The Daur People: China's Khitan Descendants and Their Living Culture

Introduction

The Daur people are one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, a community of about 133,000 who trace their ancestry to the Khitan nomads who ruled northern China under the Liao dynasty a thousand years ago. The Daur people speak a language of the Mongolic family with no native script, keep a living shamanic heritage, and play a ball-and-stick game on horseback-era rules that historians regard as the ancestor of modern field hockey. For anyone curious about ethnic China, the Daur people are one of the most rewarding cultural stories on the map.

The Daur people today live in three main clusters: the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia's Hulunbuir region, the Meilisi Daur district of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang, and the Tacheng region of far-western Xinjiang. Each community preserves the same clan structure, the same New Year rituals, and the same fierce pride in a history that includes defending a frontier fortress against Russian Cossacks in the seventeenth century. Yet outside China, and often outside their own province, the Daur people remain little known.

This guide answers the questions travelers actually ask: who the Daur people are, how their history connects to the Khitan empire, where to meet them, what to see and eat, when festivals happen, and how to plan a trip without a tour bus. It combines demographic facts from the 2020 Chinese census with on-the-ground details from the Daur heartlands, so you can decide whether a Daur cultural journey belongs on your China itinerary.

Who Are the Daur People? Origins, Language and Identity

The short answer to "who are the Daur people" is that they are one of China's 55 officially recognized minority nationalities, numbering 132,924 in the 2020 national census. That makes the Daur people one of the smaller ethnic groups in China, comparable in size to a mid-sized town, yet their cultural footprint is far larger than their numbers. The name Daur is sometimes written Daur, Dahur or Daghur in older English sources, and the Daur people are believed by most scholars to descend from the Khitan of the Liao dynasty (907-1125), a hypothesis supported by genetics as well as language and custom.

The Khitan connection is the single most important fact about the Daur people. The Khitan built an empire that stretched from the Yellow River to the steppe, and after the Liao fell to the Jurchen in 1125, some Khitan groups withdrew north into the forests and river valleys of what is now northeastern Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. A 2020 genetic study comparing Y-chromosome markers of the Daur people with DNA extracted from medieval Khitan remains found a close paternal link, giving the Daur people a reputation as the living descendants of a vanished empire. The Daur language, part of the Mongolic family, preserves vocabulary and structures that linguists say echo Khitan-era speech.

Where do the Daur people live today? The largest concentration is in Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner (Molidawa), a county-level banner of about 280,000 people in the Hulunbuir region of Inner Mongolia, where the Nen River runs through the banner's capital town of Nantun. The second concentration is in and around Qiqihar in Heilongjiang Province, particularly the Meilisi Daur District, and scattered Daur villages line the Nen and Aihui river valleys. The third, smaller community lives in Tacheng (Chuguchak) in Xinjiang, more than 3,000 kilometers from the northeastern heartland, the result of a deliberate Qing-dynasty relocation in 1763 to guard the western frontier.

Identity for the Daur people rests on four pillars. The first is the clan system: Daur society was historically organized into named clans such as Aola, Enen and Moriden, which regulated marriage and land. The second is shamanism, which survived longer among the Daur people than among most neighboring groups, and whose ritual songs, drums and costumes are now studied as living ethnography. The third is the Daur language, which today has perhaps a few tens of thousands of fluent speakers and no traditional writing system of its own, so the Daur people write their language in Chinese characters or use Mandarin as a bridge. The fourth is a strong river-and-hunting culture built around the Nen River, ice fishing in winter, and a legendary skill with hawks and horses.

For the traveler, the key takeaway is that the Daur people are not a museum display. They are a modern community with villages, festivals, restaurants and museums, whose young people play field hockey, whose grandmothers still cut Hanika paper dolls, and whose New Year celebrations welcome guests. Understanding who the Daur people are is the first step to knowing where and how to meet them, which the rest of this guide covers in practical detail.

Top 7 Daur Cultural Experiences You Should Not Miss

If you only have a few days, these are the Daur cultural experiences that matter most. The list is ordered by how iconic each one is to Daur identity, and every entry is something you can genuinely arrange with planning. No single region offers all seven, so use the list to decide which Daur community to visit first.

1. Watch beikuo, the ancient Daur field hockey. The Daur people have played a form of field hockey for over a thousand years. Called beikuo in the Daur language, the game uses a curved wooden stick and a ball carved from the root of an apricot tree, and Morin Dawa is celebrated across China as the hometown of Chinese field hockey, with Daur athletes forming the backbone of the national team since the 1970s. Catch a village match or a youth academy session around Nantun, and you are watching living sports history.

