Tug (banner)
A tug or sulde is a pole with circularly arranged horsetail hairs of varying colors arranged at the top. It was historically flown during the period of the Mongol Empire and also by the Turkic tribal confederations such as the Duolu, and later used in derived Turco-Mongol khanates. It was also used by the Ottoman Empire, a state which was founded by Oghuz Turks. Among the Ottomans, the tug, as a sign of power and rank of pashas, was in use before the introduction of combat troops. Based on the number of tugs attached, a pasha was called "two-tug" and "three-tug."
In the 17th century, it was also adopted by East Slav paramilitaries, the Cossacks and haydamaka, under the name bunchuk, which is the reflection of the original Common Turkic word bōnčuk. It is still used by some units of the Polish military.
History
Early history
According to Gerard Clauson, the Turkic word tu:ğ, for traditional Turkic standards made from horse-tails or bunches of horse-hair, was borrowed from Middle Chinese *dok 纛 "banner, standard". In contrast, according to linguist Sevan Nişanyan, the author of the first etymological dictionary of Turkish, it is more likely in terms of cultural history that the Chinese word tu or dú is borrowed from Turkic or Mongolic. Annemarie von Gabain was inclined to derive Chinese 纛 *duok from Turkic *tuɣ; however, Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen thought that the loan direction had been apparently from Chinese into Turkic, as 纛 was the same as 翿 dào < d'âu < d'ôg, "staff with feathers" 斿 liú ~ yóu < iâu < diôg "pendants of a banner" 游 liú ~ yóu < "pennon", which had been attested in the Classic of Poetry and Zuo Zhuan, centuries before the first appearance of the Xiongnu. Chinese observers stated that the medieval Göktürks displayed a tuğ decorated with a wolf's head at their camp's gate in order not to forget their origin from a she-wolf ancestress. A Western Turkic tribal confederation, the Duolu, was possibly named after tuğ, if Old Turkic Tuğluğ, which was "mentioned in the Chinese annals under various names: Duolu MChnL tuet-lǐuk, Dulu 都陸 MChnL tuǝ-liwk, Duolu 咄禄 MChnL tuet-luk", means "have flags, have standards".It was also used by Mongolic tribes too. The white-haired banner is used as a peacetime symbol, while the black banner was for wartime. Usage of the horse tail is symbolic because horses were central to the Mongols' livelihood. This is similar to the use of horse tail hairs for the morin khuur. The original white banner disappeared early in history, but the black one survived as the repository of Genghis Khan's soul. The Mongols continued to honor the banner, and Zanabazar built a monastery with the special mission of flying and protecting the black banner in the 17th century. Around 1937, the black banner disappeared amidst the great purges of the nationalists, monks and intellectuals, and the destruction of monasteries.
Modern era
The Nine White banners
The Nine White banners came into renewed significance in Mongolia after democracy was adopted in the early 1990s as a symbol of the traditional Mongolian state, replacing the previous communist red flags.The state banner flown by the Mongols, the, is composed of nine flag poles decorated with white horse tail hairs hanging from a round surface with the Mongolian symbol of the 3 pronged flame, which appears on the Soyombo, on the top. The Nine White Banners was a peacetime emblem used exclusively by the Khans in front of their yurt. The central banner is larger in size than the rest and is placed in the center of the other eight. The modern Mongolian nine white banners are kept in the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar. On National Pride Day, a traditional ceremony for the Nine White Banners is held.