Saiyindouleng
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Saiyindouleng, Male, Mongolian, from Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-46). The tradition is documented in Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship in Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia: The lele carts of Arukorqin Banner still retain their complete process workflow; beyond the four tools—adze, axe, chisel, and saw—everything relies on mortises and tenons. Baiyinchagan entered the trade at sixteen; over more than fifty years he built over three hundred carts and carried out countless repairs, forming the most continuous contemporary record of this technique. The lele cart (leleche) is the most widely used vehicle of the Mongolian people; its form is composed of three parts—the cart frame, the wheels, and the axle saddles—and the number of pieces in each part, as well as the number of mortises, is fixed almost exactingly. This exactness is not formalism for its own sake: thirty-six spokes per wheel, eighteen mortises chiseled around each hub, and right-angled tenons at both segments all exist so that the whole cart can be dragged across the grassland without shaking apart.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Saiyindouleng is anchored in the documented technical standards of Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship in Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia. Within the documented technical tradition of Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship in Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia: The lele cart was once the most widely used vehicle of the Mongolian people. The lele-cart making technique of Arukorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia, has a long history and still retains its complete process workflow today. The lele cart is composed of three parts—the cart frame, the wheels, and the axle saddles—and is mostly made of hard timbers such as birch and elm. The cart frame consists of 2 shafts, 9 cross braces, 8 vertical braces, and 2 cart-box covers; the wheels consist of 1 axle, 2 hubs, 36 spokes, and 12 felloes. There are also 2 axle saddles, which connect the cart frame to the wheels. Making a lele cart requires only simple carpentry tools—an adze, an axe, a chisel, and a saw. In construction, vertical mortises are chiseled into the shafts, the cart-box covers, and the axle saddles, and horizontal mortises are also chiseled into the shafts. The cross and vertical braces must be cut with corresponding tenons so that they connect the cart frame. The two ends of the axle must be thinned and rounded, thicker on the inside and thinner on the outside, with linchpin holes chiseled at both ends. The center of each hub must be pierced with an axle hole, also thicker inside and thinner outside; around the hub, 18 spoke mortises are chiseled, set within the hub's centerline, vertical yet tilted slightly outward. The root of each spoke has a shoulderless tenon, the head has a single-shouldered tenon, and the tenons of the two segments meet at a 90-degree angle. The felloe (the frame around the wheel) is made of bent wood; three mortises matching the spoke tenons are chiseled into it, and its two ends are made into a matching open mortise and a double-shouldered tenon. The roots of the spokes are driven into the mortises of the hub, and once the shoulder of each head is set, the felloe can be fitted on. The wheels are mounted on the axle and connected to the axle saddles on the cart frame. The lele-cart making technique embodies much scientific and technological knowledge, reflecting the ingenuity of the Mongolian working people. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Process Steps": The lele-cart making technique of Arukorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia, has a long history and still retains its complete process workflow today.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The lele-cart making technique of Arukorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia, has a long history and still retains its complete process workflow today.
Core Technique I
The lele cart was once the most widely used vehicle of the Mongolian people.
Core Technique II
The lele-cart making technique of Arukorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia, has a long history and still retains its complete process workflow today.
Core Technique III
The lele cart is composed of three parts—the cart frame, the wheels, and the axle saddles—and is mostly made of hard timbers such as birch and elm.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Saiyindouleng was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship, with Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship in Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia as its declared area, and Alukeerqin Banner Cultural Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The lele cart (leleche) is the most widely used vehicle of the Mongolian people; its form is composed of three parts—the cart frame, the wheels, and the axle saddles—and the number of pieces in each part, as well as the number of mortises, is fixed almost exactingly. This exactness is not formalism for its own sake: thirty-six spokes per wheel, eighteen mortises chiseled around each hub, and right-angled tenons at both segments all exist so that the whole cart can be dragged across the grassland without shaking apart.
05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage
National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bai Yinchagan | Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia | 03-1321 | Same declared area |
| Saiyindouleng | Alukeerqinqi, Inner Mongolia | — | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。