2. See the Lurigele dance performed. Lurigele, a circle dance performed by Daur women with synchronized steps and calls, was inscribed on China's national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006. It appears at festivals, weddings and performances in both Morin Dawa and Meilisi, and the best time to see it is during the A'nie New Year celebrations or the summer festival season in July and August.

3. Celebrate A'nie, the Daur New Year. A'nie is the biggest event of the Daur year, running through the first lunar month with ancestor offerings, wrestling, horse racing, ice games and endless toasting. The most memorable custom for outsiders is the sixteenth-day smeared-face ritual, when friends blacken each other's faces with soot as a playful blessing for the year.

4. Eat liuhaoya and Daur country food. The signature Daur dish is liuhaoya, the tender spring shoots of Artemisia selengensis, a wild vegetable that Daur cooks stew with beans or blend into dumplings. Beyond it, try millet congee, perilla-seed cakes, smoked Nen River fish, and salted milk tea, the everyday fuel of Daur households.

5. Visit the Daur museum and cultural park in Nantun. The China Daur Nationality Museum in Morin Dawa's capital town Nantun is the most complete introduction to Daur material culture in one place, with shaman costumes, birch-bark crafts, hunting gear and full-scale river life exhibits. Plan half a day here before heading to any village.

6. Learn Hanika paper-cut dolls. Hanika are the Daur people's traditional cut-paper dolls, made by folding paper and cutting out miniature figures, houses and daily scenes that girls once used to stage household play. Listed as national intangible cultural heritage in 2011, Hanika has recently seen a revival through workshops where visitors can cut their own doll under a local artist's guidance.

7. Try Daur wrestling, horse racing and ice fishing. Strength and horsemanship still define the Daur people's public festivals. Wrestling bouts and horse races open the A'nie celebrations, while winter on the Nen River turns the frozen channel into a fishing ground where Daur families cut holes, set nets and haul out cold-water fish that go straight into the pot.

A practical note on timing: the experiences rank differently by season. Summer (June to August) is best for Lurigele performances, festivals and the green Nen River landscape; winter (December to February) is best for the New Year rituals, ice fishing and the atmospheric frozen river. And if your wider interest is ethnic China, remember that the Daur people are one thread in a vast fabric: Yunnan Province alone is home to 25 of China's minority groups, which is why a journey that pairs the Daur north with a Yunnan minority itinerary gives travelers the deepest possible picture of the country's cultural diversity.

Where Do the Daur People Live? A Practical Travel Guide

The Daur people live in three main regions, and each offers a different travel experience. The most convenient and complete destination is Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia; the most accessible is the Meilisi district of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang; and the most remote is Tacheng in Xinjiang. This section covers all three, with honest advice on transport, season and difficulty.

Morin Dawa (Molidawa) is the cultural heartland. The banner's capital, Nantun, sits on the Nen River about 180 kilometers east of the regional city Hulunbuir (Hailar). The standard route is to fly to Hulunbuir Hailar Airport, which has direct flights from Beijing, Shanghai and several other Chinese cities, then drive or take a bus to Nantun, roughly two and a half to three hours. In Nantun you will find the China Daur Nationality Museum, Daur restaurants, the field hockey academy and organized A'nie celebrations, and from the town you can reach Daur villages along the Nen valley where clans still hold summer rituals. Aim for at least two nights.

Qiqihar, in Heilongjiang, is the easiest stop for travelers already on the Harbin corridor. The Meilisi Daur District lies on the west bank of the Nen River about 20 kilometers from central Qiqihar, and the district town of Meilisi is reachable by bus, taxi or short train ride. Meilisi is smaller and quieter than Nantun, but it has a compact Daur cultural square, a small museum and a lively community that performs Lurigele for visitors on request. Because Qiqihar is a major rail hub on the line between Harbin and Manzhouli, you can combine Meilisi with a broader northeast China itinerary without detours.

Tacheng, in far-western Xinjiang, is for the adventurous. The Daur community there, descendants of the 1763 frontier garrison, numbers only a few thousand and clusters in villages such as those around the Tacheng (Chuguchak) prefecture near the Kazakhstan border. The region is beautiful, with alpine pastures and a distinctly different Daur dialect, but it is remote, requires a flight to Tacheng airport via Urumqi, and foreign visitors must plan permits carefully for border-area travel in Xinjiang. Most first-time travelers to the Daur people skip Xinjiang and choose Morin Dawa instead; we recommend the same unless you have a specific interest in the western Daur communities.

