The Tubalars are an ethnic subgroup of the
Altaians
The Altai people (, ), also the Altaians (, ), are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group of indigenous peoples of Siberia mainly living in the Altai Republic, Russia. Several thousand of the Altaians also live in Mongolia (Altai Mountains) and C ...
native to the
Altai Republic
The Altai Republic, also known as the Gorno-Altai Republic, is a republic of Russia located in southern Siberia. The republic borders Kemerovo Oblast to the north, Khakassia to the northeast, Tuva to the east, Altai Krai to the west, as well ...
in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.
According to the
2010 census, there were 1,965 Tubalars in Russia.
In 2002 they were listed by the authorities within the
Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East.
The villages with the highest population of Tubalars are
Artybash,
Iogach,
Novotroitsk,
Tuloi,
Tondoshka,
Kebezen,
Ust-Pyzha,
Biyka,
Yailu,
Chuyka,
Torochak,
Paspaul,
Salganda,
Karakoksha,
Tunzha,
Krasnoselskoye,
Uskuch,
Uimen, and
Karasuk.
History
The Tubalars emerged from the merging of Turkic tribes with
Ket,
Samoyedic, and other native Siberian groups.
This was a process that began as early as the period when the
Yenisei Kyrgyz
The Yenisei Kyrgyz () were an ancient Turkic people who dwelled along the upper Yenisei River in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Depression from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The heart of their homeland was the forested T ...
dominated the region. The Mongols then ruled over the region and its people from the 13th to 18th centuries. The
Dzungars then briefly controlled the area until the Tubalars (along with other Altaians) submitted to the Russians.
Due to socio-economic changes taking place in the area during the middle to late 20th century, traditional Tubalar culture witnessed a decline. Many Tubalars migrated to cities for work and the merging of small, "
unpromising" villages into larger ones resulted in many historically Tuba villages being left abandoned or non-existent. There has been a recent push by the Tubalars to conserve their culture and language. The Tubalars consider themselves to be distinct from the other Turkic peoples in the Altai region.
Culture
The Tubalars were originally hunters and animals living in the taiga were vital to the local subsistence economy.
Around the 19th century, Tubalars took up picking
cedar nuts as an additional economic activity.
The traditional dwellings of the Tubalars included polygonal yurts made out of bark or log and topped with a conic bark roof. Other types of dwellings also included conic yurts made out of bark or perches.
Traditional Tubalar dress included short breeches, linen shirts, and single-breasted robes.
A clan structure is still strongly prevalent among the modern Tubalars.
The sacred tree of Tubalars is the
cedar, a symbol of the power, beauty and courage of taiga. The Holiday of Cedar is a celebration of this tree.
Religion
Most Tubalars are
Orthodox Christian but there is a significant minority that still practice
shamanism
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
.
See also
*
Altai language (''
Tuba
The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...
'' dialect is often considered a dialect of the Altay language, although whether these dialects are dialects of the "standard"
Southern Altai language or separate languages is controversial)
References
External links
speaking4earth: Tubalars & Chelkans
Altai people
Ethnic groups in Siberia
Indigenous peoples of Siberia
Indigenous peoples of the Altai Republic
Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
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