Nadun is a traditional festival held by the

Monguor people The Monguor (; Tu: Mongghul), the Tu people (), the White Mongol or the Tsagaan Mongol, are Mongolic people and one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. The "Tu" ethnic category was created in the 1950s. According to the 200 ...

(known as the ''Tu Zu'' in Chinese). The festival's name resembles the

Nadam Naadam (Mongolian Naadam Festival) ( mn, Наадам, classical Mongolian: ''Naɣadum'', , ''literally "games"'') is a traditional festival celebrated in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Tuva Republic. The festival is also locally termed "eriin gurva ...

festival of the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

, but different in format and content.

Origins

The

Monguor Mongour, formerly also known by various names including Tu and Dchiahour, may refer to: * Monguor people * Monguor language The Monguor language (; also written Mongour and Mongor) is a Mongolic language of its Shirongolic branch and is part of ...

“Nadun” and the Mongolian “

” are special nouns designated to an annual festival and reflect their shared origins from the northern nomadic people, such as the

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...

, who were recorded to have “one major gathering every spring for leisure and fun”. Whereas the Mongolian Nadam preserved the nomadic features of horse race, wrestling, and archery, the

Nadun has encoded their history through masked dance performances and presents as an annual military drill combined with joyful celebrations of harvest. It is specifically held in the

Sanchuan Guanting () is a town in eastern Qinghai province, People's Republic of China. It is located in the southeast of Minhe County and, together with Guanting, Zhongchuan, Xiakou, Gangou and Xin'er townships, is referred to as the Guanting Area (). It ...

/ Guanting area in Minhe County, located on the north bank of the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

, at the easternmost point of

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

, as the River flows eastward into Gansu, which holds the most densely populated

settlement today.

Format

Held by villages in turn along the

, the Nadun celebration circles through the entire Sanchuan/Guanting region in Minhe, the Nadun festival is inherently tied to agricultural work. It functions as the

form of “

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

” in the

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

and expresses gratitude for an abundance of harvest blessed by Heaven referred to as “Tiangere.” The event lasts over two months, starting from the twelfth of the seventh month to the fifteenth of the ninth month by the Chinese

lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, t ...

, and spans for a total of 63 days, giving rise to its eponym as "the world’s longest festival.Ma, Daxue ��达学(2005). "Qinghai tu zu 'Nadun' wen hua xian xiang jie du n Interpretation of the cultural phenomenon of 'Nadun' of the Tu Nationality in Qinghai青海土族'纳顿'文化现象解读." Qinghai shi fan da xue xue bao ournal of Qinghai Normal University青海师范大学学报 108(1): 79-84. p. 79.

References

{{Reflist Festivals in Mongolia Festivals in China