Best times to go. June to August brings warm weather, festivals, green river valleys and the fullest schedule of performances and village activities, and it is also the period when Daur summer camps and cultural classes for children are easiest to observe. December to February offers the A'nie New Year, ice fishing and the frozen river scenery, but temperatures in Morin Dawa can drop below minus thirty Celsius, so pack serious winter gear. April-May and September-October are quiet shoulder seasons with modest temperatures and fewer events; they suit travelers who prefer museums and slow village visits over festival crowds.

Practical planning notes. Mandarin is the working language in all three regions, and English is limited outside hotels, so a phrase sheet and a translation app matter. Accommodation is basic-to-comfortable guesthouse level in Nantun and Meilisi rather than international standard, and village visits are best arranged through a local host, a museum guide or a small-group tour operator who already has relationships in Daur communities. Independent travelers who speak Chinese will manage everywhere; non-Chinese speakers should book a guide for at least the village portion of the trip.

Daur History: From the Khitan Empire to the Battle of Yaksa

No understanding of the Daur people is complete without their history, and no part of that history is more dramatic than the seventeenth century, when a small Daur fortress became a symbol of resistance that still carries weight in Chinese history books. This section traces the Daur people from their Khitan roots to the modern revival.

The Khitan inheritance. The Liao dynasty ruled the eastern steppe and northern China from 907 to 1125, and after its fall to the Jurchen Jin dynasty, many Khitan were absorbed into the new order. The ancestors of the Daur people are generally identified with Khitan groups who moved north into the Amur and Nen river basins, keeping their language and clan structure through centuries of isolation. Historians point to Daur clan names, religious practices and a 2020 genetic study of Y-chromosome markers that links the Daur people to medieval Khitan remains. The connection is not universally accepted, and some scholars argue for alternative origins, but the Khitan theory remains the mainstream view that the Daur people themselves embrace.

The battle at Yaksa and the defense of Guigudar. In the mid-seventeenth century, Russian Cossacks under Yerofey Khabarov pushed into the Amur region, taxing and raiding indigenous communities. In 1651 they besieged the Daur settlement of Yaksa, where a Daur chief named Guigudar organized resistance. According to the historical accounts, the defenders fought from their wooden stockade with bows and lances against firearms, and hundreds of Daur men, women and children were killed when the fortress fell. The story of Guigudar and Yaksa is taught in China as an example of frontier defense, and it shapes the Daur people's self-image as guardians of the border to this day.

Under the Qing: Solon banners and the westward march. After the Yaksa wars, the Qing government grouped the Daur people together with the Ewenki and Oroqen under the administrative term Solon, and Daur men served in elite border units, manning watchtowers and joining campaigns across the empire. The most consequential event of this era came in 1763, when the Qing relocated around a thousand Daur families from the Nen River to Tacheng in Xinjiang, more than 3,000 kilometers away, to garrison the new frontier against Dzungar and later threats. Those families became today's Xinjiang Daur community, which preserved the language and customs while developing its own dialect and folklore.

Modern era and cultural revival. In 1958 the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner was formally established, giving the Daur people a political home within Inner Mongolia. The twentieth century brought sweeping change: schools, urbanization, and the near-loss of the language, which now has only tens of thousands of fluent speakers, mostly among older generations. Since the 2000s, however, the Daur people have been mobilizing for survival. Lurigele dance and Hanika paper-cut dolls were listed as national intangible cultural heritage, Daur language classes resumed in schools in Morin Dawa and Meilisi, and the field hockey tradition became a point of national pride. Today the Daur people are one of China's clearest examples of a minority community actively rebuilding its cultural infrastructure, which makes visiting them both a privilege and a way to support that revival through responsible tourism.

Daur Festivals, Sports and Living Traditions

The Daur people's calendar is anchored by the New Year, but their living traditions run year-round. This section explains the festival cycle and the daily customs travelers are most likely to encounter, so you know what you are watching and when to go.

A'nie, the Daur New Year. The Daur New Year, called A'nie, begins with the first day of the lunar calendar and lasts well into the first month. Families clean their homes, prepare millet cakes and boiled meat, and offer sacrifices to ancestors and household spirits before sitting down to the reunion meal. The public face of A'nie is intensely physical: young men wrestle, horsemen race on the frozen flats, and ice games turn the Nen River into a playground. The most distinctive day is the sixteenth, when the smeared-face custom sees friends and relatives blacken each other's faces with soot, a blessing said to drive away misfortune. Visitors invited into a Daur home during A'nie should expect to be fed repeatedly and toasted with baijiu; declining politely is possible, but joining in is how friendships are made.

