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

Yakuts(from Evenki rings), Sakha(self-name)- people in Russian Federation, the indigenous population of Yakutia. 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 - Orthodox.

Historical information

Both the Tungus population of taiga Siberia and the Turkic-Mongolian tribes that settled in Siberia in the 10th-13th centuries participated in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts. and assimilated the local population. The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts was completed by the 17th century.

In the north-east of Siberia, by the time the Russian Cossacks and industrialists arrived there, the Yakuts (Sakha) were the most numerous people who occupied a prominent place among other peoples in terms of the level of cultural development.

The ancestors of the Yakuts lived much further south, in the Baikal region. According to Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Derevyanko, the movement of the ancestors of the Yakuts to the north began, apparently, in the 8th-9th centuries, when the legendary ancestors of the Yakuts settled in the Baikal region - the Kurykans, Turkic-speaking peoples, information about which was preserved for us by runic Orkhon inscriptions. The exodus of the Yakuts, pushed northward by stronger neighbors the Mongols - newcomers to the Lena from the Trans-Baikal steppes, intensified in the 12th-13th centuries. and ended around the XIV-XV centuries.

According to legends recorded at the beginning of the 18th century. Yakov Lindenau, a member of the government expedition to study Siberia, a companion of Academicians Miller and Gmelin, the last settlers from the south came to Lena at the end of the 16th century. led by Badzhey, the grandfather of the tribal leader (toyon) Tygyn, well-known in the legends. A.P. Derevyanko believes that with such a movement of tribes to the north, representatives of various nationalities also penetrated there, not only Turkic, but also Mongolian. And for centuries there was a complex process of merging different cultures, which, moreover, were enriched on the spot with the skills and abilities of the indigenous Tungus and Yukagir tribes. This is how the modern Yakut people gradually formed.

By the beginning of contacts with the Russians (1620s), the Yakuts were divided into 35-40 exogamous "tribes" (Dion, Aimakh, Russian "volosts"), the largest - Kangalas and Namtsy on the left bank of the Lena, Megins, Borogons, Betuns, Baturus - between Lena and Amga, numbering up to 2000-5000 people.

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 initiations of boys, collective fishing(in the north - catching geese), hospitality, exchanging 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.

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 Yukaghirs, the Olyokma are strongly acculturated by Russians.

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. For the bride, a dowry was given, the value of which was about half of the kalym, mainly items of clothing and utensils.

Main traditional activities- 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, ontul, 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, chakan, 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. was developed very poorly; 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 bone.

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.

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 (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. FROM late XVIII in. polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof are known. From 2nd half of XVIII in. 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 leading 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 is used: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, stew-salamat. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsk district.

Religion

Orthodoxy spread in the XVIII-XIX 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 world. Main holiday- a spring-summer koumiss holiday (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of koumiss from large wooden goblets (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc.

Was developed. Shaman tambourines (dungur) are close to Evenk ones.

Culture and education

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 are vargan (khomus), violin (kyryympa), percussion. Of the dances, round dance osuokhay, game dances, etc. are common.

Schooling has been going on since the 18th century. in Russian. Writing in the Yakut language since the middle of the 19th century. At the beginning of the XX century. intelligence is formed.

Links

1. V.N. Ivanov Yakuts // Peoples of Russia: website.
2. Ancient history of the Yakuts // Dixon: website.

The Yakuts are among the peoples with a complex ethnic formation, formed as a result of the interaction of two processes that took place "in continuous unity" - the differentiation of various ethnic cultures and their integration.
According to the material presented, the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts begins 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, connected by their origin with the Iranian tribes. Separate prerequisites for this transformation on the territory of Southern Siberia go back to the depths of the 2nd millennium BC. The origins of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts and other Turkic-speaking peoples of the Sayano-Altai can be traced most clearly in the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains. Its carriers were close to the Saks Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The Iranian-lingual nature of the Pazyryks is also confirmed by the data of the toponymy of the Altai and adjacent regions of Southern Siberia. 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 hryvnias, leather shoes, wooden choron goblets. These ancient origins can be traced in the arts and crafts of the Altaians, Tuvans, Yakuts, preserved influence " animal style".
The ancient Altai substrate is found among the Yakuts in the funeral rite. This is the personification of a horse with death, the custom is to install a wooden pillar on the grave - a symbol of the "tree of life", as well as kibes, special people who were engaged in burials. They, 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.

