Yakuts. All-Russian media project "Russian Nation" - all the ethnic groups of Russia as inseparable parts of a single Russian nation

Faces of Russia. "Living Together, Being Different"

The multimedia project "Faces of Russia" exists since 2006, talking about Russian civilization, the most important feature which is the ability to live together, remaining different - such a motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, within the framework of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs "Music and songs of the peoples of Russia" were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs have been released to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a picture that will allow the inhabitants of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a picture of what they were like for posterity.

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"Faces of Russia". Yakuts. "Yakutia - Siberia of Siberia", 2011

General information

YAK'UTS(from the Evenki Yakoltsy), Sakha (self-name), one of the northernmost Turkic peoples, a people in Russian Federation(380.2 thousand people), the indigenous population of Yakutia (365.2 thousand people). According to the 2002 population census, the number of Yakuts living in Russia is 443 thousand 852 people, in the 2010 census more than 478 thousand 85 people speaking the Yakut language were recorded.

Yakuts live in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as in the Irkutsk and Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk regions. On Taimyr and in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug. Yakuts make up approximately 45 percent of the population of the Sakha Republic.

The main groups of the Yakuts are Amga-Lena (between the Lena, lower Aldan and Amga, as well as on the adjacent left bank of the Lena), Vilyui (in the Vilyui basin), Olekma (in the Olekma basin), northern (in the tundra zone of the Anabar, Olenyok, Kolyma river basins). , Yana, Indigirka). They speak the Yakut language of the Turkic group of the Altai family, which has groups of dialects: central, Vilyui, northwestern, Taimyr. Believers are Orthodox.
Both the Tungus population of taiga Siberia and the Turkic-Mongolian tribes who settled in Siberia in the 10-13 centuries and assimilated the local population participated in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts. The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts was completed by the 17th century.

By the beginning of contacts with the Russians (1620s), the Yakuts were divided into 35-40 exogamous "tribes" (Dion, Aimakh, Russian "volosts"), the largest - the Kangalas and Namtsy on the left bank of the Lena, the Megins, the Bogonians, the Betuns, the Baturus - between Lena and Amga, numbering up to 2-5 thousand people.

According to archaeological and ethnographic data, the Yakuts were formed as a result of the absorption by the southern Turkic-speaking settlers of local tribes in the middle reaches of the Lena River. It is believed that the last wave of the southern ancestors of the Yakuts penetrated the Middle Lena in the XIV-XV centuries. In the process of resettlement in Eastern Siberia, the Yakuts mastered the basins of the northern rivers Anabar, Olenka, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma. The Yakuts modified the reindeer husbandry of the Tungus, created the Tungus-Yakut type of draft reindeer husbandry.

A series of audio lectures "Peoples of Russia" - Yakuts

The tribes were often at enmity with each other, divided into smaller tribal groups - "paternal clans" (aga-uusa) and "maternal clans" (iye-uusa), i.e., apparently ascending to different wives of the progenitor. There were customs of blood feud, usually replaced by a ransom, military initiation of boys, collective fishing (in the north - catching geese), hospitality, and the exchange of gifts (belakh). A military aristocracy stood out - toyons, who ruled the clan with the help of elders and acted as military leaders. They owned slaves (kulut, bokan), 1-3, rarely up to 20 people in a family. Slaves had a family, often lived in separate yurts, men often served in the military squad of the toyon. Professional merchants appeared - the so-called townspeople (i.e. people who traveled to the city). Livestock was in private ownership, hunting, pasture land, hayfields, etc. - mainly in the community. The Russian administration sought to slow down the development of private ownership of land. Under Russian rule, the Yakuts were divided into "kinds" (aga-uusa), ruled by elected "princes" (kines) and united in naslegs. At the head of the nasleg were the elected "grand prince" (ulakhan kines) and the "tribal administration" of the tribal foremen. Community members gathered for tribal and hereditary gatherings (munni). Naslegs united in uluses headed by an elected ulus head and "foreign council". These associations ascended to other tribes: Meginsky, Borogonsky, Baturussky, Namsky, West and East Kangalassky uluses, Betyunsky, Batulinsky, Ospetsky naslegs, etc.

The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukaghirs, the Olyokma are strongly acculturated by Russians.

The inclusion of the Yakuts into the Russian state in the 1620-1630s accelerated their socio-economic and cultural development. In the 17th-19th centuries, the main occupation of the Yakuts was cattle breeding (breeding of cattle and horses), from the second half of the 19th century, a significant part began to engage in agriculture, hunting and fishing played an auxiliary role.

The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called "horse people") and cattle breeding. The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cattle. Deer were bred in the north. Cattle were kept in the summer on grazing, in the winter in barns (hotons). Haymaking was known before the arrival of the Russians. The Yakut breeds of cattle were distinguished by endurance, but were unproductive.

Fishing was also developed. They fished mainly in the summer, but also in the winter in the hole; in the fall, a collective seine fishing was organized with the division of prey between all participants. For the poor who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the documents of the 17th century, the term "fisherman" - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of "poor"), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called "foot Yakuts" - osekui, ontuly, kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgydais, Orgoths and others.

Hunting was especially widespread in the north, being the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, moose, bird). In the taiga, by the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare, bird, etc.) was known, but later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horseback chasing the beast along the trail, sometimes with dogs.

There was gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of the bark), harvested for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, coinage, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), raspberries, which were considered unclean, were not used from berries.

Agriculture (barley, lesser degree wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century, until the middle of the 19th century it was very poorly developed; its spread (especially in the Olekminsk district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.

The processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, and leather was developed; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc .; Cords were twisted from horse hair with hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting of felt were absent. The production of stucco ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had a commercial value, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper, etc., were developed, from the 19th century - carving on mammoth ivory.

They traveled mainly on horseback, transporting goods in packs. There were known skis lined with horse kamus, sledges (silis syarga, later - sledges like Russian wood firewood), usually harnessed to bulls, in the north - straight-dust reindeer sleds; types of boats common with Evenks - birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; sailing ships-karbasy borrowed from the Russians.

Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mowing fields, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer ones - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were plastered on the outside with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was arranged in the east side, the windows - in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeast corner, a hearth (ooh) was arranged - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. At the western wall there was a master's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, on the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a barn (khoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof with housing, the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings. Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a khoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were placed at a distance. Since the end of the 18th century, polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known. From the 2nd half of the 18th century, Russian huts spread.

Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather pants, a fur underbelly, leather legs, a single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and flint, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Characteristic is a women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyah), embroidered with red and green cloth and a gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur that goes down to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn on it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with wool outside (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saary) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.

The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - koumiss, from cow's milk - curdled milk (suorat, sora), cream (kuercheh), butter; oil was drunk melted or with koumiss; suorat was prepared for the winter in a frozen form (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; stew (butugas) was prepared from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horse meat was especially valued. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat stew. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsk district.

Small family (kergen, yal). Until the 19th century, polygamy was preserved, and the wives often lived separately and each ran their own household. Kalym usually consisted of cattle, part of it (kurum) was intended for a wedding feast. The bride was given a dowry, which in value amounted to about half of the kalym - mainly items of clothing and utensils.

In the second half of the 18th century, most of the Yakuts were converted to Christianity, but shamanism also persisted.

In the life of the Yakuts, religion played a leading role. Yakuts consider themselves children good spirit aiyy, they believe that they can become spirits. In general, the Yakut from the very conception is surrounded by spirits and gods, on which he is dependent. Almost all Yakuts have an idea of ​​the pantheon of gods. An obligatory rite is the feeding of the spirit of fire on solemn occasions or in the bosom of nature. Sacred places, mountains, trees, rivers are revered. Blessings (algys) are often real prayers. The Yakuts celebrate the Ysyakh religious holiday every year. Passed down from generation to generation by storytellers ancient epic Olonkho is included in the UNESCO World Intangible Heritage List. Another well-known original cultural phenomenon is the so-called Yakut knife. There are many regional variations of the Yakut knife, but in the classic version it is a blade from 110 to 170 mm long, mounted on a wooden handle made of birch burl with a leather sheath.

Orthodoxy spread in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Christian cult was combined with belief in good and evil spirits, the spirits of dead shamans, master spirits, etc. Elements of totemism were preserved: the clan had an animal patron who was forbidden to be killed, called by name, etc. The world consisted of several tiers, the head of the upper was considered Yuryung ayy toyon, lower - Ala buuray toyon, etc. The cult of the female deity of fertility Aiyysyt was important. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits living in the upper world, cows were sacrificed in the lower one. The main holiday is the spring-summer koumiss holiday (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of koumiss from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc. Shamanism was developed. Shaman tambourines (dungur) are close to Evenk ones. In folklore, the heroic epic (olonkho) was developed, performed in recitative by special storytellers (olonkhosut) with a large gathering of people; historical legends, fairy tales, especially fairy tales about animals, proverbs, songs. Traditional musical instruments - jew's harp (khomus), violin (kyryympa), percussion. Of the dances, the round dance osuokhay, game dances, etc. are common.

