Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Mongolian Leileiche Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today, as modern means of transport advance rapidly, the artisans who make lele carts are few in number, and the craft is in an endangered state requiring urgent protection and rescue. Baiyinchagan (from the official archive records of the associated inheritor): Male, Mongolian ethnicity, born in July 1939, from Arukorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Representative inheritor of the Mongolian lele-cart making technique, a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. Mongolian lele-cart making technician. Influenced from childhood by his older cousin, he learned the repair and making of lele carts. At 16 he began repairing and making lele carts in his spare time. The lele carts he makes are standardized in specification and sound in structure. Over more than fifty years he has repaired countless lele carts, and those he has built by hand have reached over three hundred. He has trained several inheritors of the lele-cart making technique.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Bai Yinchagan 03-1321
- Saiyindouleng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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