The pre-Turkic complex in the spiritual culture is manifested in olonkho, mythology and the cult of the aiyy. At the head of the aiyy deities was Urun Aap-toyon "white sacred creator god". Its priests - white shamans, like the servants of Ahura Mazda, wore white robes and used a birch branch during prayer, like priests - a baresma, a bunch of thin branches. The Yakuts associated their "mythological beginning" with the deities aiyy. Therefore, in the epic they are called "aiyy aimaha" (literally: created by deities aiyy). In addition, the main names and terms associated with the aiyy cult and mythology have Indo-Iranian parallels, among which there are more coincidences with Indo-Aryan ones. This position, for example, is illustrated by the goddess of childbearing Ayyilisht, probably close to the image of the Vedic goddess Li, or by such words as the Yakut kyraman "curse" and the Indian karma "retribution". Parallels can also be traced in everyday vocabulary (for example, other ind. vis "clan", "tribe", yak. ​​biis in the same meaning, etc.). These materials are consistent with the data of immunogenetics. So, in the blood of 29.1% of the Yakuts, studied by V.V. Fefelova in different regions of the republic, the HLA-AI antigen, found only in Caucasian populations, was found. It is often found in Yakuts in combination with another antigen - HLA-BI7. And together they can be traced in the blood of two peoples - the Yakuts and the Hindi Indians. The presence of a hidden ancient Caucasoid gene pool in the Yakuts is also confirmed by the data of psychology: the discovery in them of the so-called. "interhemispheric type of thinking". All this leads to the idea that some ancient Turkic groups of Indo-Iranian origin took part in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts. Perhaps they were clans associated with the Pazyryks of Altai. The physical type of the latter differed from the surrounding Caucasoid population by a more noticeable Mongoloid admixture. In addition, the Saka mythology, which had a huge impact on the Pazyryks, is characterized by parallels to a greater extent with the Vedic.

The Scythian-Hunnic origins in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts further developed in two directions. The first is conditionally called by me "Western" or South Siberian. It was based on the origins developed under the influence of the Indo-Iranian ethnoculture. The second is "Eastern" or "Central Asian". It is represented by a few Yakut-Xiongnu parallels in culture. The Xiongnu environment was the bearer of the original Central Asian 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 western regions of Central Asia and Altai are considered places of formation of the Turkic tribes, therefore they absorbed many cultural attitudes of the Scythian-Saka nomads. In the 5th century the ancient Turks from the regions of Eastern Turkestan, inhabited by Iranian-speaking tribes, moved to the Southern Altai and included local tribes in their composition. 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. With such epochal periods, giving rise to a single leveled culture as a whole, sometimes difficult to differentiate in a specific ethnic plan, new turns of ethnogenesis are usually associated. Along with other formations in the ancient Turkic era, the formation of the Turkic foundations of the Yakut language and culture took place.

According to its lexical and phonetic features and grammatical structure, the Yakut language is classified among the ancient Turkic dialects. But already in the VI-VII centuries. the Turkic basis of the language differed significantly from the ancient Oguz: according to S.E. Malov, the Yakut language by its design is considered a pre-written language. Consequently, either the basis of the Yakut language was not originally Turkic, or it separated from the Turkic in antiquity, when the latter experienced a period of enormous cultural and linguistic influence of the Indo-Iranian tribes and developed further separately. 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. But at the same time, the Yakuts retained much of their beliefs and funeral rites. In particular, instead of the ancient Turkic stones-balbals, the Yakuts put wooden posts-poles.

But if among Tugu 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 built on the side of the grave. In the place where the deceased lay, the Yakuts placed an idol-balbakh, a heavy frozen block of manure diluted with clay. In the ancient Turkic era, new cultural standards are being developed that transform the early nomadic traditions. The same patterns characterize the material culture of the Yakuts, which is considered to be Turkic.

The Turkic ancestors of the Yakuts are classified as "Gaogui Dinlins" - Teles tribes, among which one of the main places belonged to the ancient Uighurs. In the Yakut culture, some parallels associated with it have been preserved: religious rites, the use of a horse for conspiracy in marriages; some terms related to beliefs and ways of orienting in the area.
The Kurykans of the Baikal region, who played a certain role in the development of the pastoralists of the Lena, also belonged to the Teles tribes. 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. But 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 cattle breeding with stall keeping of livestock. 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. Mongol-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 a Kipchak heritage can be traced. This is confirmed by the presence in the Yakut language of several hundred Yakut-Kypchak lexical parallels. The Kipchak heritage, as it seems to us, is 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. In the XI century. Kangly-Pechenegs became part of the Kipchaks. 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 place the Seike tribe. Sirs also roamed among these tribes, who, according to S.G. Klyashtorny, from the VIII century. became known as kybchaks.
At the same time, one must agree with the opinion of S.M. Akhinzhanov that the southern slopes of the Sayaio-Altai mountains and steppes were the original place of residence of the Kipchaks. A small Syrian Khaganate in the 7th century. included the Yenisei Kirghiz in its composition. In the 8th century after the defeat of the Tugu and the Sirs, the surviving part of the Sirs withdrew to the west and occupied the Northern Altai and the upper reaches of the Irtysh. With them, apparently, the carriers of the ethnonym Seike-Saka also departed. In the ninth century together with the Kimaks, the Kipchaks formed a new alliance. In the XI century. the Kipchaks included the Kangly and, in general, the Kipchak ethnographic complex was formed in the 11th-12th centuries.