School education has been conducted since the 18th century in Russian. Writing in the Yakut language since the middle of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the intelligentsia was formed.

In 1922, the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created, since 1990 - the Republic of Sakha, Yakutia. Cities are growing in the country, industry and agriculture are developing, in the 1930s and 40s the Yakuts settled in new settlements. A network of secondary and higher educational institutions emerged. Literature is published in the Yakut language, periodicals are published, television programs are conducted.

V.N. Ivanov

YUKAG'IR, odul, vadul (self-name - "powerful, strong"), etel, etal (Chukotka), omoki (obsolete Russian), people in the Russian Federation. The number of 1.1 thousand people. They live in the Nizhnekolymsky (tundra Yukagirs, or vadul) and Verkhnekolymsky (taiga Yukaghirs, or odul) regions of Yakutia (about 700 people), as well as the Alaikhov and Anadyr regions of the Magadan region. According to the 2002 population census, the number of Yukaghirs living in Russia is 1,509 people, according to the 2010 census. - 1 thousand 603 people.

They speak an isolated Yukagir language, dialects are tundra and taiga. Writing since the 1970s in Russian graphic basis. Russian is also widespread (46% of Yukaghirs consider it their native language), Yakut, Even and Chukchi languages. Believers are mostly Orthodox.

Most researchers see the descendants of the Yukagirs ancient population Eastern Siberia, which also took part in the formation of other Paleo-Asiatic peoples. Settlement in Eastern Siberia in the 1st-2nd millennia of the Tungus (Evenks and Evens) and Turkic (Yakuts) peoples led to a reduction in the ethnic territory of the Yukaghirs and their partial assimilation. By the time the Russians arrived in the middle of the 17th century, the Yukagirs occupied the territory from Indigirka to Anadyr, numbered 4.5-5 thousand people and made up several tribal groups ("clans"): Yandins (Yangins), Onondi, Kogime, Omoki, Alai (Alazei ), Shoromba, Olyubentsy, Homoroi, Anauls, Khodyns, Chuvans, Omolons, etc. Inclusion into Russia, oppression of the Cossack administration (yasak, amanatism), military clashes with the Yakuts, Evens, Koryaks, Chukchi, devastating smallpox epidemics of 1669 and 1690 led to a sharp reduction in the number of Yukagirs. By the end of the 17th century, the Yukagirs numbered 2535 people, in the first half of the 18th century - 1400-1500 people, in 1897 - 948 people, in 1926-27 - less than 400 people.

The main traditional occupations are semi-nomadic and nomadic hunting for wild deer (tundra Yukagirs), elk, deer and mountain sheep (taiga Yukaghirs), among the taiga Yukagirs - also lake and river fishing, among the tundra - transport reindeer herding. In summer they traveled on reindeer, in winter - on arc-dusty sleds. Among the tundra Yukaghirs, dog-straight dust sleds were common. On the water they moved on birch bark, dugout or plank boats, on the snow - on skis hemmed with skins, on the crust - on the barren.

The ancient dwellings of the Yukaghirs were semi-dugouts-chandals, the skeletons of which were preserved by the time the Russians arrived, in some places - to the present day. Later, the taiga Yukagirs lived in conical huts made of thin logs covered with turf, or in tents covered with bark or rovdug. The chum was heated by a central hearth, one or two transverse poles were arranged above it for hanging boilers, drying clothes, drying fish and meat. Large log yurts, similar to the Yakut ones, were also known in the tundra regions - cylinder-conical plagues borrowed from the Evens. Outbuildings were barns and storehouses on poles. Most of the modern Yukagirs live in log houses in the villages of Andryushkino and Kolymskoye (Verkhnekolymsky district), Nelemnoye and Zyryanka (Nizhnekolymsky district), Markovo (Magadan region), etc.

Traditional clothing is close to Evenk and Even. The main clothing is a knee-length swinging caftan with a hem tied with ribbons and an inner fold on the back, in summer - from rovduga, in winter - from deer skins. Long "tails" made of sealskins were sewn to the back: for men - forked at the back, for women - on the sides. Under the caftan they put on a bib, short pants, leather in summer, fur in winter. Men wore a belt with a knife and a pouch over the caftan. In winter, a long scarf made of squirrel tails was worn on top. Was distributed winter clothes from rovduga, close in cut to the Chukchi kamleika and kukhlyanka. Summer shoes are made of rovduga, with leggings tied with straps at the thigh and ankle, in winter - high torbashes made of reindeer skins, stockings made of deer or hare fur. Women's clothing was lighter, sewn from multi-colored fur of young deer. Festive clothes were decorated with deer hair embroidery, beads, cloth trims, expensive fur, and appliqué. Silver, copper and iron ornaments were common - rings, plaques, etc.; the decoration of women's breastplates is characteristic - the "chest sun" - a large silver plaque.

The main food - meat and fish - boiled, dried, frozen. The meat was prepared for the future - dried and then smoked and ground into powder. The fish was stored in the form of yukola, crushed into powder-porsa, in winter it was boiled with deer blood or pine sapwood (anil kerile); boiled fish was crushed with berries and fat (kulibakha). Fish giblets and caviar were fried, cakes were baked from caviar. In the summer they ate fermented fish, wrapping it for a day in willow leaves. They also used wild onions, sarana roots, berries, unlike the Yakuts and Evens - mushrooms. As an aphrodisiac, they used fly agaric, smoked tobacco, thyme leaves, brewed tea and birch growths.

The family is large, mostly matrilocal, patrilineal inheritance. There were customs of levirate, avoidance (a taboo on communication between a father and a married son and daughter-in-law, etc.). Since the end of the 19th century, the institution of kalym has spread.

Customs associated with fire played an important role: it was forbidden to pass fire from the hearth to strangers, to pass between the hearth and the head of the family, etc. Traditional beliefs are the cults of master spirits, the supreme heavenly god Hoyle (merged with the Christian cult), game animals (especially elk), the bear cult, the cult of fire, the spirits of ancestors. Ideas were developed about the division of the universe into the upper, middle and lower worlds ("earths"), connected by a river, shamanism. The bodies of the dead shamans were dismembered, the skulls were kept in the house as a shrine. The main holidays are spring (Shahadzibe), weddings, successful hunts, military campaigns, etc. - were accompanied by songs, dances, performance of legends, shamanistic rituals. Until the 20th century, pictographic writing on birch bark (tosy, shongar-shorile) was preserved. The main genres of folklore are legends, stories and fairy tales. The main dances are circular (longdol) and pair imitative - "Swan". Christianity has been spreading since the 17th century.

Modern Yukaghirs are engaged in fur trade, fishing, and reindeer herding. The intelligentsia appeared. Tribal communities are being recreated - "Chayla" ("Dawn") and "Yukagir", they are allocated traditional economic activity Yukagirov territory, financial support is provided.

In December 1992, the Council of Elders and the Fund for the Revival of the Yukaghir people were established.

Reference books say that the area of ​​Yakutia is more than three million square kilometers. It immediately becomes clear that the Yakuts live on a vast territory. This can be easily seen by looking at the map of Russia, where the republics of our country are indicated.

Yakutia. Republic of Sakha on the map

Yakutia is many times larger in area than any European power. It is only slightly smaller than the entire European part of Russia.
On a huge spot denoting Yakutia, it is written in large letters - Sakha, and below in brackets - Yakutia. Everything is right; Yakut is a Russian word. They say it was borrowed from the Tungus. They called the Yakuts "eco". From here the word "ekot" arose, and from it not far from "Yakut". The indigenous inhabitants of Yakutia themselves call themselves the people of Sakha. Perhaps this word came from the Turkic language, in which yaha means "edge", "outskirts". Other scholars argue that "sakha" comes from the Indo-Iranian aka - "deer". Still others say that its roots must be sought in the Manchu language, in which this word in the old days meant "hunting."
Each of the options can claim to be true. Indeed, Yakutia-Sakha lies in the North, as if on the edge of the earth. Almost half of its territory is located beyond the Arctic Circle. Huge areas are occupied. On this outskirts of the land, trees become smaller, birches become knee-deep in height ... It is no coincidence that one of the Yakut proverbs says: "Even grasses and trees come in different heights." Beyond the tundra begins the arctic desert. Its border with the Arctic Ocean stretches for four and a half thousand kilometers.

About Yakuts

Yakuts are excellent cattle breeders. They have long been able to handle horses and reindeer. Already in the 17th century, it was believed that the Yakuts were the northernmost horse breeders in the world. They bred their own breed of horses - with a large head, hardy, overgrown with long hair in winter and able to feed themselves, literally knocking out food from under the snow with their hooves.

How else? After all, it is in Yakutia that the famous pole of cold is located. Here, on the territory of the Oymyakonsky district, in January the temperature drops below -60 °C.
In the old days, horses were the measure of wealth for many Yakuts. Moreover, they were counted not by their heads, but by the number of herds, each of which was led by a seasoned stallion. Almost every Yakut yurt had a wooden serge post, to which the horses were tied. On the one hand, it was an ordinary hitching post. With another - sacred symbol that the earth has a master. Three grooves were cut on the serge. It was believed that the celestial gods tied their horses to the first, people to the second, and the bridles of the horses of the underworld were attached to the third. Serge could be placed, but it was impossible to bring down. The sacred pillar itself must have fallen from old age.

Finally, the Yakuts have always been and remain excellent hunters and fishermen. Sables are found in the taiga forests of the Republic of Sakha, and the Yakuts are excellent at hunting this animal, whose fur is sometimes compared to gold. It is no coincidence that the ancient coat of arms of Yakutsk depicts an eagle grabbing a sable with its claws. On the modern coat of arms of the capital of the Republic of Sakha, fur animals are represented by a squirrel.

The rivers of Yakutia are rich in fish, but fishing is difficult in winter. Therefore, long before the invention of canned food, in fact, back in the Neolithic times, the Yakuts came up with a unique method for obtaining long-term stored fish paste. It's called Sima. The containers are pits dug in the ground and lined with birch bark. They contain fish cleaned of bones and entrails.
In winter, the resulting pasta can be added to various dishes. There are many delicious traditional dishes in Yakut cuisine. These are large darkhan dumplings, marinated oygos meat with red currants, and salamat drink, which is prepared on the basis of cream and sour cream.

History, customs and epic olonkho

Probably, on the territory of modern Yakutia, the tribes of the Sakha people first appeared in the 12th century. They came here from the shores of Lake Baikal. Judge about ancient history Yakuts are difficult. The first written documents appeared among them late, at the end of the 19th century. In many ways, this is the merit of a Yakut by origin, Semyon Andreyevich Novgorodov.
From childhood, he showed excellent learning abilities. In 1913 he came to St. Petersburg and entered the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University. The study of various writing systems helped him create the alphabet of the Yakut language. Shortly after the revolution of 1917, the first primer appeared in Yakutia. Now Yakut fonts and texts occupy a worthy place on the Internet.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the people of Sakha accumulated and transmitted their knowledge orally. As a result of this, great poems appeared - olonkho. The masters of their performance possessed not only a tenacious memory, which allowed them to talk about gods and heroes for days on end. They were also skilled improvisers, artists and writers rolled into one.

The Yakut epic olonkho can be compared with the famous Karelian "Kalevala" and even with the ancient Greek "Iliad".

It tells about three worlds - heavenly, earthly and underground. In the olonkho poems, noble heroes fight against the forces of evil. The international organization UNESCO ranked olonkho among the masterpieces cultural heritage humanity. Surely, based on the plots of this epic, you can shoot a large-scale blockbuster like The Lord of the Rings.
The olonkho epic mentions the round dance osuokhay. It is arranged in the summer, during the festival of abundance. And today, osuokhai gathers relatives who symbolically unite in a circle. The feeling of an elbow, unity with one's family gives the Yakuts a kind of "energy recharge" for the whole next year.

Carefully preserved ancient customs of the Yakuts make a strong impression on Europeans. Modern Yakut clothing with traditional cut and ornaments looks great on the catwalks of the world's leading powers. People admire Yakut bone carvers. Many figurines are made of mammoth tusks. The land of Yakutia has preserved many remains of these giants. It is no coincidence that in Yakutia there is the only mammoth Museum in the world.
At international festivals of ethnic music, the Yakut khomus sounds mysteriously and bewitchingly. This small musical instrument fits in the palm of your hand. However, it can be used to express many feelings and moods. In the hands of the master, the khomus begins to tell about the soul of the Yakut people and the expanses of their land.
This land is extremely rich. AT literally. Everyone in the world knows about Yakut diamonds.
Mining company ALROSA (Diamonds of Russia-Sakha) is the second largest mining company in the world.
The headquarters of this corporation is located in the Yakutsk city of Mirny. Yakutia has the world's largest reserves uranium ores. The treasures of the subsoil and the beauty of untouched nature open up great prospects for the Republic of Sakha. In general, as an old Yakut proverb says: “Happiness awaits a young man from four sides.”

The Yakuts (pronunciation with an emphasis on the last syllable is common among the local population) are the indigenous population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Self-name: "Sakha", in the plural "Sakhalar".

According to the results of the 2010 census, 478 thousand Yakuts lived in Russia, mainly in Yakutia (466.5 thousand), as well as in the Irkutsk, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk territories. The Yakuts are the most numerous (almost 50% of the population) people in Yakutia and the largest of the indigenous peoples of Siberia within the borders of Russia.

Anthropological appearance

Purebred Yakuts are more similar in appearance to the Kirghiz than to the Mongols.

They have an oval face shape, not high, but a wide and smooth forehead with black pretty big eyes and slightly sloping eyelids, cheekbones are moderately pronounced. A characteristic feature of the Yakut face is the disproportionate development of the middle facial part to the detriment of the forehead and chin. The complexion is swarthy, has a yellow-gray or bronze tint. The nose is straight, often with a hump. The mouth is large, the teeth are large yellowish. The hair is black, straight, coarse, hairy vegetation is completely absent on the face and other parts of the body.

Growth is not high, 160-165 centimeters. Yakuts do not differ in muscle strength. They have long and thin arms, short and crooked legs.

The movements are slow and heavy.

Of the sense organs, the hearing organ is best developed. The Yakuts do not distinguish at all from one another some colors (for example, shades of blue: violet, blue, blue), for which there are not even special designations in their language.

Language

The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of the Altai family, which has groups of dialects: central, Vilyui, northwestern, Taimyr. There are many words of Mongolian origin in the Yakut language (about 30% of words), there are also about 10% of words of unknown origin that have no analogues in other languages.

According to its lexical and phonetic features and grammatical construction, the Yakut language can be classified among the ancient Turkic dialects. According to S.E. Malov, the Yakut language is considered pre-written by its construction. Consequently, either the basis of the Yakut language was not originally Türkic, or it separated from the Türkic proper in remote antiquity, when the latter experienced a period of enormous linguistic influence of the Indo-Iranian tribes and further developed separately.

At the same time, the language of the Yakuts unequivocally testifies to its similarity with the languages ​​of the Turkic-Tatar peoples. The Tatars and Bashkirs, exiled to the Yakutsk region, had only a few months to learn the language, while the Russians needed years for this. The main difficulty is the Yakut phonetics, which is completely different from Russian. There are sounds that the European ear begins to distinguish only after a long habituation, and the European larynx is not able to reproduce them quite correctly (for example, the sound "ng").

The study of the Yakut language is difficult due to a large number of synonymous expressions and the indefiniteness of grammatical forms: for example, there are no genders for nouns and adjectives do not agree with them.

Origin

The origin of the Yakuts can be reliably traced only from about the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. It is not possible to establish exactly who the ancestors of the Yakuts were, and it is also impossible to establish the time of their settlement in the country where they are now the predominant race, their place of residence before resettlement. The origin of the Yakuts can be traced only on the basis of linguistic analysis and the similarity of the details of everyday life and cult traditions.

The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts should, apparently, begin with the era of the early nomads, when cultures of the Scythian-Siberian type developed in the west of Central Asia and in southern Siberia. Separate prerequisites for this transformation on the territory of Southern Siberia go back to the 2nd millennium BC. The origins of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts can be traced most clearly in the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains. Its carriers were close to the Saks of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. This pre-Turkic substrate in the culture of the peoples of the Sayano-Altai and the Yakuts is manifested in their household, in things developed during the period of early nomadism, such as iron adzes, wire earrings, copper and silver torcs, leather shoes, wooden choron goblets. These ancient origins can also be traced in the arts and crafts of the Altaians, Tuvans and Yakuts, who retained the influence of the "animal style".

The ancient Altai substrate is also found among the Yakuts in the funeral rite. This is, first of all, the personification of a horse with death, the custom of installing a wooden pillar on the grave - a symbol of the "tree of life", as well as the presence of kibes - special people who were engaged in burials, who, like the Zoroastrian "servants of the dead", were kept outside the settlements. This complex includes the cult of the horse and the dualistic concept - the opposition of the deities aiyy, personifying good creative principles and abaahy, evil demons.

These materials are consistent with the data of immunogenetics. So, in the blood of 29% of the Yakuts, studied by V.V. different areas republic, the HLA-AI antigen, found only in Caucasian populations, was found. It is often found in the Yakuts in combination with another HLA-BI7 antigen, which can be traced in the blood of only two peoples - the Yakuts and the Hindi Indians. All this leads to the idea that some ancient Turkic groups took part in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, perhaps not directly the Pazyryks, but, of course, associated with the Pazyryks of Altai, whose physical type differed from the surrounding Caucasoid population by a more noticeable Mongoloid admixture.

