.8 Russian merchants reached China, crossing Dzungaria and the GobL9 The Mongols sold mostly livestock, fur and saddles, but Chinese products given as gifts and sold as merchandise are reported from the first meeting between the Mongols and the Russians.w Russians drank \ the first tea by Altan lfan Ombo Erdeni in 1638. This drink rapidly became popular, and the Russians included it, along with gold, silver lind precious stones, on their list of items exchanged in their trade with Mongolia. Another important article of exchange was slaves. Russians hought slaves from Dzungaria, and sold, in turn, such items as textiles, silver and gold products, and paper. In 1646 the Russian government gave licence of free trade to Dzungarians in the Siberian towns. Russian traders transmitted these goods to Moscow and Archangel, and from t here to Europe. Il Because of political difficulties and the fall of Dzungaria, Western Mongolia lost its importance in Russian trade. The 1I10Stimportant trade route between Siberia and Mongolia followed the Selengge valley with a market-place first in Selenginsk (1673), since 1727 in Kyaxta. We know only the official part of the Mongolian trade. Both the Chinese and the Russian governments tried to cut down both the transit trade and the local trade by the border. So, China forbade q 54 TATAR merchants to enter into the Tagna and Uryangxay Province, i.e. the Sayan area.n After 1706 trade with China was a Russian state monopol y , while that with Mongolia was a private business, perrnitted only for professional traders, of course. 13 But all the strict regulations resulted in a flourishing smuggling activity. Many lamas, country lords, even the governor in Urga himself, carried on this kind of business. In this way a lot of smuggled Russian goods came to Kalgan, Peking and Tibet. The forbidden trade was very important on the Russian side, too. As S.L. Raguzinskij wrote to the Czar's government, it was the main way of life for the local people, and therefore he proposed that the trade be made free in this province.tOne example of the difficulties comes from the Sayans. In 1717 the Russians built a harbour on the northern side of the Xovsgol Lake to stop the local Xaasuud tribesmen entering with their merchandise into Russia. It was of course a very sensitive area, and they were pressed by the Peking government to give up the harbour. They judged the Russian activity as aggressive in this time of the border commissions. In 1727 according to Russian-Chinese border agreement, the Chinese government ordered the Darxat tribe to stay at all times on their former summer pasture by the Beltes and Agar Rivers.» They wanted to cut off the connections between Darxats and border-soldiers, New trade routes were opened by the Russians in the eighteenth century. In 1765 they organized a ferry crossing the Baykal, and at the end of the century away round the Baykal was built. 16 Their intentions were not mercantile; at the same time they tried to cut down the whole Mongolian trade. But the trade was growing; in 1756 Russians sold merchandise in Mongolia for 450,768 roubles and Chinese traders sold to Russians for 241,252 roubles; in 1784 it was almost 2.5 million roubles for each country, all together 5 million roubles. This is the official number. In practice, we must assume a much larger sum. From the 1730s, forts were built for Manchu/Chinese soldiers in Mongolia. The nearest to the Sayan was by the Orxon River, built in 1735. Already in 1746 there existed a mercantile town as well. Trade was made unlimited, first in 1757 by the forts, and in 1796 by the administrative centres in the country. In 1780, the trade in the countryside (in the xosuu-s and by the sabi-s) was fixed at 200 lang silver a year. 17 The Russians made the local trade free first in 1800. Crimes against the traders were somewhat reduced after this (cf. Uryangxay tribesmen from the Russian territory robbed and killed a Chinese merchant in 1781). Now the Buryat tribesmen could seIl animals and wool, and the Buryat soldiers (so-called Kazakhs) could seIl bread to Mongolia in years when there was a good crop.u After the agreement in 1862, Russian merchants could work in the places where a Chinese official resided, and custom-free trade was licensed up to a MONGOLIA AND SffiERIA 55 1;'1101· 1. The old Russian-built ship, the Såxbaatar, on the Xovsgol lake. Ill. 2. The Ulyastay-Moroæ-Xatgal road near Xatgal. 