| Banner | ||
|---|---|---|
| Manchu | Gūsa (romanized) | |
| Classical Mongolian: | qosiγu bošuγu hôxûû bôxig (romanized) | |
| Chinese | 旗 (character) qí (Pinyin romanization) | |
| Cyrillic Mongolian: | Хошуу (cyrillized) khoshuu (romanized) | |
| Mongolian script | Hôxûû or Hûxûû |
A banner ("khoshun" in Mongolian) is an administrative division of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China, equivalent to a county-level administrative division.
Banners were first used during the Qing dynasty, which organized the Mongols into banners, except those who belonged to the Eight Banners. Each banner had sums as nominal subdivisions. In Inner Mongolia, several banners made up a league. In the rest, including Outer Mongolia, northern Xinjiang, and Qinghai, Aimag (Аймаг) was the largest administrative division. While it restricted the Mongols from crossing banner borders, the dynasty protected Mongolia from population pressure from China proper. After the Mongolian People's Revolution, the banners of Outer Mongolia were abolished in 1923.[1]
There were 49 banners and 24 tribes in Inner Mongolia during the Republic of China.[2]
Today, banners are a county-level division in the Chinese administrative hierarchy. There are 52 in total, including 3 autonomous banners.[3]
The following list of 49 individual banners is sorted alphabetically according to each specific title (i.e., ignoring adjectives such as New, Old, Left, Right, etc.)
An autonomous banner is a special type of banner set up by the government of China. There are three autonomous banners, all of which are found in northeastern Inner Mongolia, each with a designated ethnic majority other than Han or Mongol that is a national ethnic minority: