Khakas people

The Khakas or Khakass (Khakas: Тадарлар, Tadarlar), are a Turkic people, who live in Russia, in the republic of Khakassia in Southern Siberia. They speak the Khakas language.

Khakas
Тадарлар

Khakas ethnic flag
Total population
80,000 (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Russia (primarily Khakassia)
Russia  Khakassia	72,959[1]
Ukraine	162[2]
China (Heilongjiang)	About 1,500
Languages
Khakas, Russian
Religion
Predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Russian Orthodox Church) Also Shamanism
Related ethnic groups
Altay people

The origin of the Khakas people is disputed. Some scholars see them as descendants of the Yenisei Kirghiz,[3][4] while others believe that, at the behest of the medieval Mongol Khans, the Yenisei Kirghiz migrated to Central Asia. It is believed that the Khakas people and Fuyu Kyrgyz are closer to the ancient Yenisei Kirghiz, who are both Siberian Turkic peoples (Northeastern Turkic), rather than the Kyrgyz people of modern Kyrgyzstan, who are Kipchak Turkic people (Northwestern Turkic).

History

Khakass people with traditional instruments.

The Yenisei Kirghiz were made to pay tribute in a treaty concluded between the Dzungars and Russians in 1635.[5] The Dzungar Oirat Kalmyks coerced the Yenisei Kirghiz into submission.[6][7]

Some of the Yenisei Kirghiz were relocated into the Dzungar Khanate by the Dzungars, and then the Qing moved them from Dzungaria to northeastern China in 1761, where they became known as the Fuyu Kyrgyz.[8][9][10] Sibe Bannermen were stationed in Dzungaria while Northeastern China (Manchuria) was where some of the remaining Öelet Oirats were deported to.[11] The Nonni basin was where Oirat Öelet deportees were settled. The Yenisei Kirghiz were deported along with the Öelet.[12] Chinese and Oirat replaced Oirat and Kirghiz during Manchukuo as the dual languages of the Nonni-based Yenisei Kirghiz.[13]

A group of Khakas at Minusinsk

In the 17th century, the Khakas formed Khakassia in the middle of the lands of Yenisei Kirghiz, who at the time were vassals of a Mongolian ruler. The Russians arrived shortly after the Kirghiz left, and an inflow of Russian agragian settlers began. In the 1820s, gold mines started to be developed around Minusinsk, which became a regional industrial center.

The names Khongorai and Khoorai were applied to the Khakas before they became known as the Khakas.[14][15][16][17] The Russian use of the name Tatar to call all its Turkic peoples during the Tsarist era is what led to the modern Khakas people refer to themselves as Tadar, which is not a historical name.[18][19][20] Khoorai (Khorray) has also been in use to refer to them.[21][22][23] Now the Khakas call themselves Tadar[24][25] and do not use Khakas to call themselves in their own language.[26] They are also called Abaka Tatars.[27]

During the 19th century, many Khakas accepted the Russian ways of life, and most were converted en masse to Russian Orthodox Christianity. Shamanism with Buddhist influences,[28][29] however, is still common, and many Christians practice Shamanism with Christianity.[30] In Imperial Russia, the Khakas used to be known under other names, used mostly in historic contexts: Minusinsk Tatars (Russian: минуси́нские тата́ры), Abakan Tatars (абака́нские тата́ры), and Yenisei Turks.

During the Revolution of 1905, a movement towards autonomy developed. When Soviets came to power in 1923, the Khakas National District was established, and various ethnic groups (Beltir, Sagai, Kachin, Koibal, and Kyzyl) were artificially "combined" into one—the Khakas. The National District was reorganized into Khakas Autonomous Oblast, a part of Krasnoyarsk Krai, in 1930.[31] The Republic of Khakassia in its present form was established in 1992.

The Khakas people account for only about 12% of the total population of the republic (78,500 as of 1989 Census). The Khakas people traditionally practiced nomadic herding, agriculture, hunting, and fishing. The Beltir people specialized in handicraft as well. Herding sheep and cattle is still common, although the republic became more industrialized over time.