The Scythian-Hunnic origins in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts further developed in two directions. The first can be conditionally called "Western" or South Siberian, it was based on the origins worked out under the influence of the Indo-Iranian ethnoculture. The second is "Eastern" or "Central Asian". It is represented, albeit not numerous, by the Yakut-Xiongnu parallels in culture. This "Central Asian" tradition can be traced in the anthropology of the Yakuts and in religious ideas associated with the koumiss holiday yyakh and the remnants of the cult of the sky - tanara.

The ancient Turkic era, which began in the 6th century, was in no way inferior to the previous period in terms of territorial scope and grandeur of its cultural and political resonance. This period, which gave rise to a generally unified culture, is associated with the formation of the Turkic foundations of the Yakut language and culture. A comparison of the culture of the Yakuts with the ancient Turkic showed that in the Yakut pantheon and mythology, precisely those aspects of the ancient Turkic religion that developed under the influence of the previous Scythian-Siberian era were more consistently preserved. The Yakuts have preserved a lot in their beliefs and funeral rites, in particular, by analogy with the ancient Turkic stones-balbals, the Yakuts set up wooden posts-poles.

But if among the ancient Turks the number of stones on the grave of the deceased depended on the people killed by him in the war, then among the Yakuts the number of columns installed depended on the number of horses buried with the deceased and eaten on his funeral feast. The yurt, where the person died, was torn down to the ground and a quadrangular earthen fence was obtained, similar to the ancient Turkic fences surrounding the grave. In the place where the deceased lay, the Yakuts put an idol-balbal. In the ancient Turkic era, new cultural standards were developed that transformed the traditions of the early nomads. The same regularities characterize the material culture of the Yakuts, which, therefore, can be considered as a whole Turkic.

The Turkic ancestors of the Yakuts can be referred in a broader sense to the number of "Gaogui Dinlins" - Teles tribes, among which one of the main places belonged to the ancient Uighurs. In the Yakut culture, many parallels have been preserved that point to this: cult rites, the use of a horse for conspiracy in marriages, and some terms associated with beliefs. The Teles tribes of the Baikal region also included the tribes of the Kurykan group, which also included the Merkits, who played known role in the development of cattle breeders of Lena. The origin of the Kurykans was attended by local, in all likelihood, Mongolian-speaking pastoralists associated with the culture of slab graves or the Shiweis and, possibly, the ancient Tungus. However, in this process leading value belonged to the newcomer Turkic-speaking tribes, related to the ancient Uighurs and Kyrgyz. The Kurykan culture developed in close contact with the Krasnoyarsk-Minusinsk region. Under the influence of the local Mongol-speaking substratum, the Turkic nomadic economy took shape in semi-sedentary pastoralism. Subsequently, the Yakuts, through their Baikal ancestors, spread cattle breeding in the Middle Lena, some household items, forms of dwellings, clay vessels, and probably inherited their main physical type.

In the X-XI centuries, Mongolian-speaking tribes appeared in the Baikal region, on the Upper Lena. They began to live together with the descendants of the Kurykans. Later, part of this population (the descendants of the Kurykans and other Turkic-speaking groups who experienced a strong linguistic influence of the Mongols) went down the Lena and became the core in the formation of the Yakuts.

In the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, the participation of the second Turkic-speaking group with the Kipchak heritage is also traced. This is confirmed by the presence in the Yakut language of several hundred Yakut-Kypchak lexical parallels. The Kipchak heritage seems to be manifested through the ethnonyms Khanalas and Sakha. The first of them had a probable connection with the ancient ethnonym Khanly, whose carriers later became part of many medieval Turkic peoples, their role in the origin of the Kazakhs is especially great. This should explain the presence of a number of common Yakut-Kazakh ethnonyms: odai - adai, argin - argyn, meirem suppu - meiram sopy, eras kuel - orazkeldy, tuer tugul - gortuur. The link connecting the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is the ethnonym Saka, with many phonetic variants found among the Turkic peoples: juices, saklar, sakoo, sekler, sakal, saktar, sakha. Initially, this ethnonym, apparently, was part of the circle of Teles tribes. Among them, along with the Uighurs, Kurykans, Chinese sources also place the Seike tribe.

The kinship of the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is determined by the presence of common elements of culture for them - the burial rite with the skeleton of a horse, the manufacture of a stuffed horse, wooden cult anthropomorphic pillars, jewelry items basically associated with the Pazyryk culture (earrings in the form of a question mark, hryvnia), common ornamental motifs . Thus, the ancient South Siberian direction in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts in the Middle Ages was continued by the Kipchaks.

These conclusions were mainly confirmed on the basis of a comparative study of the traditional culture of the Yakuts and the cultures of the Turkic peoples of the Sayano-Altai. In general, these cultural ties fall into two main layers - the ancient Turkic and medieval Kypchak. In a more conventional context, the Yakuts converge along the first layer through the Oguz-Uigur "language component" with the Sagay, Beltir groups of the Khakas, with the Tuvans and some tribes of the North Altaians. All these peoples, except for the main cattle-breeding, also have a mountain-taiga culture, which is associated with fishing and hunting skills and techniques, the construction of stationary dwellings. According to the "Kipchak layer", the Yakuts are moving closer to the southern Altaians, Tobolsk, Baraba and Chulym Tatars, Kumandins, Teleuts, Kachin and Kyzyl groups of Khakasses. Apparently, elements of Samoyedic origin penetrate into the Yakut language along this line, and borrowings from the Finno-Ugric and Samoyed languages ​​into Turkic are quite frequent to designate a number of tree and shrub species. Consequently, these contacts are connected mainly with forest "gathering" culture.

According to available data, the penetration of the first pastoral groups into the Middle Lena basin, which became the basis in the addition Yakut people, began in the XIV century (possibly at the end of the XIII century). In the general appearance of material culture, some local sources associated with the early Iron Age, with the dominant role of the southern foundations, are traced.

The newcomers, mastering Central Yakutia, made fundamental changes in the economic life of the region - they brought cows and horses with them, organized hay and pasture farming. Materials from archaeological monuments of the 17th-18th centuries recorded a successive connection with the culture of the Kulun-Atakh people. The clothing complex from the Yakut burials and settlements of the 17th-18th centuries finds its closest analogies in Southern Siberia, mainly covering the Altai and Upper Yenisei regions within the 10th-14th centuries. The parallels observed between the Kurykan and Kulun-Atakh cultures seem to be obscured at this time. But the Kypchak-Yakut connections are revealed by the similarity of the features of material culture and the funeral rite.

The influence of the Mongolian-speaking environment in the archaeological monuments of the XIV-XVIII centuries is practically not traced. But it manifests itself in the linguistic material, and in the economy it constitutes an independent powerful layer.

From this point of view, sedentary cattle breeding, combined with fishing and hunting, dwellings and household buildings, clothing, footwear, ornamental art, religious and mythological beliefs of the Yakuts are based on the South Siberian, Turkic platform. And already oral folk art, folk knowledge was finally formed in the Middle Lena basin under the influence of the Mongolian-speaking component.

The historical traditions of the Yakuts, in full agreement with the data of archeology and ethnography, connect the origin of the people with the process of resettlement. According to these data, it was the alien groups, headed by Omogoy, Elley and Uluu-Khoro, that formed the backbone of the Yakut people. In the person of Omogoy, one can see the descendants of the Kurykans, who belonged to the Oguz group in terms of language. But their language, apparently, was influenced by the ancient Baikal and alien medieval Mongol-speaking environment. Elley personified the South Siberian Kipchak group, represented mainly by the Kangalas. Kipchak words in the Yakut language, according to the definition of G.V. Popov, are mainly represented by rarely used words. From this it follows that this group did not have a tangible impact on the phonetic and grammatical structure of the language of the Old Turkic core of the Yakuts. The legends about Uluu-Khoro reflected the arrival of Mongolian groups to the Middle Lena. This is consistent with the assumption of linguists about the residence of the Mongolian-speaking population in the territory of the modern "akaya" regions of Central Yakutia.

According to available data, the formation of the modern physical appearance of the Yakuts was completed no earlier than the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. on the Middle Lena on the basis of a mixture of alien and aboriginal groups. In the anthropological image of the Yakuts, it is possible to distinguish two types - a rather powerful Central Asian, represented by the Baikal core, which was influenced by the Mongolian tribes, and the South Siberian anthropological type with an ancient Caucasoid gene pool. Subsequently, these two types merged into one, forming the southern backbone of modern Yakuts. At the same time, thanks to the participation of the Khori people, the Central Asian type becomes predominant.

Life and economy

The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukagirs, the Olekminskys are strongly acculturated by the Russians.

