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The Origin of the Dungan

In the 1860-70s, an uprising in support of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept across China. At the same time, the Hui people allied with other ethnic groups in northwestern China’s Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia areas to rebel against the Qing court. This uprising failed, and an army comprised of 10,000 people fled westwards. Many died on the road, but some 3,000 emigrants crossed the Tianshan Mountains and eventually reached the Chui River which was then part of the Russian Empire. There, they settled to plant seeds brought from China, and gradually formed an ethnic group that became known as the Dungan (meaning “people from the east” in Shaanxi dialect).