The kinship of the Yakuts with the Kipchaks is determined by the presence of cultural elements common to 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 . The ancient "western" (South Siberian) direction in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts in the Middle Ages was continued by the Kipchaks. And, finally, the same connections explain the plot parallels found in the dastans of the Volga Tatars and the Yakut cycle of historical legends "Elleyada", since. the formation of the Tatars was greatly influenced by the medieval Polovtsians.

These conclusions were mainly confirmed on the basis of a comparative study traditional culture Yakuts and 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. Probably, few vocabulary similarities between the Yakut and Ket languages ​​are associated with this layer.

According to the "Kipchak layer" the Yakuts come close to the Southern Altaians, Tobolsk, Baraba and Chulym Tatars, Kumandins, Teleuts, Kachin and Kyzyl groups of Khakases. Apparently, small introductions of Samoyedic origin penetrate into the Yakut language along this line (for example, Yak. Oton "berry" - Samoyed: ode "berry"; Yak. Kytysh "juniper" - Finno-Ugric kataya "juniper"). Moreover, borrowings from the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic languages ​​​​into the Turkic are quite frequent to designate a number of tree and shrub species. Consequently, these contacts are connected mainly with the forest appropriating (“gathering”) culture.

According to our data, the penetration of the first pastoral groups into the basin of the Middle Lena, which became the basis for the formation of the Yakut people, began in the 14th century. (possibly at the end of the 13th century). In general form material culture The Kulun-Atakh people traced some local origins associated with the early Iron Age, with the dominant clan of the southern foundations.

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 XVII-XVIII centuries. recorded a successive connection with the culture of the Kulun-Atakh people. A clothing complex from Yakut burials and settlements of the 17th-18th centuries. finds its closest analogies in Southern Siberia, mainly covering the regions of Altai and the Upper Yenisei within the X-XTV 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 sites of the XIV-XVIII centuries. practically invisible. But it manifests itself in the linguistic material, and in the economy it constitutes an independent powerful layer. At the same time, it is interesting that the Yakuts, like the Mongol-speaking Shiweis, rode sledges pulled by bulls and were engaged in ice fishing. As is known, ethnogenesis rests on three main components - historical-cultural, linguistic and anthropological. 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 have a South Siberian, basically Turkic platform. Folklore, folklore, customary law, having a Turkic-Mongolian basis, finally formed in the basin of the Middle Lena.

The historical legends of the Yakuts, in all agreement with the data of archeology and ethnography, the origin of the people is associated with the processes 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, we 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. The descendants of Omogoy occupied the entire north of Central Yakutia (Namekni, Dyupsyuno-Borogonsky and Bayagantaysky, the so-called "groaning" uluses). It is interesting that, according to the materials of the hippologist I.P. Guryev, horses from the Nam region show the greatest similarity with the Mongolian and Akhal-Teke breeds.
Elley personified the South Siberian Kipchak group, represented mainly by the Kangalas. Kipchak words in the Yakut language, according to 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 Mongol-speaking population in the territory of the modern "akaya" regions of Central Yakutia. Thus, according to the grammatical structure, the Yakut language belongs to the Oghuz group, according to the vocabulary - to the Oguz-Uighur and partly Kypchak. It reveals an ancient "subterranean" layer of vocabulary of Indo-Iranian origin. Mongolian borrowings in the Yakut language apparently have two or three layers of origin. Relatively few words of the Evenki (Tungus-Manchurian) introduction.

According to our data, the formation of the modern physical type 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. Part of the Yakuts, figuratively called "Paleo-Asians in Central Asian masks", gradually merged into the composition of the people through the Tungus ("Baikal") substrate, because. southern newcomers could not find the Koryaks or other Paleo-Asiatics here. In the southern anthropological layer 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.

Consequently, the economy, culture and anthropological type of the Yakuts were finally formed in the Middle Lena. The adaptation of the economy and culture of the southern newcomers to the new natural and climatic conditions of the north occurred due to the further improvement of their primordial traditions. But the evolution of culture, natural for the new conditions, has developed many specific features that are unique to the Yakut culture.

It is generally accepted that the completion of the process of ethnogenesis occurs at the moment of the appearance of a distinct ethnic self-consciousness, the external manifestation of which is a common self-name. In solemn speeches, especially in folklore rituals, the phrase "uraankhai-sakha" is used. Following G.V. Ksenofontov, one could see in Uraankhai the designation of the Tungus-speaking people who were part of the emerging Sakha. But most likely, in the old days they put the concept of "man" into this word - a man-Yakut (primordial Yakut), i.e. uraankhai-sakha.