The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called "horse people") and cattle breeding. The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cattle. Deer were bred in the north. Cattle were kept in the summer on grazing, in the winter in barns (hotons). The Yakut breeds of cattle were distinguished by endurance, but were unproductive. Haymaking was known even before the arrival of the Russians.

Fishing was also developed. They caught fish mainly in summer, in winter they caught fish in the hole, and in autumn they organized a collective seine fishing with a division of prey between all participants. For the poor, who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the documents of the 17th century, the term "fisherman" - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of "poor"), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called "foot Yakuts" - osekui, ontuly, kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgydais, Orgoths and others.

Hunting was especially widespread in the north, being the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, bird). In the taiga, by the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare) was known, later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horseback chasing the beast along the trail, sometimes with dogs.

There was also gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of the bark), harvested for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, coinage, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), only raspberries were not used from berries, which was considered impure.

Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century and was very poorly developed until the middle of the 19th century. Its spread (especially in the Olekminsky district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.

The processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, and leather was developed; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc .; Cords were twisted from horse hair with hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting of felt were absent. The production of stucco ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had a commercial value, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper, and, from the 19th century, carving on mammoth ivory, were developed.

They traveled mainly on horseback, transporting goods in packs. There were known skis lined with horse kamus, sledges (silis syarga, later - sledges like Russian wood firewood), usually harnessed to bulls, in the north - straight-dust reindeer sleds. The boats, like the Uevenks, were birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; later sailing boats-karbass were borrowed from the Russians.

dwelling

Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mowing fields, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer ones - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were plastered on the outside with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was arranged in the east side, the windows - in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeast corner, a hearth (ooh) was arranged - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. At the western wall there was a master's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, to the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a barn (hoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof as the dwelling, the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings.

Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a hoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were placed at a distance. There was a conical building made of poles covered with birch bark (urasa), in the north - with turf (kalyman, holuman). Since the end of the 18th century, polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known. From 2nd half of XVIII centuries, Russian huts spread.

clothing

Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather pants, a fur underbelly, leather legs, a single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and flint, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Characteristic is the women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyah), embroidered with red and green cloth, and with a gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur that goes down to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn on it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with wool outside (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saary) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.

Food

The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - koumiss, from cow's milk - curdled milk (suorat, sora), cream (kuercheh), butter; oil was drunk melted or with koumiss; suorat was prepared for the winter in a frozen form (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; stew (butugas) was prepared from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horse meat was especially valued. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat soup. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsky district.

Religion

Traditional beliefs were based on shamanism. The world consisted of several tiers, Yuryung ayy toyon was considered the head of the upper one, Ala buurai toyon and others were considered the head of the lower one. The cult of the female deity of fertility Aiyysyt was important. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits living in the upper world, cows were sacrificed in the lower one. The main holiday is the spring-summer koumiss holiday (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of koumiss from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc.

Orthodoxy spread in the XVIII-XIX centuries. But the Christian cult was combined with belief in good and evil spirits, the spirits of dead shamans, master spirits. Elements of totemism have also been preserved: the clan had a patron animal, which was forbidden to be killed or called by name.

Customs and religion of the Yakuts

primary cell social order Yakuts have long been made separate family(kergep or yal), consisting of a husband, wife and children, but often with the inclusion of other relatives living together. Married sons were usually allocated to a special household. The family was monogamous, but not so long ago, at the beginning of the 19th century, polygamy existed among the wealthy part of the population, although the number of wives usually did not exceed two or three. Wives in such cases often lived apart, each running their own household; The Yakuts explained this custom by the convenience of caring for livestock distributed among several wives.

Marriage was preceded, sometimes for a long time, by matchmaking. The remnants of exogamy (known from the documents of the 17th century) have been preserved: until modern times, they tried to take a wife in a foreign clan, and the rich, not limited to this, looked for brides, if possible, in someone else's place and even ulus. Having looked out for the bride, the groom, or his parents, sent their relatives as matchmakers. The latter, with special ceremonies and conditional language, persuaded the bride's parents about their consent and about the size of the kalym (halyym, or suluu). The consent of the bride herself in the old days was not asked at all. Kalym consisted of cattle, but its size varied greatly: from 1-2 to many tens of heads; the composition of kalym always included the meat of slaughtered cattle. At the end of the XIX century. the desire to transfer kalym to money intensified. Part of the kalym (kurum) was intended for treats during the wedding feast (in the documents of the 17th century, the word “kurum” sometimes means kalym in general). The payment of the bride price was considered obligatory, and the girl considered it dishonorable to marry without it. Relatives, sometimes even distant relatives, helped the groom in obtaining bride price: this was an old view of the wedding as a tribal affair. The relatives of the bride also participated in the distribution of the received bride price. For his part, the groom received a dowry (enne) for the bride - partly also in cattle and meat, but more in clothing and utensils; the value of the dowry was on average half the value of the kalym.

In the wedding ceremonies themselves, the clan also played an important role. In ancient weddings, many guests participated, relatives of the bride and groom, neighbors, etc. The celebrations lasted for several days and consisted of plentiful treats, various rituals, entertainment - games and dances of youth, etc. Neither the groom nor the bride not only did not occupy a central place in all these festivities, but almost did not participate in them.

Like wedding rites, the terminology of kinship also retains traces of earlier forms of marriage. The name of the son - wol - actually means "boy", "young man"; daughters - kyys - "girl", "girl"; father - ada (literally "senior"); the wife is oyoh, but in some places the wife is simply called dakhtar (“woman”), emehsin (“old woman”), etc.; husband - er; older brother - ubai (bai), younger - ini / older sister - ediy (agas), younger - balys. The last 4 terms also serve to designate some uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces and other relatives. In general, the Yakut kinship system is close to the kinship designation systems of a number of Turkic peoples.

The position of women both in the family and in public life was humiliated. The husband - the head of the family - enjoyed despotic power, and the wife could not even complain about ill-treatment, which was a fairly common occurrence, if not from the side of the husband, then from the side of his relatives. A powerless and defenseless alien woman, who got into a new family, was burdened with hard work.

The position of the elderly, decrepit and unable to work, was also difficult. They were little cared for, poorly fed and clothed, sometimes even reduced to begging.

The situation of children, despite the love of the Yakuts for children noted by many observers, was also unenviable. The birth rate among the Yakuts was very high; in most families, from 5 to 10 children were born, often up to 20 or even more. However, due to the difficult living conditions, poor nutrition and care, infant mortality was also very high. In addition to their own children, many families, especially those with few children, often had adopted children, who were often simply bought from the poor.

Newborns were washed by the fire of a small fire and rubbed with cream; the last operation was performed and later quite often. The mother nursed the child for a long time, sometimes up to 4-5 years, but along with this, the child also received a horn with cow's milk. The Yakut cradle is an oblong box made of thin bent boards, where the wrapped child was placed, tied with straps, and left like that for a long time without taking it out; the cradle is equipped with a chute for urine drainage.

Growing children usually crawled on the dirt floor along with the animals, half-naked or completely naked, left to their own devices, and their care was often limited to tying a long belt to a post so that the child would not fall into the fire. Already with early age the children of the poor were gradually accustomed to work, performing work that was feasible for them: collecting brushwood in the forest, caring for small livestock, etc.: girls were taught to needlework and household chores. Toyon children received the best care, they were pampered and unlived.

The children had few toys. These were usually home-made, made by parents, and sometimes by the children themselves, wooden figurines of animals, small bows and arrows, small houses and various utensils, for girls - dolls and their small suits, blankets, pillows, etc. The games of Yakut children are simple and rather monotonous . Characterized by the absence of noisy mass games; in general, the children of the Yakut poor usually grew up quiet, inactive.

Religion

Even in the second half of the XVIII century. most ofYakuts was baptized, and in the X] X century. all Yakuts were already considered Orthodox. Although the transition to Orthodoxy was caused for the most part by material motives (various benefits and handouts for those being baptized), the new religion gradually entered everyday life. In the yurt, in the red corner, icons hung, the Yakuts wore crosses (large silver pectoral crosses for women are curious), went to church, many of them, especially the toyons, were zealous Christians. This is understandable, since Christianity, much better than shamanism, was adapted to satisfy the class interests of the rich. For all that, however, the old, pre-Christian religion did not disappear at all: the old beliefs, although somewhat modified by the influence of Christian ideas, continued to stubbornly hold on, the shamans - the servants of the old cult - still enjoyed authority, although they were forced to more or less hide their activities from the royal administration and the clergy. Shamanism and the animistic beliefs associated with it turned out to be perhaps the most stable part of the old Yakut religion.

Shamanism of the Yakuts was closest to the Tungus type. The Yakut shaman tambourine (wide-rimmed, oval) did not differ in any way from the Tungus, the costume was also of the Tungus type, with the exception that the Yakut shamans performed kamla with their heads uncovered. The similarity concerns not only this external side, but also more significant features of shamanic beliefs and rituals.

