Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T21:02:26.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Quantity of Livestock Owned by the Mongols in the 13th Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Extract

In the course of the last fifty years there have been on average twenty-four million animals registered annually in Mongolia. In 1996 29, 275,700 animals were counted. This is a quantity never before experienced in the country's history. In the coming years another rise in the number of animals is expected. Some specialists conjecture a continual increase. Others are attempting to prove that this cannot be realized on account of limitations of space and that, already, throughout the country, pasture land is being threatened by overuse due to the sheer quantity of livestock. The question of how much livestock the resources of the entire natural pasture can support is still not completely answered.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ariyn Erkh (Newspaper), 03.01.1997.

2 Bat-Ochir, L., Choibalsan, Ulan Bator, 1996, p. 161.Google Scholar

3 Sources: National Economy of the MPRfor 60 years, (1921–1981), Ulan Bator, 1981, p. 178Google Scholar; Mongolian Economy and Society in 190.3, Statistical Yearbook, Ulan Bator, 1994, p. 30Google Scholar; Razhuitie naroinogo hozhyaistva i kul'tury MNR s 1921 po 1958, Statisticheskii Sbomik, Ulan Bator, 1960, p. 29.Google Scholar

4 This citation is from the book by Maiskii (see note 5). A more exact report from this period does not exist. The numbers of animals as quoted by foreign scholars and travellers are contradictory.

5 Maiskii suggested that the results of the animal count of 1918 should be added to by as much as a factor of 30%, i.e. 12.7 million, in order that they correspond to the real situation. This is because livestock keepers understated the quantity of their stock at registration owing to the taxation per head of stock. Moreover the animal count did not include the Khovd and Khövsgöl regions (see Maiskii, I., Souremennaya Mongoliya, Irkutsk, 1921, pp. 120–3):Google Scholar

6 Ocherki istorii mongol'skoi narodno-revolyucionnoi partii, Moscow, 1985, p. 125.Google Scholar

7 Mongol ardyn khuv'sgalt namyn tuukh, Ulan Bator, 1985, p. 152.Google Scholar

8 Sovremennaya Mongoliya (journal), 1934, no. 14 (7).Google Scholar

9 Ardyn Erkh (Newspaper), 10.01.1996.

10 “Sezen-Khan Aimgiin chuulgany tor gereltiin 15 ony dans”, in: Khalhyn tuukh, by Nacagdorz, Sh., Ulan Bator, 1963, p. 92.Google Scholar

11 “Tör gereltiin 21 dugeer ony Sezen-Khan-Aimgiin bukh malyn dans”, in: Nacagdorz, Sh., Khatkhyn tuukh (Ulan Bator, 1963), p. 92.Google Scholar

12 Meng-Ta pei-lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Liieh, Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237, ed. Olbricht, P. and Pinks, E. (Wiesbaden, 1980), p. 172.Google Scholar

13 Risch, F., Johann de Piano Carpini: Geschichte der Mongolen und Reisebericht 1245–1247 (Leipzig, 1930), p. 210.Google Scholar

14 Ta-heng, Siao, I-su-ki, Po-po ts'ung-shu, p. 31Google Scholar, in: “Pei-lou Fong, Les coutumes des esclaves septentrionaux de Siao Ta-heng”, by Serruys, H., Monumenta Serica X, (1945), p. 158.Google Scholar

15 Meng-Ta pei-lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 172.Google Scholar

16 Saiisiyal, , Chinggis khagany tobciyan, Khota, Khöke, 1987, i, p. 118.Google Scholar

17 Older than three years.

18 One year old.

19 Percentage average from Maiskii, , Sovremennaya Mongoliya, p. 131Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., p. 131.

21 Sambuu, Z., Mai azu ahui deger-e ben yagagizu aziltahu tukhai arad du ugkhu sanagulg-a surgal, Ulan Bator, 1945, p. 304.Google Scholar

22 Maiskii, , Sovremennaya Mongoliya, p. 110.Google Scholar

23 Meng-Tapei-lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 167.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., p. 57.

25 Zamcarano, C. (transl.), Qalq-ajimm, ed. Rinchin, B., Ulan Bator, 1959, pp. 6, 8, 10, 13, 23, 28, 33, 38–41, 43–9, 51.Google Scholar

26 Tumurzav, S., Bilcheernin mongol mal, Ulan Bator, 1989, p. 266.Google Scholar

27 Meng-Tapei-lu undHei-Ta Shih-Liieh, p. 172.Google Scholar

28 For Xiongnu: Ma Chan-shou, no. 1, 1962, p. 28Google Scholar, (in: Suhbaatar, G., Mongolchuudyn ertnii övög, Ulan Bator, 1980, p. 87).Google Scholar

29 Namio, Egami, Kjodo-no keizai kacudo, in: Tojo bunka kenkjudzjo kijo, no. 9, 1956, p.34.Google Scholar

30 Munkuyev has convincingly established the size of the population in the year 1218 with help of data from the chronicles. He assumes that the ratio between the total population and the warriors during the period of Chinggis (see Munkuyev, N. C., “Zhametki o drevnyh mongolah”, in: Tataro-Mongoly v Azhii i Evrope. Sbomik statei, Moscow, 1970, p. 367).Google Scholar

31 Maiskii, , Sovremennaya Mongoliya, p. 16.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., pp. 122–3.

33 Sovremennaya Mongoliya (journal), 1934, no. 4 (7), p. 28.Google Scholar

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.