Sum (country subdivision)

Sum, sumu, sumon, and somon (sumd, sumuud) are a type of administrative district used in China, Mongolia, and Russia.

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China

In Inner Mongolia, a sumu (Mongolian: ᠰᠤᠮᠤ, transliteration: sumu; Chinese: 苏木, pinyin: sūmù) is a township-level political/administrative division. The sumu division is equivalent to a township but is unique to Inner Mongolia. It is therefore larger than a village (Mongolian: ᠭᠠᠴᠠᠭᠠ гацаа) and smaller than a banner (the Inner Mongolia equivalent of the county-level division).

Sumu whose population is predominated by ethnic minorities are designated ethnic sumu – parallel with the ethnic township in the rest of China. As of 2010, there is only one ethnic sumu in China, the Evenk Ethnic Sumu.

Mongolia

A sum (Mongolian: сум) is the second level administrative subdivision below the Aimags (provinces), roughly comparable to a County in the USA. There are 331 sums in Mongolia. Each sum is again subdivided into bags.

Russia

In Russia, a sumon is an administrative division of the Tuva Republic, and somon is that of the Buryat Republic. Both are describing the Russian term "selsoviet".

See also