See also

• Music of Khakassia

References

1. "Окончательные итоги Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года". Archived from the original on 3 August 2011. (All Russian census, 2010)
2. State statistics committee of Ukraine - National composition of population, 2001 census (Ukrainian)
3. Carl Skutsch (7 November 2013). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Routledge. pp. 705–. ISBN 978-1-135-19388-1.
4. Paul Friedrich (14 January 1994). Encyclopedia of World Cultures: Russia and Eurasia, China. G.K. Hall. ISBN 978-0-8161-1810-6.
5. Millward 2007, p. 89.
6. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier. 6 April 2010. pp. 611–. ISBN 978-0-08-087775-4.
7. E. K. Brown; R. E. Asher; J. M. Y. Simpson (2006). Encyclopedia of language & linguistics. Elsevier. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-08-044299-0.
8. Tchoroev (Chorotegin) 2003, p. 110.
9. Pozzi & Janhunen & Weiers 2006, p. 113.
10. Giovanni Stary; Alessandra Pozzi; Juha Antero Janhunen; Michael Weiers (2006). Tumen Jalafun Jecen Aku: Manchu Studies in Honour of Giovanni Stary. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-3-447-05378-5.
11. Juha Janhunen (1996). Manchuria: An Ethnic History. Finno-Ugrian Society. p. 112. ISBN 978-951-9403-84-7.
12. Juha Janhunen (1996). Manchuria: An Ethnic History. Finno-Ugrian Society. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-951-9403-84-7.
13. Juha Janhunen (1996). Manchuria: An Ethnic History. Finno-Ugrian Society. p. 59. ISBN 978-951-9403-84-7.
14. Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer (1995). Culture Incarnate: Native Anthropology from Russia. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 75–. ISBN 978-1-56324-535-0.
15. Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia. M.E. Sharpe Incorporated. 1994. p. 42.
16. Edward J. Vajda (29 November 2004). Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 215–. ISBN 978-90-272-7516-5.
17. Sue Bridger; Frances Pine (11 January 2013). Surviving Post-Socialism: Local Strategies and Regional Responses in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Routledge. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-1-135-10715-4.
18. Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer (1995). Culture Incarnate: Native Anthropology from Russia. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 71–. ISBN 978-1-56324-535-0.
19. Edward J. Vajda (29 November 2004). Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 215–. ISBN 978-90-272-7516-5.
20. Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism: Revue Canadienne Des Études Sur Le Nationalisme. University of Prince Edward Island. 1997. p. 149.
21. James B. Minahan (30 May 2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World A-Z [4 Volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 979–. ISBN 978-0-313-07696-1.
22. James Minahan (1 January 2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: D-K. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 979–. ISBN 978-0-313-32110-8.
23. James B. Minahan (10 February 2014). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 140–. ISBN 978-1-61069-018-8.
24. Sue Bridger; Frances Pine (11 January 2013). Surviving Post-Socialism: Local Strategies and Regional Responses in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Routledge. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-1-135-10715-4.
25. Folia orientalia. Państwowe Wydawn. Naukowe. 1994. p. 157.
26. Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia. M.E. Sharpe Incorporated. 1994. p. 38.
27. Paul Friedrich (14 January 1994). Encyclopedia of World Cultures: Russia and Eurasia, China. G.K. Hall. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-8161-1810-6.
28. Russia Religion–Encyclopædia Britannica
29. Hunmagyar
30. Kira Van Deusen (2003). Singing Story, Healing Drum: Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 8–9. ISBN 0-7735-2617-X.
31. James Forsyth (8 September 1994). A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990. Cambridge University Press. pp. 300–. ISBN 978-0-521-47771-0.

External links

• NUPI - Centre for Asian Studies profile
• The Sleeping Warrior: New Legends in the Rebirth of Khakass Shamanic Culture
• Abakan city streets views
• Beyaz Arif Akbas, "Khakassia: The Lost Land", Portland State Center for Turkish Studies, 2007.