Beikuo field hockey and the ball-and-stick heritage. The Daur people's most famous living tradition is beikuo, their thousand-year-old form of field hockey, played with a curved stick and a ball carved from apricot root. Morin Dawa is nationally known as the hometown of Chinese field hockey, and Daur players formed the core of China's national men's team from its early years, competing in the Asian Games and World Cup qualifiers. The game is still played in villages on frozen river ice in winter and on grass fields in summer, and youth academies in Nantun train the next generation. Watching a match, or even a training session, is one of the most authentic Daur experiences available.

Lurigele dance, Hanika dolls and shamanic memory. Lurigele, the signature circle dance of Daur women, combines stamped steps, clapping and call-and-response singing, and is performed at weddings, festivals and cultural shows; both Morin Dawa and Meilisi have performance groups that welcome audiences. Hanika paper-cut dolls, once the toys of Daur girls who cut miniature figures to stage family scenes, are now a recognized intangible heritage craft taught in workshops. Shamanic tradition, while rarely practiced openly today, survives in ritual songs, drums and costumes preserved in museums, and elders still tell the stories of the last great Daur shamans. Travelers should treat shamanic material with respect, photographing artifacts only where allowed.

Hawks, horses and the Nen River. The Daur people were famous hunters, and two elements of that life survive vividly. Falconry, the practice of raising and flying goshawks for winter hunting, is still maintained by a small number of Daur hunters, and seeing a trained hawk at a festival is a highlight few visitors expect. Horses, meanwhile, remain central to Daur identity, and racing and herding skills are shown off at every major gathering. The Nen River itself is the third pillar: in summer it provides fishing and boat transport, and in winter the frozen surface hosts ice fishing, skating and hockey. For a traveler, the honest summary is this: the Daur people's traditions are not relics but a rotating calendar of events, and aligning your visit with A'nie in winter or the summer festival season is the single best planning decision you can make.

Daur People FAQ: Quick Answers for Travelers

Are the Daur people really descended from the Khitan? Most historians and the Daur people themselves accept a Khitan origin, pointing to clan names, religious practice and language. A 2020 genetic study of Y-chromosome markers found a close paternal link between the Daur people and medieval Khitan remains, although some scholars continue to debate the question. The Khitan ancestry story is part of why the Daur people draw attention from history lovers.

Where do most Daur people live? The largest community is in Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia's Hulunbuir region, with a second cluster in the Meilisi Daur District of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, and a smaller, historically significant community in Tacheng, Xinjiang. The 2020 census counted 132,924 Daur people in total, with many living in these three regions and others scattered through China's cities.

Is the Daur language still spoken? Yes, but it is endangered. The Daur language belongs to the Mongolic family and has no traditional writing system; speakers today write it with the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet in scholarly work or use Chinese characters. Fluent speakers are estimated in the tens of thousands, concentrated among older generations, and revival classes in schools are a recent and welcome development.

What are the Daur people famous for? Three things stand out: beikuo field hockey, which Morin Dawa claims as the thousand-year-old ancestor of the modern game and which supplied China's national team; the Lurigele circle dance and Hanika paper-cut dolls, both national intangible cultural heritage; and the seventeenth-century resistance at Yaksa led by the Daur chief Guigudar, a defining moment of frontier history.

When is the best time to visit Morin Dawa? For festivals and warm-weather activity, June to August is ideal, when Lurigele performances, village events and the green Nen River valley are at their fullest. For the A'nie New Year, ice fishing and frozen-river scenery, December to February is the season, though temperatures can fall below minus thirty Celsius and demand serious winter clothing.

What food is the Daur people known for? The signature dish is liuhaoya, a wild Artemisia vegetable stewed with beans or wrapped in dumplings. Beyond it, Daur cooking features millet congee, perilla-seed cakes, smoked fish from the Nen River, boiled lamb and salted milk tea, with generous hospitality as the defining ingredient.

Can foreign travelers visit Daur regions? Yes. Morin Dawa and Qiqihar are fully open to foreign visitors, who reach them through Hulunbuir or Harbin respectively. Xinjiang's Tacheng Daur community is also reachable, but border-area travel in Xinjiang requires advance planning and, in some zones, special permission, so most first-time travelers start with the northeastern heartland.

How does Daur culture fit into a wider China ethnic itinerary? The Daur people are one of 55 minority groups in China, and the country's ethnic diversity is enormous: Yunnan Province alone is home to 25 minority groups, from the Bai and Naxi to the Hani and Wa. Travelers who want to understand ethnic China deeply often pair the Daur north, with its shamanic and steppe heritage, with a Yunnan itinerary of minority villages, markets and festivals, letting human-designed travel routes stitch the two halves into one coherent journey.