Hello all,
Today I will conclude my overview of the Folk Costumes of the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia by talking about South Siberia.
This region is different from the rest, consisting mostly of the northern steppes, rather than the Taiga, and being dominated culturally by the Mongols. This cultural region would also include Mongolia and Manchuria, but I will not address them in this article.
In this article I will talk about the Buryat, Khakas, Tuvans, the various peoples of the Altai, and the Siberian Tatars. The Buryat speak a Mongolic language, and the rest speak various Turkic languages.
Buryat
The Buryats are the northernmost Mongolic people. They likely assimilated Tungusic, Samoyedic, and Yeniseian tribes. Their Homeland is the region around and south of Lake Baikal. They currently number about 500,000, in Buryatia as well as across the border in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia.
The vast majority are Buddhist, with a small minority being Orthodox, and another group practicing Shamanism.
The Russian Empire first tried to invade and annex Buryatia in 1643, but met fierce resistance. The regions around Lake Baikal were formally annexed by 1727.
Originally, all the majority Buryat regions formed one administrative unit under the Soviet Union.
However, when the Buryat people strongly opposed collectivization, Stalin purged thousands of them, and reorganized the region administratively to dilute their political influence. They now form three different administrative units. In the current invasion of Ukraine, Buryat troops are disproportionately put into positions that incur greater casualties. Russia is using the war in part to carry out genocide on their indigenous peoples.
They do not herd or raise reindeer, except for some small communities in the western mountains, but rather horses, camels, cattle, yaks, goats and sheep.
Buryat clothing is based on the same sort of robe as is worn by the Mongols, Manchu, and Amur peoples. The photo at the head of this article is of a Buryat family.
One distinction of Buryat clothing is that the female robe is made with a separate lower piece, which is gathered into the upper.
The closure on the overlap is often highly ornamented, and the robes usually have the typical Mongolian 'horsehoof cuffs'.
Married women wear a robe with an expanded upper sleeve.
Just a few more images of Buryats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWIejcVWkF4
A clip from a movie showing Buryat people.
A clip from a movie showing Buryat people.
Tictok clip of Buryats singing
Tuvan
Also called Tyvan. These people live primarily in the Republic of Tuva, which lies to the west of Buryatia. The Tuvans form a large absolute majority in their republic, numbering some 336,000.
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Some further thousands of Tuvans live in Mongolia and Xingjiang.
The Tuvans speak a Turkic language, of the Siberian branch. They are culturally similar to other peoples of the area, being historically herders of horses, cattle, camels, goats, and sheep, and dwelling in Yurts. They are famous for "throat singing", which is actually common among their neighbors as well, and is not confined to the Tuva. The Tuva, like the Buryats are primarily Buddhist, but some follow Shamanism.
Again, the clothing is similar to that of the Mongols.
Sometimes you will see the elaborate headdress called bogtag, but this was traditionally only worn by married women of very high social rank.
Here we see a formal greeting ritual, involving a khadag, a silk scarf that symbolizes the sky, and a bowl of milk.
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Here is a video of a concert of Tuvan Throat Singing
A video of a Tuvan woman dancing
Khakas
The Khakass live in the Khakassian Republic, just northwest of Tuva. They also speak a Turkic language of the Siberian branch.
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The Khakas were formerly known as Kyrgyz or Tatars. They number about 80,000, and form only about a quarter of the population in Khakassia, being outnumbered by Russian Colonists.
Here is a Khakas woman playing the chatkhan, an instrument resembling a koto and singing a song about the Moon Goddess.
Here is some dance music by the group 'Ailanys'
And a Khakas dance on stage.
The Altai Republic
The Altai Republic lies west of both Tuva and Khakassia, to the south it borders Mongolia, Xingjiang, and Kazakhstan.
_-_Altai_Republic_(Crimea_disputed).svg.png)
The indigenous people of this region speak several Turkic dialects which are divided into two languages, Southern Altai, which belongs to the Kipchak branch, and consists of Altai Proper and Telengit. and Northern Altai, which belongs to the Siberian branch, and consists of Kumandin, Chelkan, and Tubalar. Southern Altai is the basis of the Literary language, but has low intelligibility with northern Altai.
To what extent these different groups should be considered distinct peoples is unclear.
Speakers of these languages number about 65,000, of whom 90 % speak Southern Altai.
The Altai altogether number about 69,000 in the Altai Republic, with some few thousands more in neighboring regions, including across the border into Mongolia, Xingjiang, and Kazakhstan.
Altai
The Altai proper wear various robes and long coats. The most distinctive part of their attire are round fur hats, which are worn by both men and women, although women have a tassel on theirs which hangs behind.
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I will be interspersing photos which I have found with drawings by I. I. Ortonulov. Some of the dressier summer outfits include a long vest with wide shoulders which is reminiscent of the dress of the Khakas.
Here is a video describing life among the Altai.
A stage dance of the Altai.
Telengit
The Telengit live east of the Altai in the south of the Altai Republic.
The dress of the Telengit is quite similar to that of the Altai.
