The Evenks

The Evenks (The Evenki people) are one of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of Russian Federation (pop. 35752 by 2002 census).

The Evenks and Oroqen-Evenks form two of the 56 ethnic groups, officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China (pop. ab. 30000 by 1990 census, also Oroqen-Evenks with the pop. 9000 by 1990 census). The Evenks also live in the Northern Mongolia (pop. ab. 5000; Hamnigan-Evenks and Solon-Evenks are now recognized as Mongol tribes, with the Mongol language spoken, pop. ab. 20000).

The Evenks inhabit a huge territory of the Siberia from the River Ob in the West to the Okhotsk sea in the East, and from the Arctic Ocean in the North to Manchuria in the South. The total area of their habitat is about 2,500,000 square kilometres.

According to the administrative structure, the Evenks inhabit, amongst others, the Tyumen and Tomsk regions, the Krasnoyarsk district, the Irkutsk, Chita, and Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, the Khabarovsk district and the Sakhalin region.

However, their autonomous national territory is confined solely to the Krasnoyarsk district, where 3,200 of the 30,000 Evenks live. About 17,000 Evenks live in Yakutia. A large Evenk community (the Solon, the Tungus, the Ainak, the Nakagyr and the Oroqen) lives in the northeast of China, close to the Soviet border, while others inhabit areas of Inner Mongolia and Manchuria.

Anthropologically the Evenk belong to the Baikal or Paleo-Siberian group of the Mongolian type, originating from the ancient Paleo-Siberian people of the Yenisei River up to the Okhotsk Sea.

The Evenk language is the largest of the northern group of the Manchu-Tungus languages, a group which also includes the Even and Negidal languages.

Traditionally the Evenks are reindeer herders (Oroqen or Orochon, ‘oron’-reindeer), hunters and fishers (Birar, ‘bira’ - river). Some groups living in steppe regions are horsemen (Murir, ‘murin’ - horse).

The Evenks were formerly known as Tungus (DongHu of Chinese historians).

Author: Andrey Issakov
and0@inbox.ru