The Yakut shaman (oyuun) was considered a professional servant of the spirits. According to the Yakut ideas, anyone whom the spirits choose to serve themselves could become a shaman; but usually shamans came from the same surnames: “in a family where a shaman once showed up, he is no longer translated,” the Yakuts said. In addition to male shamans, there were also female shamans (udadan), who were considered even more powerful. A sign of readiness for the shamanic profession was usually a nervous illness, which was considered evidence of the "choice" of a person by the spirits; this was followed by a period of study under the guidance of an old shaman, and finally a public initiation rite.

It was believed that the spirit that chose the shaman became his patron spirit (emeget). They believed that this was the soul of one of the deceased great shamans. His image in the form of a copper flat human figure was sewn along with other pendants on the chest of the shaman's costume; this image was also called emeget. The patron spirit gave the shaman power and knowledge: "The shaman sees and hears only through his emeget." In addition to this last, each shaman had his own animal counterpart (ye-kyyl - “mother-beast”) in the form of an invisible eagle, stallion, bull, bear, etc. Finally, in addition to these personal spirits, each shaman during the ritual entered into communication with a number of other spirits in animal or human form. Different categories of these spirits, one way or another connected with the activities of the shaman, had certain names.

The most important and numerous group of spirits were the abaans (or abaas), devouring spirits, whose action was attributed to various diseases. Treatment by a shaman of a patient in the view of the believing Yakuts consisted in finding out exactly which abaas caused the disease, to fight with them, or to make a sacrifice to them, to expel them from the patient. Abaas live, according to shamanistic ideas, with their own tribes and clans, with their own economy, partly in the “upper”, partly in the “lower” world, as well as in the “middle” world, on earth.

Horses were sacrificed to those living in the "upper" world, and cattle were sacrificed in the "lower" world. Uvr were also close to abaasy - evil spirits, for the most part small, representing the souls of people who died a premature and violent death, as well as the souls of deceased shamans and shamans, sorcerers, etc. The ability to cause illness to people was also attributed to these yuyor; but they live in the "middle" world (on and around the earth). Ideas about yuyor are very close to Russian old beliefs about "unclean" or "mortgaged" dead. The assistants of the shaman during the ritual, helping him to do various tricks, were considered small spirits of the kalena.

Of the great deities of the shamanic pantheon, the mighty and formidable Uluu-Toyon, the head of the spirits of the upper world, the patron of shamans, stood in the first place. “He created a shaman and taught him to deal with all these troubles; he gave people fire." Living in the upper world (on the western side of the third sky), Uluu-Toyon can also descend to earth, incarnating in large animals: a bear, an elk, a bull, a black stallion. Below Uluu-Toyon there are other more or less powerful deities of the shamanic pantheon, each of which had its own name and epithet, its place of residence and its specialty: abaasy, the creator of everything harmful and unpleasant, Aan Arbatyy Toyon (or Arkhah-Toyon) - causing consumption, etc.

The presence of images of great deities in the shamanic pantheon of the Yakuts distinguishes Yakut shamanism from Tunguska (the Tungus did not have a developed belief in great gods) and puts it close to the shamanism of the Altai-Sayan peoples: in general, this is a feature of a later stage in the development of shamanism.

The main functions of shamans were to "treat" sick people and animals, as well as to "prevent" all sorts of misfortunes. The methods of their activity were reduced to ritual (with singing, dancing, beating a tambourine, etc.), usually at night, during which the shaman drove himself into a frenzy and, according to the Yakuts, his soul flew to the spirits or these latter entered the body of the shaman; by way of the ritual, the shaman defeated and drove out hostile spirits, learned from the spirits about the necessary sacrifices and made them, etc. Along the way, during the ritual, the shaman acted as a fortuneteller, answering various questions from those present, and also performed various tricks that were supposed to increase authority shaman and fear of him.

For his services, the shaman received, especially in the event of a successful ritual, a certain fee: its value ranged from 1 p. up to 25 r. and more; moreover, the shaman always received treats and ate sacrificial meat, and sometimes took some of it home. Although the shamans usually had their own household, sometimes a considerable one, the payment for the ritual was a significant income item for them. Particularly difficult for the population was the requirement of shamans to make bloody sacrifices.

With almost the same superstitious fear as shamans, they sometimes treated blacksmiths, especially hereditary ones, to whom various mysterious abilities were attributed. The blacksmith was considered partly related to the shaman: "the blacksmith and the shaman from the same nest." Blacksmiths could heal, give advice, and even predict. The blacksmith forged iron pendants for the shaman's costume, and this alone inspired fear of him. The blacksmith had a special power over the spirits, because, according to the Yakuts, the spirits are afraid of the sound of iron and the noise of bellows.

In addition to shamanism, the Yakuts had another cult: fishing. The main deity of this cult is Bai-Bayanai, a forest spirit and patron of hunting and fishing. According to some ideas, there were 11 Bayanaev brothers. They gave good luck in fishing, and therefore the hunter before fishing turned to them with an invocation, and after a successful fishing, he sacrificed part of the prey to them, throwing pieces of fat into the fire or smearing blood on wooden battens - images of Bayanay.

Apparently, the idea of ​​ichchi, the “owners” of various objects, was connected with the fishing economy. The Yakuts believed that all animals, trees, different phenomena nature have ichchi, as well as some household items, such as a knife, an ax. These ichchi are neither good nor evil in and of themselves. In order to appease the "masters" of mountains, cliffs, rivers, forests, etc., the Yakuts in dangerous places, on passes, crossings, etc., brought them small sacrifices in the form of pieces of meat, butter and other food, as well as rags of cloth, etc. The veneration of certain animals adjoined the same cult. A special superstitious reverence was enjoyed by the bear, which was avoided to be called by name, they were afraid to kill and considered a werewolf sorcerer. They also revered the eagle, whose name was toyon kyyl (“lord beast”), crow, falcon and some other birds and animals.

All these beliefs date back to the ancient fishing economy of the Yakuts. The pastoral economy also gave rise to its own circle of ideas and rituals. This is the cult of the deities of fertility, which is weaker than other beliefs, preserved until modern times and therefore less known. It was to this circle of ideas that, obviously, belonged the belief in aiyy - beneficent beings, deities - givers of various blessings. The residence of the aiyy was supposed to be in the east.

The first place among these bright spirits belonged to Urun-Aiyy-Toyon (“white master creator”), he lived in the eighth heaven, was kind and did not interfere in the affairs of people, therefore, his cult, it seems, did not exist. The image of Aiyy-Toyon, however, strongly mixed with the features of the Christian god. According to some beliefs, Aar-Toyon, an inhabitant of the ninth heaven, stood even higher than Aiyy-Toyon. Below them followed a large number of other bright deities, more or less active and bringing various benefits. The most important figure of them was the female deity Aiyykyt (Aiyysyt), the giver of fertility, the patroness of women in childbirth, who gave children to mothers. In honor of Aiyysyt, a sacrifice was made during childbirth, and since it was believed that after childbirth the goddess stays in the house for 3 days, then after three days a special female ceremony was held (men were not allowed to attend it) of seeing off Aiyysyt.

The main honoring of the bright deities - the patrons of fertility was in the old days the koumiss holiday - ykyakh. Such holidays were held in the spring and in the middle of summer, when there was a lot of milk; they settled in the open air, in the meadow, with a large gathering of people; The main moment of Ysyakh was the solemn libation of koumiss in honor of the bright deities, prayers to these deities, the solemn drinking of koumiss from special large wooden goblets (choroon). After that, a feast was arranged, then various games, wrestling, etc. In the past, the main role at these holidays was played by the servants of bright deities, the so-called aiyy-oyuuna (in Russian, “white shamans”), who, however, have long since disappeared among the Yakuts due to the decline of this entire cult. At the end of the XIX century. only legends have survived about white shamans.

In these cults of both beneficent and formidable deities, the once military aristocracy, the toyons, played a role; the latter were usually organizers and Ysyakhs. In their legendary genealogies, the Toyons often derived their surnames from one or another of the great and powerful deities.

The ancient Ysyakhs also contained elements of a tribal cult: according to legend, in the old days they were arranged according to childbirth. The Yakuts also preserved other remnants of the tribal cult, but also only in the form of weak traces. So, they retained elements of totemism, noted even in the literature of the 18th century. (Stralenberg). Each clan once had its patron in the form of an animal; such totems of the clans were a raven, a swan, a falcon, an eagle, a squirrel, an ermine, a white-lipped stallion, etc. Members of this clan not only did not kill or eat their patron, but did not even call them by name.

The veneration of fire, preserved among the Yakuts, is also connected with the remnants of the tribal cult. Fire, according to the beliefs of the Yakuts, is the purest element, and it was forbidden to desecrate and insult it. Before starting any meal, in the old days they threw pieces of food into the fire, splashed milk, koumiss, etc. into it. All this was considered a sacrifice to the owner of the fire (Wat-ichchite). The latter was sometimes presented not in singular, but in the form of 7 brothers. They didn't take pictures. The cult of ancestors among the Yakuts was poorly represented. Of the dead, shamans and various prominent people were especially revered, whose spirits (yuyor) were feared for some reason.