Sakha dyono - "Yakut people" by the arrival of the Russians represented the "primary" or "post-tribal people" that arose in the conditions of an early class society directly on the basis of tribal relations. Therefore, the completion of ethnogenesis and the formation of the foundations of the traditional culture of the Yakuts occurred within the 16th century.

Fragment from the book of the researcher Gogolev A.I. - [Gogolev A.I. "Yakuts: problems of ethnogenesis and formation of culture". - Yakutsk: YSU Publishing House, 1993. - 200 p.]
Based on the materials of V.V. Fefelova, the combination of these antigens is also found in the Western Buryats, who are genetically related to the Yakuts. But their AI and BI7 haplotype frequencies are significantly lower than those of the Yakuts.
D.E. Eremeev suggests the Iranian origin of the ethnonym "Turk": the Iranian-speaking Turs "with fast horses" were assimilated by the Turkic-speaking tribes, but retained the former ethnonym (Tur > Türk > Türk). (See: Eremeev D.E. "Turk" - an ethnonym of Iranian origin? - P. 132).
Research recent years showed a high genetic similarity of the Yakut horses with the southern steppe horses. (See Guriev I.P. Immunogenetic and craniological features of the ecotypes of the Yakut horse. Abstract of the candidate of diss. - M., 1990).
Horses from the Megino-Kangalassky region, classified as part of the eastern group, are similar to the Kazakh horse of the Jabe type and partly to the Kyrgyz and horses of Fr. Jeju (Japan). (See: Guryev I.P. Decree. Op. P. 19).
In this regard, a separate position is occupied by most of the Vilyui Yakuts. They, despite genetic heterogeneity, are united in the group of Paleo-Siberian Mongoloids, i.e. this group (with the exception of the Suntar Yakuts, who belong to the representatives of the Yakut population of Central Yakutia) contains an ancient Paleo-Siberian component in its composition. (See: Spitsyn V.A. Biochemical polymorphism. S. 115).
The ethnonym Uriankhai-Uriankhit as early as the 1st millennium AD. was widely distributed among the Altai-speaking, among the Paleo-Asians of the Yenisei, Samoyeds.

The Yakuts are the indigenous population of the Republic of Yakutia (Sakha) and the largest of all the indigenous peoples of Siberia. The ancestors of the Yakuts were first mentioned in the 14th century. The ancestors of modern Yakuts are a nomadic tribe of Kurykans, who until the 14th century lived in the territory of Transbaikalia. They came there because of the Yenisei River. Yakuts are divided into several main groups:

• Amga-Lena, live between the Lena River, on the adjacent left bank of the river, between the lower Aldan and Amga;
• Olekma, inhabit territories in the Olekma basin;
• Vilyui, live in the Vilyui basin;
• northern, live in the tundra zone of the basins of the Kolyma, Olenyok, Anabar, Indigirka and Yana rivers.

The self-name of the people sounds like Sakha, in plural Sakhalar. There is also an old self-name uranchai, which is still written uraanhai and uraanghai. These names are still used today in solemn speeches, songs and olonkho. There are among the Yakuts sugars- mestizos, descendants of mixed marriages between the Yakuts and representatives of the Caucasian race. This word should not be confused with the above Sakhalar.

Where live

The main part of the Yakuts lives in Yakutia, on the territory of Russia, some live in the Magadan, Irkutsk regions, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk territories, in Moscow, Buryatia, St. Petersburg and Kamchatka.

population

For 2018, the population of the Republic of Yakutia is 964,330 people. Almost half of the total population is in the central part of Yakutia.

Language

Yakut, along with Russian, is one of the official languages ​​of the Republic of Yakutia. Yakut belongs to the Turkic group of languages, but differs significantly from them in terms of vocabulary of obscure origin, which may belong to Paleoasiatic. Yakut has many words of Mongolian origin, ancient borrowings and Russian words that appeared in the language after Yakutia became part of Russia.

The Yakut language is used mainly in the life of the Yakuts and their public life. The Evenks, Evens, Dolgans, Yukaghirs, and the Russian old-timer population speak this language: Lena peasants, Yakutians, Pokhodchans and Russian Ustyans. This language is used in the territory of Yakutia in office work, cultural events are held on it, newspapers, magazines, books are published, radio and television programs are broadcast, there are Internet resources in the Yakut language. in the city and rural areas performances are staged on it. Yakut is the language of the ancient epic olonkho.

Bilingualism is common among the Yakuts, 65% are fluent in Russian. There are several groups of dialects in the Yakut language:

1. Northwestern
2. Vilyuyskaya
3. Central
4. Taimyrskaya

The Yakut language today uses an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet, it has all the Russian letters and 5 more additional ones, as well as 2 combinations D d and N n n, 4 diphthongs are used. Long vowels in writing are indicated by double vowels.

