Tug (banner)

A tug (Mongolian: туг [tʰʊɡ], Turkish: tuğ, Ottoman Turkish: طوغ ṭuġ or توغ tuġ, Old Turkic: 𐱃𐰆𐰍, romanized: tuğ) or sulde (Mongolian: сүлд, Tibetan: བ་དན) is a pole with circularly arranged horse or yak tail hairs of varying colors arranged at the top.

[3] In the 17th century, it was also adopted by Slavic cavalry (cossacks, haidamaka), under the name bunchuk (Ukrainian: бунчук, Polish: buńczuk) which is the reflection of the original Turkic word boncuk.

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.

[8][9] 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.

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 Есөн хөлт цагаан туг, (Yesön Khölt tsagaan tug, 'Nine Base White Banners)', 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 (Representing the past, present, and future[14]), on the top.