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Yakuts (self-name Sakha; pl. h. Sakhalar) is a Turkic-speaking people, the indigenous population of Yakutia. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. According to the results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, 478.1 thousand Yakuts lived in Russia, mainly in Yakutia (466.5 thousand), as well as in the Irkutsk, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk territories. The Yakuts are the most numerous (49.9% of the population) people in Yakutia and the largest of the indigenous peoples of Siberia within the borders of the Russian Federation.

Distribution area

The distribution of the Yakuts across the territory of the republic is extremely uneven. About nine of them are concentrated in the central regions - in the former Yakut and Vilyui districts. These are the two main groups of the Yakut people: the first of them is somewhat larger in number than the second. "Yakut" (or Amga-Lena) Yakuts occupy the quadrangle between the Lena, the lower Aldan and the Amga, the taiga plateau, as well as the adjacent left bank of the Lena. "Vilyui" Yakuts occupy the Vilyui basin. In these indigenous Yakut regions, the most typical, purely Yakut way of life has developed; here, at the same time, especially on the Amga-Lena plateau, it is best studied. The third, much smaller group of Yakuts settled in the region of Olekminsk. The Yakuts of this group became more Russified, in their way of life (but not in language) they became closer to the Russians. And, finally, the last, smallest, but widely settled group of Yakuts is the population of the northern regions of Yakutia, i.e., the basins of the river. Kolyma, Indigirka, Yana, Olenek, Anabar.

The northern Yakuts are distinguished by a completely unique cultural and everyday way of life: in relation to it, they are more like hunting and fishing small peoples of the North, like the Tungus, Yukagirs, than like their southern tribesmen. These northern Yakuts are sometimes even called "Tungus" (for example, in the upper reaches of the Olenek and Anabar), although they are Yakuts in their language and call themselves Sakha.

History and origins

According to a common hypothesis, the ancestors of modern Yakuts are nomadic tribe Kurykans, who lived until the XIV century in Transbaikalia. In turn, the Kurykans came to the region of Lake Baikal because of the Yenisei River.

Most scientists believe that in the XII-XIV centuries AD. e. The Yakuts migrated in several waves from the region of Lake Baikal to the Lena, Aldan and Vilyui basins, where they partly assimilated and partly displaced the Evenks (Tungus) and Yukaghirs (Oduls) who lived here earlier. The Yakuts were traditionally engaged in cattle breeding (Yakut cow), having gained a unique experience in breeding cattle in a sharply continental climate in the northern latitudes, horse breeding (Yakut horse), fishing, hunting, developed trade, blacksmithing and military affairs.

According to Yakut legends, the ancestors of the Yakuts floated down the Lena on rafts with livestock, household goods and people until they found the Tuymaada valley - suitable for cattle breeding. Now this place is modern Yakutsk. According to the same legends, the ancestors of the Yakuts were headed by two leaders Elley Bootur and Omogoi Baai.

According to archaeological and ethnographic data, the Yakuts were formed as a result of the absorption of local tribes of the middle reaches of the Lena by the southern Turkic-speaking settlers. It is believed that the last wave of the southern ancestors of the Yakuts penetrated the Middle Lena in the XIV-XV centuries. Racially, the Yakuts belong to the Central Asian anthropological type of the North Asian race. In comparison with other Turkic-speaking peoples of Siberia, they are characterized by the strongest manifestation of the Mongoloid complex, the final formation of which took place in the middle of the second millennium AD already on the Lena.

It is assumed that some groups of Yakuts, for example, reindeer herders of the northwest, arose relatively recently as a result of mixing of individual groups of Evenks with Yakuts, immigrants from the central regions of Yakutia. In the process of resettlement in Eastern Siberia, the Yakuts mastered the basins of the northern rivers Anabar, Olenka, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma. The Yakuts modified the reindeer husbandry of the Tungus, created the Tungus-Yakut type of draft reindeer husbandry.

The inclusion of the Yakuts into the Russian state in the 1620s–1630s accelerated their socioeconomic and cultural development. In the 17th-19th centuries, the main occupation of the Yakuts was cattle breeding (breeding of cattle and horses), from the second half of the 19th century, a significant part began to engage in agriculture; hunting and fishing played a secondary role. The main type of dwelling was a log booth, in summer - a urasa made of poles. Clothes were made from hides and furs. In the second half of the 18th century, most of the Yakuts were converted to Christianity, but traditional beliefs were also preserved.

Under Russian influence, Christian onomastics spread among the Yakuts, almost completely replacing the pre-Christian Yakut names. At present, the Yakuts bear both names of Greek and Latin origin (Christian) and Yakut names.

Yakuts and Russians

Accurate historical information about the Yakuts is available only from the time of their first contact with the Russians, that is, from the 1620s, and joining the Russian state. The Yakuts did not constitute a single political entity at that time, but were divided into whole line tribes independent of each other. However, tribal relations were already disintegrating, and there was a rather sharp class stratification. The tsarist governors and servicemen used tribal strife to break the resistance of part of the Yakut population; they also used the class contradictions within it, pursuing a policy of systematic support for the ruling aristocratic stratum - the princes (toyons), whom they turned into their agents for managing the Yakut region. Since that time, class contradictions among the Yakuts began to become more and more aggravated.

The position of the mass of the Yakut population was difficult. The Yakuts paid yasak with sable and fox furs, carried out a number of other duties, being extorted by the tsarist servants, Russian merchants and their toyons. After unsuccessful attempts at uprisings (1634, 1636-1637, 1639-1640, 1642), after the transition of the toyons to the side of the governors, the Yakut masses could only respond to oppression with scattered, isolated attempts of resistance and flight from the indigenous uluses to the outskirts. By the end of the 18th century, as a result of the predatory management of the tsarist authorities, the depletion of the fur wealth of the Yakutsk region and its partial desolation was discovered. At the same time, the Yakut population, which for various reasons migrated from the Lena-Vilyui region, appeared on the outskirts of Yakutia, where it had not previously been: in Kolyma, Indigirka, Olenek, Anabar, up to the Lower Tunguska basin.

But already in those first decades, contact with the Russian people had a beneficial effect on the economy and culture of the Yakuts. The Russians brought with them a higher culture; since the middle of the 17th century. an agricultural economy appears on the Lena; the Russian type of buildings, Russian clothing made of fabrics, new types of crafts, new furnishings and household items gradually began to penetrate into the environment of the Yakut population.

It was extremely important that with the establishment of Russian power in Yakutia, intertribal wars and predatory raids of the Toyons stopped, which used to be a great disaster for the Yakut population. The self-will of the Russian servicemen, who had been at war with each other more than once and drawn the Yakuts into their strife, was also suppressed. The order that had already been established in the Yakut land since the 1640s was better than the previous state of chronic anarchy and constant strife.

In the 18th century, in connection with the further advance of the Russians to the east (the annexation of Kamchatka, Chukotka, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska), Yakutia played the role of a transit route and a base for new campaigns and the development of distant "lands". The influx of the Russian peasant population (especially along the valley of the Lena River, in connection with the arrangement of the postal route in 1773) created the conditions for the cultural mutual influence of the Russian and Yakut elements. As early as the end of the 17th and 18th centuries among the Yakuts, agriculture begins to spread, although at first very slowly, houses of the Russian type appear. However, the number of Russian settlers remained even in the 19th century. relatively small. Along with peasant colonization in the XIX century. sending exiled settlers to Yakutia was of great importance. Together with the criminal exiles, who had a negative influence on the Yakuts, in the second half of the 19th century. political exiles appeared in Yakutia, first populists, and in the 1890s also Marxists, who played a big role in the cultural and political development of the Yakut masses.

By the beginning of the XX century. in the economic development of Yakutia, at least in its central regions (Yakutsky, Vilyuisky, Olekminsky districts), great successes were observed. An internal market was created. The growth of economic ties accelerated the development of national identity.

During the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917, the movement of the Yakut masses for their liberation unfolded deeper and wider. At first it was (especially in the city of Yakutsk) under the predominant leadership of the Bolsheviks. But after the departure (in May 1917) of the majority of the political exiles to Russia in Yakutia, the counter-revolutionary forces of the toionism gained the upper hand, which entered into an alliance with the Socialist-Revolutionary-bourgeois part of the Russian urban population. The struggle for Soviet power in Yakutia dragged on for a long time. Only on June 30, 1918, the power of the Soviets was proclaimed for the first time in Yakutsk, and only in December 1919, after the liquidation of Kolchakism in all of Siberia, was Soviet power finally established in Yakutia.