Character

The Yakuts are very hardworking, hardy, organized and persistent people, they have a good ability to adapt to new living conditions, endure hardships, hardships and hunger.

Appearance

The Yakuts of a pure race have an oval face shape, a wide and smooth, low forehead, black eyes with slightly sloping eyelids. The nose is straight, often with a hump, the mouth is large, the teeth are large, the cheekbones are moderate. The complexion is swarthy, bronze or yellow-gray. The hair is straight and coarse, black in color.

clothing

Traditions are combined in the national costume of the Yakuts different peoples, it is perfectly adapted to the harsh climate in which this people lives. This is reflected in the cut and design of clothing. The costume consists of a caftan with a belt, leather pants and fur socks. Yakut shirts are belted with a strap. In winter, boots made of deerskin and fur are worn.

The main ornament of clothes is the lily-sandana flower. In clothes, the Yakuts try to combine all the colors of the year. Black is a symbol of earth and spring, green is summer, brown and red is autumn, silver jewelry symbolize snow, stars and winter. Yakut patterns always consist of branched continuous lines, which mean that the family should not stop. The more branches such a line has, the more children the person who owns the clothes has.

In the tailoring of outerwear, motley fur, jacquard silk, cloth, leather and rovduga were used. The costume is decorated with beads, ornamental inserts, metal pendants and ornaments.

The poor sewed underwear and summer clothes from thin suede leather, the rich wore shirts from Chinese cotton fabric, which was expensive and could only be obtained through barter.

Festive clothes of the Yakuts of a more complex cut. The camp is expanded to the bottom, the sleeves are assembled along the collar. These sleeves are called buuktaah. Lightweight caftans had an asymmetric clasp, generously decorated with beaded embroidery, a narrow strip of expensive fur and metal elements. Only the wealthy wore such clothes.

One of the wardrobe items of the Yakuts are dressing gowns, sewn from fabric in order with one-piece sleeves. Worn by women in summer period. The hat of the Yakuts is similar to a small fireplace. A hole was usually made at the top so that the moon and the sun could look in. The ears on the hat signify a connection with the cosmos. Today they are usually decorated with beads.

Religion

Before Yakutia became part of Russia, the people professed the Aar Aiyy religion, which assumed the belief that all Yakuts are the children of Tanar, the god and relative of the 12 White Aiyy. They believed that the child from the moment of conception is surrounded by the spirits of ichchi and celestials, they believed in evil and good spirits, master spirits and the spirits of dead shamans. Each clan had a patron animal, which could not be called by name and killed.

The Yakuts believed that the world consists of several tiers, in the upper head is Yuryung Aiyy Toyon, in the lower - Ala Buura Toyon. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits that live in the upper world, cows were sacrificed to those who live in the lower world. An important place was occupied by the cult of the female deity of fertility Aiyysyt.

In the 18th century, Christianity came to Yakutia, and most of the indigenous population became Orthodox Christians. But mass Christianization was mostly formal, the Yakuts often accepted it because of the benefits that they were entitled to in return, and for a long time had a superficial attitude to this religion. Today, the majority of Yakuts are Christians, but the traditional faith, pantheism, and agnosticism are also widespread. Until now, there are shamans in Yakutia, however, there are very few of them.

dwelling

The Yakuts lived in urases and log booths, which were also called Yakut yurts. From the 20th century, huts began to be built. The settlements of the Yakuts consisted of several yurts, which were located from each other on long distance.

Yurts were built from standing round logs. Only small trees were used for construction, cutting large ones is a sin. The place for construction should be located low and protected from the wind. The Yakuts are always looking for a "happy place" and do not settle among large trees, as they believe that they have already taken all the strength from the earth. When choosing a place to build a yurt, the Yakuts turned to a shaman. Often dwellings were built collapsible so that it was easy to transport them with a nomadic lifestyle.

The doors to the dwelling are located on the east side, towards the sun. The roof was covered with birch bark, many small windows were made for lighting in the yurt. Inside there is a fireplace covered with clay, along the walls there were wide sunbeds of various shapes, separated from each other by partitions. At the entrance is the lowest. The owner of the dwelling sleeps on a high sunbed.

Life

The main occupations of the Yakuts were horse breeding and cattle breeding. The men looked after the horses, the women looked after the cattle. The Yakuts living in the north bred deer. Yakut cattle were unproductive, but very hardy. Haymaking has long been known among the Yakuts, and even before the arrival of the Russians, fishing was also developed. Fish were caught mainly in the summer, in winter they made holes in the ice. In the autumn period, the Yakuts arranged a collective seine fishing, the prey was divided among all participants. The poor, who did not have livestock, lived mainly on fish. The foot Yakuts also specialized in this activity: Kokul, Ontui, Osekui, Orgoths, Krikians and Kyrgydais.