56 TATAR MONGOLIA AND SIBERIA , !LÅ Fig. 3. Obos (offering places) on the main pass between Moren and Cagaan Nufr. Fig. 4. Fishing factory in Cagaan Nuur. hl'" 5 and 6. Ferry between Zoolon and Cagaan Nuur. 57 58 \q TATAR distanee of 100 li on both sides of the border .19 At the same time 2000 Polish eaptives built the new route round the Baykal. The TransSiberian railway was built to Cita in 1899, with a ferry crossing the Baykal up until 1915.20 Russian-Mongolian trade eontinued to grow; in 1863 it reaehed 260 thousand roubles, by 1900 it reaehed almost 17 million roubles. At that time one sheep eost 12 - 15 pressed tea-bloeks. Both Chinese and Russian money were aeeepted, but people liked the Chinese money more than the Russian.n This evolution opened the Sayan area for a trade whieh was no longer occasional, but constant. In the 1860s A.P. Subin, a Russian merehant from Irkutsk, called Andrey the Russian by the local people, settled down beside the central Buddhist monastery at Z6610n. He bought fish, furs and animals from the Darxat people and pai d for them with everyday household objects. The priee was very arbitrary. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Darxat Province exported 4000 sables and 10,000 squirrels to Russia. ane sable eost 25 - 35 roubles, one squirrel co st 12 - 17 kopeks, 1 ptiti (= 16 kg) 'white fish' (taymen') co st JO - 30 kopeks. Subin bu ilt fishing industries in two places: by the Sis'ged River at a place called Golyn am, i.e. Cagaan Nuuryn Zagasny Uyldver, 'Fishing Faetory at Cagaan Nuur' today, and at Xogorgyn am. These factories produced and exported 800 - 960 kg fish to Russia year ly. He employed 30 - 40 workers in these industries.P At the same time, five Chinese merehants were staying in the same place.» We do not have any statistics about their trade, but we can take a doser look at some other traders' statistics. In the 1890s, a Chinese merehant, called Dasinxuu by the Mongols, who also had business with the Uriangxay provinces, sent yearly 80,000 sheep from Xovd to KokelOta. In 1892, another man called Arsaan in Mongolia, who was also trading with the Soyots (a tribe in the Sayans), sent 45,000 sheep and 500 eamels from Xovd to Koke Tota. In comparison with this, in 1900, Mongolia exported 500 horses, 15,320 sheep and 12,000 other livestoek to Tunkin, one of the busiest Russian-Mongolian trade points. The Russians modernized all the time. They began to trade in companies, and to seil through Russia to Europe, and through the Chinese harbours to Japan and America. In 1893 a Russian state official of high rank, P. Badmaev, a Buryat by birth, founded a company in St. Petersburg and in Cita to trade with Russia, Tuva, Mongolia, China and the Buryat minority in Russia. Mongolian exports to Russia grew from 3.5 million roubles in 1903 to 8 million roubles in 1909. ane quarter of it crossed the border at Kyaxta and in the following three towns in the Sayan area: Kos-Agac, Zaysan and Usinsk. In the same period, Russian exports to Mongolia fell off from 4 million to 2.5 million roubles. MONGOLIA AND SffiERIA 59 Russia bought and then re-exported a great deal of fur as before; only in February 1911 Ameriean merchants bought 70,000 pieces of fur at the markets in Kyaxta, Biysk and Irbit. The Russian textile industry in Simbirsk and Yekaterinburg used more and more Mongolian wool, so Russian merehants founded wool-washing faetories in Mongolia, one of them by the Deiger moren River in the Sayan mountains.zs The Darxat Province exported livestock, fish, wool, butte r and fur (sable lind squirrels) for 157,000 roubles in 1904-1905.25 Russia, using the Trans-Siberian railway, had better ehances in western and northern Mongolia than in China. China planned a railway from Kalgan through Urga (today Ulan Bator) - Ulyastay-Xovd, i.e. south of the TransSiberian railway, more or less parallei with it, in 1909 - 1910, but as both Russia and Japan were against this, the railway was never built.ts So China slowly lost the northern provinces. In 1910 Russian merchants came to Tuva, and the hated Chinese had to leave. All Russian eolonists in Eastern Tuva were merchants. They sold tobaceo, tca and textiles for squirrel skins whieh were to be paid in the next hunting season, and if people could not pay, which was very eommon, the trader took the reindeer skin they slept on for 20 squirrel skins in spring. In autumn people begged for it back, but by