Khakas people
Khakas people with musical instruments (2009)
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (80,000 (est.)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Russia (primarily Khakassia) | |
 Russia
|
72,959 |
 Ukraine
|
162 |
 China (Heilongjiang) |
about 1,500 |
| Languages | |
| Khakas, Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Orthodox Christianity (Russian Orthodox Church) also Shamanism |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Altay 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.
The origin of the Khakas people is disputed. Some scholars see them as descendants of the Yenisei Kirghiz, 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).
The Yenisei Kirghiz were made to pay tribute in a treaty concluded between the Dzungars and Russians in 1635. The Dzungar Oirat Kalmyks coerced the Yenisei Kirghiz into submission.
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. Sibe Bannermen were stationed in Dzungaria while Northeastern China (Manchuria) was where some of the remaining Öelet Oirats were deported to. The Nonni basin was where Oirat Öelet deportees were settled. The Yenisei Kirghiz were deported along with the Öelet. Chinese and Oirat replaced Oirat and Kirghiz during Manchukuo as the dual languages of the Nonni-based Yenisei Kirghiz.
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.
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Wikipedia