Hunting was especially widespread in the north and was the main source of food in these regions. The Yakuts hunted hare, arctic fox, bird, elk and reindeer. With the arrival of the Russians in the taiga, fur and meat hunting for bears, squirrels, and foxes began to spread, but later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, it became less popular. The Yakuts hunted with a bull, behind which they hid, sneaking up on their prey. On the trail of animals they chased on horses, sometimes with dogs.

The Yakuts were also engaged in gathering, collecting the inner layer of the bark of larch and pine, dried for the winter. They collected the roots of chakan and saran, greens: onions, sorrel and horseradish, picked berries, but did not use raspberries, as they considered them unclean.

The Yakuts borrowed agriculture from the Russians in the 17th century, and until the 19th century, this area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe economy was very poorly developed. They grew barley, rarely wheat. Exiled Russian settlers contributed to the wide spread of agriculture among this people, especially in the Olyomkinsky district.

Woodworking was well developed, the Yakuts were engaged in artistic carving, painted products with alder decoction. They also processed birch bark, leather and furs. Crockery was made from leather, rugs were made from the skins of cows and horses, blankets were sewn from hare fur. Horse hair was used in sewing, weaving and embroidery, twisted with hands into cords. The Yakuts were engaged in stucco ceramics, which distinguished them from other Siberian peoples. The smelting and forging of iron, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper and other metals were developed among the people. From the 19th century, the Yakuts began to engage in bone carving.

The Yakuts traveled mainly on horseback, and carried cargo in packs. They made skis that were lined with horse skins, and sledges that were harnessed to bulls and deer. To move on the water, they made birch bark boats called tyy, made flat-bottomed boards, sailing ships-karbass, which they borrowed from the Russians.

In ancient times, the indigenous peoples living in the north of Yakutia bred the Yakut Laika dog breed. The breed of large Yakut court dogs is also widespread, which is distinguished by its unpretentiousness.

The Yakuts have a lot of hitching posts, since ancient times they have been the main components of the people, traditions, customs, beliefs and rituals are associated with them. All hitching posts have different heights, shapes, decorations and ornaments. There are 3 groups of such structures:

• outdoor, it includes those hitching posts that are installed near the dwelling. Horses are tied to them;
• pillars for religious ceremonies;
• hitching posts installed on the main holiday of Ysyakh.

Food

The national cuisine of the Yakuts is a bit similar to the cuisine of the Mongols, Buryats, northern peoples and Russians. Dishes are prepared by boiling, fermenting and freezing. From meat, the Yakuts eat horse meat, venison and beef, game, blood and offal. The preparation of dishes from Siberian fish is widespread in the cuisine of this people: whitefish, sturgeon, omul, muksun, peled, grayling, nelma and taimen.

The Yakuts make the most of all the components of the original product. For example, when cooking crucian carp in the Yakut style, the fish remains with its head and is practically not gutted. The scales are peeled off, the gallbladder, part of the large intestine are removed through a small incision, and the swim bladder is pierced. The fish is fried or boiled.

All by-products are used quite actively, giblet soup, blood delicacies, horse and beef liver, which is filled with a mixture of blood and milk, are very popular. Meat from beef and horse ribs is called oyogos in Yakutia. It is eaten frozen or raw. Stroganina is made from frozen fish and meat, which is eaten with spicy seasoning. Khaan black pudding is made from horse and beef blood.

In the traditional cuisine of the Yakuts, vegetables, mushrooms and fruits are not used, only some berries are used. From drinks they use koumiss and stronger koiuurgen, instead of tea they drink hot fruit drink. Curdled milk suorat, whipped cream kerchekh, thick cream of butter churned with milk, which is called kober, chokhoon - milk churned with berries and butter, cottage cheese iedegey, suumekh cheese are prepared from cow's milk. A thick mass of salamat is boiled from a mixture of dairy products and flour. A sourdough is made from a fermented solution of barley or rye flour.

Folklore

The ancient epic olonkho is passed down from generation to generation and is similar in performance to an opera. This is the oldest epic art of the Yakuts, which occupies the most important place in the folklore of the people. Olonkho denotes the epic tradition and serves as the name of individual legends. Poems with a length of 10,000-15,000 lines are performed by folk storytellers, which not everyone can become. The narrator must have oratory and acting talent, be able to improvise. It may take 7 nights to perform large olonkho. The largest such work consists of 36,000 verse characters. In 2005, the olonkho was declared by UNESCO "a masterpiece of the intangible and oral heritage of mankind."

Folk singers of the Yakuts use the type of throat singing dieretii yrya. This is an unusual singing technique, the articulation of which is based in the larynx or pharynx.

