Tungus people: ethnos, description with photo, way of life, history, new name, customs and traditional activities

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

The diversity of nationalities is simply amazing. There are fewer and fewer representatives of certain original tribes. Now you can learn about the ethnic group of most ancient peoples only from historical books or rare photos. The nationality of the Tungus is also almost forgotten, although these people still inhabit a rather vast expanse of Siberia and the Far East.

Who is this?

For many, it will be a discovery that the Tungus are the former name of the Evenk people, who are currently one of the most numerous in the Far North. It was the Tungus that they called from the first century BC until 1931, when the Soviet government decided to rename the people. The word "tungus" comes from the Yakut "tong uss", which means "frozen, frozen family". Evenki is a Chinese name derived from "Evenke su".

At the moment, the number of Tungus nationality is about 39 thousand people in Russia, the same number in China and moreapproximately 30 thousand on the territory of Mongolia, which makes it clear: this people is quite numerous, despite the peculiarities of its existence.

What this people looks like (photo)

Tunguses in the general mass are rather unsightly: their figure is disproportionate, as if pressed to the ground, their height is average. The skin is usually dark, brownish, but soft. The face has pointed features: sunken cheeks, but high cheekbones, small, densely set teeth and a wide mouth with large lips. Dark colored hair: dark brown to black, coarse but fine. Both women and men braid them in two braids, less often in one, although not all men grow long hair. The male part of the people after thirty years grows a rare beard and a thin strip of mustache.

The whole appearance of the Tungus quite clearly conveys their character: harsh, alert and stubborn to the extreme. At the same time, everyone who met them claims that the Evenki are quite hospitable and generous, it is not in their rules to worry too much about the future, they live one day at a time. Talkativeness is considered a great shame among the Tungus: they openly despise such people and bypass them. Also among the Tungus peoples it is not customary to greet and say goodbye, only in front of foreigners they take off their headdress, making a slight bow, and immediately put it on their heads, returning to their usual restrained behavior. Despite all the difficulties of existence, the Evenks live on average 70-80 years, sometimes even a hundred, and almost until the end of their days they maintain an active lifestyle (if the disease is notknocks them down).

Where do the Tungus live?

Despite the fact that the number of Evenks is small compared to other nationalities, their places of residence are quite extensive and occupy the entire space of the Far East from the Far North to the middle of China. To more accurately imagine where the Tungus people live, you can designate the following territories:

• In Russia: the Yakutsk region, as well as the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the entire Baikal basin, Buryatia. There are small settlements in the Urals, the Volga region and even the North Caucasian region. That is, most of Siberia (Western, Central and Eastern) has settlements on its territories where the Tungus lived.
• Evenki autonomous khoshun, which is partly located in Mongolia and a little in China (Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces).
• The Selenginsky aimak on the territory of Mongolia has in its composition the Khamnigans - a group of Tungus origin, but mixed their language and traditions with Mongolian culture. Traditionally, the Tungus never build large settlements, preferring small ones - no more than two hundred people.

Features of life

Where the Tungus live, it seems clear, but what was their life like? As a rule, all activities were divided into male and female, and it is extremely rare for someone to do “not their own” work. Men, in addition to cattle breeding, hunting and fishing, made products from wood, iron and bone, decorated them with carvings, as well as boats and sleds (sledges for winter driving in the snow). Women cooked food, raised children, and also dressed skins, sewed magnificent garments from them.and life. They also skillfully sewed birch bark, making from it not only household items, but also parts for the chum, which was the main home for nomadic families.

all kinds of mushrooms and berries that grow in abundance in their habitats.

Main Occupation

The Tungus nation is conditionally divided into several groups based on their lifestyle:

Nomadic reindeer herders who are considered true representatives of their nationality. They do not have their own stable settlements, preferring to roam, as many generations of their ancestors did: some families overcame a distance of a thousand kilometers on reindeer in one year, following the grazing of their herd, which was the main way of subsistence along with hunting and fishing. Their life position is quite simple: “My ancestors roamed the taiga, and I must do so. Happiness can only be found along the way.” And nothing can change this worldview: neither hunger, nor illness, nor deprivation. The Tungus usually went hunting for two or three people, using horns, spears (for a large animal like a bear or an elk), as well as bows with arrows and all kinds of traps and traps for small animals (mostly fur-bearing ones) as weapons

• Sedentaryreindeer herders: in the largest numbers they live in the area of the Lena and Yenisei rivers. Basically, this version of being occurred due to numerous mixed marriages, when the Tungus took Russian women as wives. Their way of life in the summer is nomadic: they herd deer, sometimes adding cows or horses to the herd, and winter in houses run by women during the nomadism of men. Also in winter, the Evenki trade in fur-bearing animals, carve amazing products from wood, and also make various household items and clothing from leather.
• The Coastal Evenks are considered a dying group, so they are no longer actively engaged in reindeer herding and at the same time do not try to use the technological innovations of civilization. Their life mainly revolves around fishing, picking berries and mushrooms, sometimes farming and hunting small animals, more often fur-bearing ones, whose skins they exchange for vital things: matches, sugar, s alt and bread. It is in this group that the highest percentage of deaths from alcoholism is due to the fact that these Tungus could not find themselves in modern society because of their great attachment to the traditions of their ancestors.

