Supposedly a secret society on or around JHU's Homewood Campus. Its membership is credited with the creation of Midnight Soccer and a phony construction roadblock that appeared one morning in Baltimore.
As word of the group grew and rumors spread, the word was adopted as a Smurf-type generic term around the campus. "Dongtar!" was used as a greeting, a rally call at sporting and cultural events and even as an explicative. (At weekend movie screenings on campus, a shout of "Dongtar!" can still frequently be heard coming from many people as the lights dim.)
Legend has it that the society formed in mid-1999 for unknown causes. It is not known whether the organization still exists or if people simply act on its behalf in the absence of the true Dongtar.