The Duar People

The Daur live in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Heilongjiang Province, and in the Tacheng area in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China. Only a minority lives in the latter area. They live in mixed communities with other nationalities and most know the Han, Mongolian, Uygur, Kazak, Ewenki, or Oroqen languages. They used to live in the Heilong and Nenjian river valleys.

The Daur descended from the Khitan nomads who founded the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) and originally inhabited the Heilong River. During the reign of Emperor Shun Zhi (1644-1664), they moved south and settled on the banks of the Nenjiang River. In 1643 and 1651, they helped repel Cossack invaders from Russia. The Daurs also fought the Japanese when they invaded Northeast China in 1931. In 1958 the State Council approved the founding of the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner.

Most Daur farm, herd livestock, hunt and fish. Even before 1949, they had a well-developed agriculture and raised horses and oxen; those in mountainous areas hunted, burned charcoal, gathered edible plants, tanned and manufactured carts and wooden pipes. They wrestle, race horses, practice archery, and play a form of football with a ball made of ox hair. A favorite pastime, one for which the Daur have achieved a level of fame, is hockey (Beikuo)--a game they have played for over a thousand years. They use either a wooden or felt ball with a stick no more than a meter long and made from a young xylosma tree bent at the root. When played at night the ball, if wooden, is bored with holes and filled with pine resin; if felt, it is soaked with pine resin. The ball is then lit.

Men wear straw hats in the summer and leather caps with earflaps in the winter. Women wear white cloth socks and flower-designed shoes in the summer and leather boots and blue cotton robes in the winter. For weddings or the visiting of relatives, they sport silk sleeveless jackets lined with furs of marten, squirrel or leopard with a small handbag hung on their left shoulder. The Daur practice monogamy:

Monogamy was the general rule, and marriages were arranged by the parents. A man from a different clan would go to live with his wife's family, but had no claim of their property. Closest ties are those between brothers-in-law. All important celebrations require the presence of the brothers-in-law and their families who send gifts to new-born children.

The Daur are Southeast Asian lumberjacks. Every Spring Daur in the Nenjiang River valley cut trees from the upper reaches of the Nenjiang River. These they then transport back in the form or rafts (hence, "floaters on water"), pluck from them their bark and engrave into them the mountain god Bainabi's image. Only after sacrifices have been offered will the lumberjack season begin.

Daur build swift-moving carts with large wheels that oxen pull. Because it can travel up hills, down dales and through marshy areas, it is called a "flyer over grass." They have three principal types of carts: a general-purpose cart used for transport, a cart with a reed mat cover to protect passenger from wind and snow in the winter, and a "deluxe model" used for long-distance travel to shelter passengers from sun and rain. The latter cart is also used in wedding ceremonies.

The Daur place much emphasis on respecting elders. The following are ways in which that respect is demonstrated. Elders sit and sleep on the southern platform bed in the western room of the house proper. Sons, grandsons, and in-laws stand by elders' sides and serve them as they eat. Daur men of younger generations must greet elders with ceremonial gestures by extending the left foot forward, placing both hands on the left knee, bending the right leg, and bowing the body forward while looking at the elder. On wedding days, younger generations kowtow and offer wine to the elders.

Women perform the Lurigail dance during the New Year, slack farming season, or festival days. Two women sing antiphonal while performing simple dance movements. Some spectators crack jokes and make comical gestures; others join the dance and perform dance games in pairs. "Each of the pair holds one of his or her hands on the hip while extending the other to his or her partner and alternates the two hands. The two will thus appear to be "striking" and "parrying," as each tries to alternates the hands faster and change the rhythm of the movements. One of them will eventually outdo the other and win the game." Though good dancers may win on several turns, other dancers will not allow him to win totally.

Because of a folk tale that said the crying of cranes awakened Daur soldiers before dawn when an enemy attacked, the Daur value cranes. Zhalong Nature Preserve, with its thick reeds and rivers, is ideal for the water-bound birds. Particularly prevalent are the rare but mythical red-crowned cranes.

Unfortunately the Daur have no Christian witness.