Tofalar

The Tofalaren (proper name: Tofa, Tofalar, Russian Тофалары / Tofalary ) are a Turkic ethnic minority in Russia. They are the descendants of ketene, Mongols and Samoyeds and live in the Irkutsk region, that is west of Lake Baikal. They were late, Siert Turkish language during the 17th and 19th centuries. Prior to their ancestors had one of the adjacent Ugric languages ​​used. Due to their Turkic language today the Tofalaren be attributed to the Siberian Turkic peoples.

Alternative names and religion

The Tofalaren were also known under the names " Tof ", " Tocha " and " Karagas " (Russian карагасы / Karagasy ). They are also closely associated with the " Tyva ", they are considered close relatives living in the northeastern Tuva Tuvan reindeer-herding - Todscha. The Tofalaren are mostly animists, which were superficially Christianized by Russian missionaries in the 19th century.

Settlement area and Religion

The Tofalaren once lived as nomads in the Sayan Mountains and were forced by Tuvan tribes to the north in the 17th century. In the 1920s and 1930s them a national Rajon has been granted. You are now considered an endangered the very existence of indigenous peoples of the Russian North, Siberia and the Russian Far East, which have joined since perestroika in the umbrella organization RAIPON. For them, in the 1990s, falling life expectancy, high infant mortality and a rapid decline in natural population growth was characteristic; added high unemployment. So included the Tofalaren 2002 only about 837 people. Of these, lived in Rajon Nischneudinsk 700 people. The entire Irkutsk Oblast included in 2002 with 723 people, the majority of the ethnic group. About half of them ( 378 people ) said, at this time the Tofalarische language.

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