Mapping Pasturelands: The Production of Geographical Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Qing Mongolia

Abstract:This paper examines the production of local maps of Qing Khalkha Mongolia in the 19th century. In 1864, the Zongli Yamen initiated a mapping policy that aimed at designing a coherent system of geographical correspondences to record places, distances, and boundaries on the Mongol steppe. This system departed from the longitude and latitude system and enabled the correspondences of boundary markers on the maps and in situ. The producers of geographical knowledge were local Mongol banner and aimag rulers who had to coordinate with neighbors to set the location of obuγas or boundary-markers, draw maps, and record the set boundary-markers on an addendum accompanying the maps. The mapping standards issued by the central state elicited expressions of resistance among local Mongols who actively negotiated the mapping aesthetics and advocated for their own ways of representing the land. The result was a localized form of geographical knowledge that rendered visible the gap between a prescriptive state view on steppe geography and local practices of territorial administration.