The most famous of the musical instruments of the Yakuts is the khomus, a Yakut variety of the jew's harp and bowed string instrument. They play it with their lips and tongue.

Traditions

The Yakuts have always strived to live in harmony with themselves, faith and nature, they honor traditions and are not afraid of change. There are so many traditions and rituals of this people that one can write a separate book about it.

The Yakuts protect their dwellings and livestock from evil spirits, using many conspiracies, they perform rituals for the offspring of livestock, a good harvest and the birth of children. Before today the Yakuts have blood feud, but it was gradually replaced by ransom.

Stone Sat among this people is considered magical, women cannot look at it, otherwise it will lose its power. These stones are found in the stomachs of birds and animals, wrapped in birch bark and wrapped in horsehair. It is believed that with the help of certain spells and this stone, you can cause snow, rain and wind.

Yakuts are very hospitable people and love to give gifts to each other. Their maternity rites are associated with the goddess Aiyysyt, who is considered the patroness of children. According to the myths, Aiyy only accepts plant sacrifices and dairy products. In the everyday modern language of the Yakuts there is the word "anyy", the meaning of which is translated as "impossible".

Yakuts enter into marriage from 16 to 25 years old, if the groom's family is not rich and there is no bride price, you can steal the bride, and then help the wife's family and thereby work off the bride price.

Until the 19th century, polygamy was widespread in Yakutia, but the wives lived separately from their husbands, and each ran her own household. There was a kalym, which consisted of cattle. Part of the kalym - kurum was intended for a wedding celebration. The bride had a dowry, which in value was equal to half the kalym. Basically it was clothes and utensils. Modern kalym was replaced with money.

An obligatory traditional rite among the Yakuts is the Blessing of Aiyy at celebrations and holidays in nature. Blessings are prayers. The most important holiday is Ysyakh, the day of praise of the White Aiyy. When hunting and fishing, a ritual is carried out to appease the spirit of hunting and good luck Bayanay.

With the dead, an air burial ceremony was performed, the body was hung in the air. The rite meant the surrender of the deceased to light, air, spirit and wood.

All Yakuts revere trees, they believe that the spirit of the mistress of the earth Aan Darkhan Khotun lives in them. When climbing mountains, fish and animals were traditionally sacrificed to forest spirits.

During national holiday Ysyakh hosts national Yakut jumps, international games "Children of Asia", which are divided into the following stages:

1. Kylyy, 11 jumps without stopping, a jump starts on one leg, you need to land on both legs;
2. Ystanga, 11 jumps in turn from foot to foot. You need to land on both feet;
3. Kuobah, 11 non-stop jumps, while jumping from a place you need to push off with two legs at once or land with a running start on both legs.

The national sport of the Yakuts is mas-wrestling, during which the opponent must snatch the stick from the opponent's hands. This sport was launched in 2003. Another sport hapsagay is a very ancient type of wrestling among the Yakuts.

A wedding in Yakutia is a special event. With the birth of a girl in the family, parents, on the sacred ancient tradition, are looking for a groom for her and have been following his life, manners and behavior for many years. Usually a boy is chosen from a family where fathers are distinguished by good health, endurance and strength, are good at working with their hands, building yurts, and get food. If the boy's father does not pass on all his skills to him, he is no longer considered a groom. Some parents manage to quickly find a groom for their daughter, while for someone this process takes long years.

Matchmaking is one of the customs and traditions of the Yakuts. Parents on the appointed day go to the house of the prospective groom, and the girl is not allowed to leave the house. Parents talk with the guy's parents, describe their daughter and her virtues in all colors. If the guy's parents are not against the wedding, the size of the kalym is discussed. For the wedding, the girl is prepared by her mother, prepares her dowry, sews outfits. The bride chooses the time of the wedding.

Before Wedding Dress sewn only from natural materials. Today this is not necessary, it is only important that the outfit is snow-white and completed with a tight belt. The bride must have amulets for protection new family from sickness and evil.

The bride and groom sit in different yurts, the shaman, the groom's mother or the bride's father fumigate them with smoke, cleansing them of all evil. Only after this, the bride and groom meet, they are declared husband and wife, and the celebration begins with a feast, dances and songs. After marriage, a girl should only walk with her head covered; only her husband should see her hair.

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has registered an organization of believers in the traditional pantheon of the gods of Yakutia - "Aar Aiyy Religion". Thus, Russia officially recognized the ancient religion of the Yakut people, which was widespread in the region until the end of the 17th century, when the people of Yakutia began to be converted to Orthodoxy en masse. Today the followers of the aiyy are talking about the restoration of the traditions of their faith, the northern branch - the cult of the deified sky, according to the SmartNews portal.

