Utbulaq

Utbulaq belongs to the pastoral country east of Hoboksar, on the northern margin of the Dzungarian Basin. The Oirat Mongols made Hoboksar a centre of power under Batur Khong Tayiji in the seventeenth century. After the Qing conquest of Dzungaria, Torghut Mongols returning from the Volga were settled in the wider district in 1771. Pasture and seasonal movement remained central to life on the basin's northern edge.