Farmer's collection of ethnic Daur items a rich harvest

HOHHOT－E Tiezhu admits that, at first, he collected old items of the Daur ethnic group just to make money.

However, as he brought more old objects together, the 58-year-old farmer, who is a member of the Daur community from Tengke township in the city of Hulunbuir, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, found he could not bear to sell them.

"They would be worth a lot of money now," he notes. "It's not easy to collect these things of our ethnic group. They are priceless treasures."

With rapid economic and social development over the last 20 or 30 years, the Daur people, one of the Chinese minorities mainly living in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang province, have witnessed many old items and customs gradually fading out their daily life.

Growing up in Tengke with its Daur ethnic cultural atmosphere, and familiar with the local production tools and household items, E Tiezhu realized how important it is to preserve the traditional culture of the group and began collecting items in 2008.

Before long, his collection boasted a wide range of old things with Daur characteristics, including birch bark utensils, hand-spinning tools and horse saddles. When E Tiezhu acquired a new item, he enjoyed repairing and restoring it.

"This one was so valuable that it took me a long time to get it from an old Daur herdsman," says E Tiezhu, showing off a freshly restored horse saddle.

"Look at it. It's a Daur saddle. Its front bulge is higher than the rear one, contrary to Mongolian ones."

His obsession with collecting old Daur items impressed the cadres in Tengke township, as the local government was also trying to preserve the area's ethnic culture.

In 2009, a museum of Daur folk culture, a wooden wicker-roofed traditional Daur dwelling, was set up in the township and the government funded E Tiezhu to continue his "hobby".