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Here is a video about life among the Telengit. The narrator is annoying, but it has much good information.
Tubalar
The Tubalar are one of the North Altai peoples. They speak a Turkic language of the Siberian branch. There are currently about 2000 Tubalar. They live in the northern part of the Altai Republic. They are listed on the map below as Tuba-Kizhi.
Chelkan
The Chelkan live in the northeast of the Altai Republic, and a little over the border into Kemerovo Oblast. They speak a Turkic language of the Siberian branch. They number some 1100 people. They are listed on the map below as Kuu-Kizhi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelkans
The front, or plastron, techkek, is a separate garment. It is put on by a bride for the second day of the wedding, and worn thereafter. The gold or silver rectangles and rhombs on the techkek and collar are made of birchbark oversewn with metallic thread. The whole is secured by a sash, which is of a solid color with narrow stripes on the edges.
Here is a short documentary explaining the Traditional Dress of the Teleut. They are, unfortunately speaking Russian among themselves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelkans
Kumandin
The Kumandin speak a Turkic language of the Siberian branch. They currently live in the northwest of the Altai Republic, and also over the border into Altai Krai. Since many live along the Swan River, they are sometimes called the Swan People. They number some 6000. They are not related to the surrounding nations, but rather were relocated from the banks of the Charysh River further west.
Teleut
The Teleuts are a small nation that speaks a Kipchak Turkic language similar to Altai. They were considered to be a branch of the Altai, and were not recognized as a separate people until 2020. They were formerly called 'White Kalmyk', despite being in no way related to the Kalmyk. They currently number about 2600 people. They live in Bekovo and nearby villages along the Bachat river in Kemerovo Oblast, which lies north of Altai.
The basic dress garment of the Teleut women is a long brightly colored brocade robe, kunek, with possibly a kaftan over it, as seen in this drawing by Ortonulov.
The front, or plastron, techkek, is a separate garment. It is put on by a bride for the second day of the wedding, and worn thereafter. The gold or silver rectangles and rhombs on the techkek and collar are made of birchbark oversewn with metallic thread. The whole is secured by a sash, which is of a solid color with narrow stripes on the edges.
Here are some more images of the Teleut.
Here is a short documentary explaining the Traditional Dress of the Teleut. They are, unfortunately speaking Russian among themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvsm__LedbM
These people speak a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch, and mostly practice Islam. I have found several photos of these people, the costume in some of the photos is greatly reminiscent of that of the Kazan Tatars, and I have found no good explanation of which is the truly indigenous version.
Here is the same guy explaining the traditional music of the Teleut. These people practice throat singing, as do all of the indigenous people of the area.
Siberian Tatars
These are the indigenous inhabitants of Southwest Siberia. They currently number some 500 000 people, although many of these are descendants of Kazan Tatars which relocated to this region. These people formed the Khanate of Sibir, which originally gave Siberia its name. It fell to Russian invaders around the year 1600.
These people speak a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch, and mostly practice Islam. I have found several photos of these people, the costume in some of the photos is greatly reminiscent of that of the Kazan Tatars, and I have found no good explanation of which is the truly indigenous version.
This drawing shows a Siberian Tatar woman on the left, and two Kalmuk on the right.
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And that concludes my overview of the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia.
Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.
Roman K.
email: rkozakand@aol.com
Source Material:
E P Zaytseva and I I Ortonulov, 'Altaiskij Natsionalnyj Kostium', Gorno-Altaysk, 1990
R D Badmayeva, 'Buryatskyj Traditsionnyj Kostium', Ulan-Ude, 2016
Henny Harald Hansen, 'Mongol Costumes', Copenhagen, 1993
B Suvd et al, 'Mongol Costumes', Ulaan Baatar, 2011
Jill Oakes et al, 'Spirit of Siberia', Vancouver, 1998
Tatyana Razina et al, 'Folk Art in the Soviet Union', Leningrad, 1990
Nina Klimova, 'Folk Embroidery of the USSR', 1981, Moscow
N Kaplan et al, 'In the Land of the Reindeer', Leningrad, 1974
Martha Longenecker et al, 'Folk Art of the Soviet Union', San Diego, 1989
N M Kalashnikova et al, 'National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples', Moscow, 1990
Aleksei Okladnikov, 'Art of the Amur', Leningrad, 1981
Agnes Kereszi, 'Ob-Ugrian Costume', Budapest, 2010
William Fitzhugh et al, 'Crossroads of Continents', Smithsonian, 1988
A A Bogordaeva, 'Tradytsionnyj Kostium Obskikh Ugrov', Novosibirsk, 2006
R S Vasilyevskyj et al, 'Narody Severa Sibiri v Kollektsiakh Gosudarstvennogo Objedinennogo Istoricheskogo i Literaturnogo Muzej', Tomsk, 1986
Peter Jordan, 'Material Culture and Sacred Landscape - The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty', New York, 2003
Vladimir Basilov et al, 'Nomads of Eurasia', Los Angeles, 1989
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