then it co st 40 squirrel skins. All the goods were sent by the Yenisey River to Minussinsk.?? The most detail ed description of roads in this area was given by arruthers at the beginning of this eentury. All roads mentioned by him followed old routes bes ide the rivers. We know little about other roads. The excellent Danish traveller and scholar, Haslund-Christensen used a route from Buryatia to Urga, following the Uur and Egiyn gol River. Ile heard about it from Russian merehants dealing in fur in this area.28 After the revolution a great deal changed. West-Sayans, i.e. Tuva, became a part of the Soviet Union, as it is now. There is no more local traffic of any importance between the region around the Uvs Lake in Mongolia and Tuva, or between Tuva and the Xovsgol area. But the route from Central Mongolia to Xatgal and from there over the Xovsgol I.ake to Xanx is now very important, both for export and for import. An old Russian ship of 1260 tons, now called Suxbaatar, started on the X6vsg61 in 1925, going with cargo 120 km from Xatgal to Xanx, from June till Oetober. From Xanx, which is ealled Turt now, the traffie today follows an old route through the pass Mongon Davaa to Slyudyanka, the railway station by the Baykal. In 1938 the government converted the old monastery in Z6616n into a factory, which produeed rextiles and furniture. In 1959 this faetory moved to Xatgal, the new industrial eentre in the area, with a wool washing facto ry , etc. The old Iishing faetory in Cagaan Nuur - the on ly one of its kind in Mongolia 60 TATAR - was reorganized in 1942.29 Its products are sold only to the Soviet Union, the so-called Siberian white fish, i.e. taymen', as human food; the other kind, dried fish, as animal food.» We can conclude that this province was not isolated at all, and that cultural and linguistic connections were realized by these martial and mercantile routes. Notes to Chapter 7 Prices in the Darxat Province at the beginning of this century: 'The infonnants talked about tugriks. This Mongolian money did not exist at that time so they probably meant roubles, or Chinese money. Therefore, I translate the term as "money" , (Badamxatan, p. 31). These amounts were paid by the Russian Merchants: l sheepskin l money l sheep 5 money l wolf 3 - 4 blocks Russian tea 20-24 money l sable 270 - 432 blocks tea l horn of deer 260 .1'(' NOTES l jin wool = circa 0.6 kg 0.5 money l pitit fish = circa 16 kg 7 - 8 money l Dolgix, B.O., Rodovoj i plemennoj sostav narodov Sibiri v XVII. Y. Moscow 1960 (Trudy IEMM. nov. ser. LV), p. 389. 2 E.g. Carruthers, D., Unknown Mongolia, l. London 1924, p. 220. 3 Perlee, X., Mongol ~ ulsyn ert, dundad iteijn xot suuriny tovåoon, Ulan Bator 1961, p. 140, Majdar, D., Arxitektura i gradostroitel'stvo Mongoli/. Moscow 1970, pp. 216,228,230-231. Kyzlasov, L.P., Srednevekovy. goroda Tuvy: SA No. 3. 1953, pp. 66 -75. 4 Rasid-ad-Din, Sbomik letopisej T. l. kn. l. Moscow - Leningrad 1952, p. 151. 5 Sanzdorå, M., Xalxad xjatadyn mongå xititMgc zuda/aaa nevtert xo/fson ..• (XVIII zunn). Ulan Bator 1963 (Studia historica III/5), pp. 10-16. 6 Sinkarev, L.J., Sziberia. Budapest 1977, pp. 66-7. 7 Cimitdorziev, S.B., Vzaimootnosenija Mongolii i Rossii XVII-XVIII. VY. Moscow 1978, pp. 21-2, 41-3, 45, 91. 8 lstorija Tuvy l. Moscow 1964, p. 233. 9 Sanådorz, p. 46. 10 Sinkarev, pp. 444-51. 11 Cimitdorfiev, pp. 36, 44, 46 - 8. 12 Sandag, S., Mongolyn ufs torijn gadaad xarilcaa. I. 1850-1919. Ulan Bator 1971, p. 37. About the trade through Kyaxta cf. Gmelin, J.G., Reis durch Sibirien von dem Jahr 1733 bis 1743 l - IV Gottingen 1751 - 1752. (Sammlung neuer und merkwurdiger Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande.) I. pp. 451- 5, III. pp. 38 - 51. 13 Sanådorz, pp. 36-7,40,47. 14 Cimitdorziev, pp. 102 - 3,99 -100. 15 Badamxatan, S., Xovsgo/ijn darxad fasian, Ulan Bator 1965 (Studia Ethnographica Ill, 1), p. 75, p. 26. 16 Cimitdorziev, p. 107. 17 Sanzdorå, pp. 50, 52. 18 Cimitdoråiev, pp. 105, 106. 19 Sandag, pp. 72 - 3. 20 Sinkarev, pp. 92, 121,63. 21 Sandag, p. 86. 22 Badamxatan, p. 32. 23 Dolbezev, V .A., Darxatskij okrug. St. Petersburg 1911. (Trudy SKOURGO, T. XII, vyp. 1-2), pp. 101-2. 24 Sandag, pp. 55 - 6, 166, 135, 173 - 80. 25 Dolbeåev, p. 104. 26 Sandag, p. 149. 27 Olsen, ø., Et primitivt folk. Kristiania 1915, pp.151-6. 28 Carruthers, L, pp. 109, 113 - 14. 29 Haslund-Christensen, H., Jabonah. Stockholm 1947, pp. 220-34. 30 Badamxatan, pp. 38 - 9.