Tunka Buryats in the 19th century: ethnic composition and settlement

Abstract

The article deals with a study of ethnic composition of the Tunka Buryats and features of their settlement on the territory of the former Tunkinskaya Steppe Duma, which was split into four parts called Torskaya, Koimorskaya, Kharibyatskaya indigenous authorities and Okinskoe separate clan district in 1890. Creation of the first Buryat territorial administrative units — Mirskay izba and Steppe bureau (Stepnaya kontora) and their further evolution to Steppe Dumas led to formation of ethno-territorial groups of the Buryat people, the identity of which remains relevant to the present time. One of these groups are the Tunka Buryats. The ethnic composition of the Tunka Buryats occupying Russian border area with Mongolia is of great interest as they are tribes living in the border region. Buffer status of the territory along the East Sayan Mountains led to the emergence and settlement of different Mongol, Turkic, Samoyedic tribes, such as Khurkhut, Dalakhai, Khongodor, Khoykho, Chaldar, Terte, Shosholok and others in this area during different periods of history. The tribe of Irkit also lived among the Buryats. Its genesis is connected to the Samoyedic peoples who had lived in the Sayan region long before Turkic and Mongolic tribes appeared there. Some of them preserved traditional reindeer husbandry in the 19th century. This study continues a discussion on ethnicity and origin of small Buryat tribes and their relations with the Mongolic and Turkic tribes of Central Asia and South Siberia. Author's version of their origin is based on historical and linguistic analysis of ethnonyms of these tribes, which form an ethno-territorial group of the Tunka Buryats. Reconstruction of network of settlement of the Buryat ethnic groups on the territory under consideration in the 19th century allowed us to demonstrate the most complete picture of settlement of the Tunka Buryats and Irkits, and to show the maximum number of uluses and villages, which existed there at the end of the 19th century. The author's maps also show status of the territory, ratio and density of population of the Buryat tribes.

Keywords

• ethnic history
• ethnonym
• settlement
• ethnic mapping
• linguistic analysis
• Buryats
• Samoyedic people
• Turkic people
• Mongolian people