The tugh or tuman tugh, also spelled tuk or tuq, was a pole adorned with yak

Yak

The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...

or horse tails, used as a standard or banner by various Central Asian and Turkic peoples.

The best single source on tughs and their history is Zugulski' Art in the Service of the Ottoman Empire.

Tughs were quite ancient, used among Turkmen and Mongolian peoples. In the early Ottoman period, the Ottoman Emir used 2 tughs, and all other field officers and Beys used 1.

Later, the Sultan used 7, the grand vizer 5, beylerBeys 2, Beys and Orta commanders 1.

Sources

• William Erskine. A history of India under the two first sovereigns of the house of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854. Pg 265. http://books.google.com/books?id=cdINAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT19&dq=tuman+tugh&as_brr=1#PPA265,M1
• Web page about Tughs, with photos
• Mongol glossary