Wedding customs

An interesting pre-marital custom was widely practiced among Evenks in the last century: if a man likes a certain woman, and he wants to express his disposition, he comes to her with the words: "I'm cold." This means that she must give him her bed to keep him warm, but only twice. If he comes for the third time with such words, this is already a direct hint at the wedding, and they frankly begin to torment him, determine the size of the kalym for the bride anddiscuss other wedding subtleties. If a man does not express a desire to marry, then he is very persistently escorted to the door, forbidding him to appear again with this woman. If he resists, then they may well shoot an arrow at him: the Tungus nationality is famous for its ability to convince insolent people.

Kalym usually consists of a herd of deer (about 15 heads), numerous skins of sables, arctic foxes and other valuable animals, they can also ask for more money. For this reason, the most beautiful Tunguska girls have always been with the rich, and the poor were content with those who did not ask for too much ransom for their ugly daughter. By the way, the marriage contract was always drawn up on behalf of the girl's father, she herself did not have the right to choose. It so happened that at the age of eight, a girl in the family was already engaged to some adult man who had already paid the dowry and was waiting for her puberty. Also, polygamy is widespread among the Evenks, only the husband is obliged to provide for all his women, which means he must be rich.

Religion

The Tungus people initially adhered to shamanism, Tibetan Buddhism was sometimes practiced in China and Mongolia, and only in the last few decades Christian Evenks began to appear. Shamanism is still widespread throughout the territory: people worship various spirits and treat diseases with the help of incantations and shamanic dances. The Tungus hold the Spirit of the Taiga in special esteem, which they depict as a gray-haired old man with a long beard, who is the keeperand owner of the forest. There are many stories among the locals that someone saw this Spirit while hunting, riding a big tiger and always accompanied by a huge dog. In order for the hunt to be successful, the Evenks depict the face of this deity, using a peculiar pattern in the form of notches on the bark of a special tree, and sacrifice only part of the killed animal or porridge from cereals (depending on what is available). If the hunt fails, the Spirit of the Taiga gets angry and takes all the game away, so he is revered and always behaves respectfully in the forest.

In fact, among the Tungus, belief in spirits was very strong: they devoutly believe that various spirits can inhabit people, animals, homes and even objects, so various rituals associated with the expulsion of these entities were widespread and practiced among some residents to this day.

Death beliefs

The Tungus people believe that after death the soul of a person goes to the afterlife, and those souls who did not get there due to incorrect burial rituals become ghosts and evil spirits that send damage to relatives, diseases and various troubles. Therefore, the funeral rite has several important points:

• When a husband dies, the wife should immediately cut off her braid and put it in her husband's coffin. If the husband loved his woman very much, then he can also cut off his hair and put it under her left hand: according to legend, this will help them meet in the afterlife.
• The whole body of the deceased is smeared with blooda freshly slaughtered deer, let it dry, and then dress it in the best clothes. All his personal belongings are placed next to his body: a hunting knife and all other weapons, a mug or a bowler hat that he took with him on a hunt, or reindeer hauls. If a woman died, then it was all her personal belongings, down to a piece of cloth - there was nothing left not to incur the wrath of the spirit.

They build a special platform on four pillars called Geramcki, usually about two meters high above the ground. It is on this platform that the deceased is placed with his things. A small fire is made under the platform, on which deer fat and lard are smoked, and its meat is also boiled, which is divided among everyone and eaten with loud lamentations and tears for the deceased. Then the platform is tightly packed with animal skins, firmly hammered with boards, so that in no case would wild animals reach the corpse and eat it. According to legend, if this happens, then the angry soul of a person will never find peace, and everyone who carried the deceased to the platform will die on the hunt, torn apart by animals

The end of the ritual

Exactly one year later, the last rite of commemoration is held: a rotten tree is selected, from the trunk of which the image of the deceased is cut, dressed in good clothes and put on the bed. Next, invite all neighbors, relatives and those who were familiar with the deceased. Each invited person from the Tungus people must bring a delicacy, which is offered to an image made of wood. Then the deer meat is boiled again and offered to everyone, especiallythe image of the deceased. A shaman is invited to begin his mysterious rituals, at the end of which he takes the effigy out into the street and throws it as far as possible (sometimes it is hung on a tree). Thereafter, the deceased is never mentioned, considering that he successfully reached the afterlife.

This is interesting

Even the Tungus people, so unfamiliar to most people, have many important moments in their history that they are proud of:

• Very kind and peaceful Tungus during the formation of Soviet power in 1924-1925 massively took up arms to defend their territories: all adult men up to seventy years old stood shoulder to shoulder against the bloody terror of the Red Army. This is unprecedented in the history of a nation renowned for its good nature.
• For all the centuries-old existence of the Tungus people, not a single species of flora and fauna has disappeared on the territory of their residence, which indicates that the Evenks live in harmony with nature.
• As a paradox: it is the Tunguses that are now under the threat of extinction, because their numbers are rapidly declining. In many districts of their residence, the birth rate is half as much as the death rate, because this people, like no other, reveres their ancient traditions, never stepping back from them under any circumstances.