Religion

Their life is connected with shamanism. The construction of a house, the birth of children and many other aspects of life do not pass without the participation of a shaman. On the other hand, a significant part of the half-million population of Yakuts professes Orthodox Christianity or even adheres to agnostic beliefs.

This people has its own tradition, before joining the state of Russia, they professed "Aar Aiyy". This religion assumes the belief that the Yakuts are the children of Tanar - God and Relatives of the Twelve White Aiyy. Even from conception, the child is surrounded by spirits, or as the Yakuts call them - “Ichchi”, and there are also celestials who are also surrounded by the still born child. Religion is documented in the administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Yakutia. In the 18th century, Yakutia was subjected to universal Christianity, but the people treat this with the hope of certain religions from the state of Russia.

Housing

The Yakuts are descended from nomadic tribes. That is why they live in yurts. However, in contrast to the Mongolian felt yurts, the round dwelling of the Yakuts is built from the trunks of small trees with a cone-shaped roof. Many windows are arranged in the walls, under which sunbeds are located at different heights. Partitions are installed between them, forming a semblance of rooms, and a smeared hearth is tripled in the center. Temporary birch bark yurts - urases - can be erected for the summer. And since the 20th century, some Yakuts have settled in huts.

Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mowing fields, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer ones - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were plastered on the outside with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was arranged in the east side, the windows - in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeast corner, a hearth (oosh) was arranged - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. At the western wall there was a master's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, on the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a barn (khoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof with housing, the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings. Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a hoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were set up at a distance. Since the end of the 18th century, polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known. From the 2nd half of the 18th century, Russian huts spread.

clothing

Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather pants, a fur underbelly, leather legs, a single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and flint, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Characteristic is a women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyah), embroidered with red and green cloth and a gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur that goes down to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn on it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with wool outside (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saary) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.

Food

The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - koumiss, from cow's - yogurt (suorat, sora), cream (kuercheh), butter; oil was drunk melted or with koumiss; suorat was prepared for the winter in a frozen form (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; stew (butugas) was prepared from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horse meat was especially valued. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat stew. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsk district.

crafts

The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called “horse people”) and cattle breeding. The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cattle. Deer were bred in the north. Cattle were kept in the summer on grazing, in the winter in barns (hotons). Haymaking was known before the arrival of the Russians. The Yakut breeds of cattle were distinguished by endurance, but were unproductive.

Fishing was also developed. They fished mainly in the summer, but also in the winter in the hole; in the fall, a collective seine fishing was organized with the division of prey between all participants. For the poor who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the documents of the 17th century, the term "fisherman" - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of "poor"), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called "foot Yakuts" - osekui, ontuly, kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgydais, Orgoths and others.

Hunting was especially widespread in the north, being the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, bird). In the taiga, by the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare, bird, etc.) was known, but later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horseback chasing the beast along the trail, sometimes with dogs.

There was gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of the bark), harvested for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, coinage, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), raspberries, which were considered unclean, were not used from berries.

Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century, until the middle of the 19th century it was very poorly developed; its spread (especially in the Olekminsk district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.

The processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, and leather was developed; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc .; Cords were twisted from horse hair with hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting of felt were absent. The production of stucco ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had a commercial value, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper, etc., were developed, from the 19th century - carving on mammoth ivory.

Yakut cuisine

She has some common features with the cuisine of the Buryats, Mongols, northern peoples (Evenks, Evens, Chukchi), as well as Russians. Methods of cooking in the Yakut cuisine are few: it is either boiling (meat, fish), or fermentation (koumiss, suorat), or freezing (meat, fish).

From meat, horse meat, beef, venison, game birds, as well as offal and blood are traditionally used. Dishes from Siberian fish are widespread (sturgeon, broad whitefish, omul, muksun, peled, nelma, taimen, grayling).

A distinctive feature of the Yakut cuisine is the fullest possible use of all components of the original product. A very typical example is the recipe for cooking carp in Yakut. Before cooking, the scales are peeled off, the head is not cut off or thrown away, the fish is practically not gutted, a small lateral incision is made, through which the gallbladder is carefully removed, a part of the large intestine is cut off and the swim bladder is pierced. In this form, the fish is boiled or fried. A similar approach is used in relation to almost all other products: beef, horse meat, and so on. Almost all by-products are actively used. In particular, giblet soups (is miine), blood delicacies (khaan), etc. are very popular. Obviously, such a thrifty attitude to food is the result of people's experience of survival in harsh polar conditions.

Horse or beef ribs in Yakutia are known as oyogos. Stroganina is made from frozen meat and fish, which is eaten with a spicy seasoning from a flask (ramson), spoon (like horseradish) and saranka (onion plant). From beef or horse blood, khaan is obtained - Yakut black pudding.

The national drink is popular with many Eastern peoples koumiss, as well as stronger koonnyoruu kymys(or koiuurgen). Suorat (curdled milk), kuerchekh (whipped cream), kober (butter churned with milk to form a thick cream), chokhoon (or chehon- butter churned with milk and berries), iedegey (cottage cheese), suumeh (cheese). From flour and dairy products, the Yakuts cook a thick mass of salamat.

Interesting traditions and customs of the people of Yakutia

The customs and rituals of the Yakuts are closely connected with folk beliefs. Even many Orthodox or agnostics follow them. The structure of beliefs is very similar to Shintoism - each manifestation of nature has its own spirit, and shamans communicate with them. The laying of a yurt and the birth of a child, marriage and burial are not complete without rites. It is noteworthy that until recently, Yakut families were polygamous, each wife of one husband had her own household and dwelling. Apparently, under the influence of assimilation with the Russians, the Yakuts nevertheless switched to monogamous cells of society.

An important place in the life of every Yakut is occupied by the holiday of koumiss Ysyakh. Various rituals are designed to appease the gods. Hunters glorify Bai-Bayanai, women praise Aiyysyt. The holiday is crowned by the universal dance of the sun - osoukhay. All participants join hands and arrange a huge round dance. Fire has sacred properties at any time of the year. Therefore, every meal in a Yakut home begins with treating the fire - throwing food into the fire and irrigating it with milk. Feeding the fire is one of the key moments of any holiday and business.

The most characteristic cultural phenomenon is the olonkho poetic stories, which can have up to 36 thousand rhymed lines. The epic is passed down from generation to generation between master performers, and most recently these stories were included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. A good memory and a long lifespan are one of the distinguishing features Yakuts. In connection with this feature, a custom arose according to which a dying elderly person calls someone from younger generation and tells him about all his social connections - friends, enemies. The Yakuts are distinguished by social activity, even though their settlements are several yurts located at an impressive distance. The main social relations take place during major holidays, the main of which is the holiday of koumiss - Ysyakh.

The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukaghirs, the Olyokma are strongly acculturated by Russians.

12 facts about the Yakuts

1. It is not so cold in Yakutia as everyone thinks. Almost throughout the territory of Yakutia, the minimum temperature is on average -40-45 degrees, which are not so terrible, since the air is very dry. -20 degrees in St. Petersburg will be worse than -50 in Yakutsk.
2. The Yakuts eat raw meat - frozen foal meat, sliced ​​\u200b\u200band shavings or cut into cubes. The meat of adult horses is also eaten, but it is not so tasty. Meat is extremely tasty and healthy, rich in vitamins and other useful substances, in particular, antioxidants.
3. Stroganina is also eaten in Yakutia - the meat of river fish, mainly whitefish and omul, trimmed with thick chips, stroganina from sturgeon and nelma is most valued (all these fish, with the exception of sturgeon, are from the whitefish family). All this splendor can be consumed by dipping the chips in salt and pepper. Some also make different sauces.
4. Contrary to popular belief, most people in Yakutia have never seen deer. Deer are found mainly in the Far North of Yakutia and, oddly enough, in South Yakutia.
5. The legend of crowbars becoming brittle like glass in severe frost is true. If, at a temperature below 50-55 degrees, you hit a solid object with a cast-iron crowbar, the crowbar will shatter into pieces.
6. In Yakutia, almost all grains, vegetables and even some fruits ripen perfectly during the summer. For example, beautiful, tasty, red, sweet watermelons are grown not far from Yakutsk.
7. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. There are a lot of words in the Yakut language that begin with the letter "Y".
8. In Yakutia, even in 40-degree frost, children eat ice cream right on the street.
9. When the Yakuts eat bear meat, they make the sound "Hook" before eating or imitate the cry of a raven, thereby, as it were, disguising themselves from the spirit of the bear - it's not we who eat your meat, but crows.
10. Yakut horses are a very ancient breed. They graze all year round on their own without any supervision.
11. Yakuts are very hardworking. In summer, haymaking can easily work 18 hours a day without a break for lunch, and then have a good drink in the evening and after 2 hours of sleep, back to work. They can work 24 hours and then plow 300 km behind the wheel and work there for another 10 hours.
12. The Yakuts do not like being called Yakuts and prefer to be called "Sakha".