According to the head of the organization "Religion Aar Aiyy" Augustina Yakovleva, the final registration took place in May this year. “We don’t know how many people now believe in aiyy. Our religion is very ancient, but with the advent of Christianity in Yakutia, it lost many believers, but there were always followers of aiyy among the people. Previously, we did not have a written language, and people transmitted all information from mouth to mouth mouth. And by the time the letter appeared in Yakutia, Orthodoxy came here - in the middle of the 17th century, "she told the portal.

In 2011, three religious groups were registered in Yakutia - in Yakutsk, the villages of Suntar and Khatyn-Sysy. In 2014, they united and became the founders of the centralized religious organization of the Republic of Sakha Aar Aiyy.

"The peculiarity of our religion is that we recognize the higher powers, and the most important God, the creator of the world - Yuryung Aiyy toyon. He has twelve helpers-gods. Each of them has its own function. During prayer, we first pay honors to the higher gods, and then to earthly good spirits.We appeal to all earthly spirits through fire, because Yakutia is a cold region, and we could not live without fire.The most important good spirit of the earth is fire.Then come the spirits of all waters and lakes, taiga, the spirit of Yakutia and others. It is believed that our faith is the northern branch of Tengrianism. But our religion does not fully correspond to any other. We pray to higher powers in the open air, we have no temples, "said Tamara Timofeeva, assistant to the head of the new religious organization.

The world in the view of the aiyy followers is divided into three parts: the underworld - Allaraa Doidu, where evil spirits live, the middle world - Orto Doidu, where people live, and the upper world - Yuhee Doidu, the place where the gods reside. Such a universe is embodied in the Great Tree. Its crown is the upper world, the trunk is the middle one, and the roots, respectively, are the lower world. It is believed that the aiyy gods do not accept sacrifices, and they are given dairy products and plants.

The supreme god - Yuryung Aiyy toyon, the creator of the world, people and demons inhabiting the lower world, animals and plants, embodies the sky. Dzhosegey toyon is the god - the patron of horses, his image is closely connected with the sun. Shuge toyon is a god who pursues evil forces in heaven and earth, the master of thunder and lightning. Ayysyt is a goddess who patronizes childbirth and pregnant women. Ieyiehsit - patron goddess happy people, an intermediary between gods and people. Bilge Khaan is the god of knowledge. Chyngys Khaan - the god of fate. Ulu toion is the god of death. There are also minor gods and spirits - forces of a lower order.

"The creation of the site is connected with the religion of the Sakha people, who not only preserved traditional rites, but also the language. We expect that in the future the site will become calling card cultures of the indigenous peoples of Yakutia, who maintain a spiritual connection with their ancestors," said then a representative of the Republican Ministry for Entrepreneurship, Tourism Development and Employment, which initiated the creation of the site.

Tengrianism is a system of religious beliefs of the ancient Mongols and Turks. The etymology of the word goes back to Tengri - the deified sky. Tengrianism arose on the basis of the people's worldview, which embodied early religious and mythological ideas related to man's attitude to the surrounding nature and its elemental forces. Peculiar and feature This religion is the relationship of man with the outside world, nature.

"Tengrianism was generated by the deification of nature and the veneration of the spirits of their ancestors. The Turks and Mongols worshiped objects and phenomena of the surrounding world not out of fear of incomprehensible and formidable elemental forces, but out of a sense of gratitude to nature for the fact that, despite the sudden outbursts of their unbridled anger, she more often it is affectionate and generous. They knew how to look at nature as an animated being, "said the representative of the department.

According to him, some scientists who studied Tengrism came to the conclusion that by the 12th-13th centuries this dogma had taken the form of a complete concept with ontology (the doctrine of a single deity), cosmology (the concept of three worlds with the possibility of mutual communication), mythology and demonology ( distinguishing ancestral spirits from nature spirits).

"Tengrianism was so different from Buddhism, Islam and Christianity that spiritual contacts between representatives of these religions could not be possible. Monotheism, worship of the spirits of ancestors, pantheism (worship of the spirits of nature), magic, shamanism and even elements of totemism are bizarrely and surprisingly organically intertwined The only religion with which Tengrianism had much in common is the Japanese national religion - Shintoism," the representative of the republican ministry concluded.

Yakutia, the Republic of Sakha is a small, remote and rather cold region of the Russian Federation. That's all that, as a rule, the vast majority of the population of our country knows about this area. Meanwhile, the Yakuts are amazing people.

Briefly about the region

A few centuries ago, the Yakutsk district, the predecessor of the modern region, was located on the territory of modern Yakutia. The current Republic of Sakha was formed in April 1922 - at first as the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1990, it was transformed into the Yakut-Sakha SSR, and it received its modern name a year later.

Yakutia is part of the Far Eastern Federal District and covers an area of ​​more than three million square kilometers. At the same time, the population of the entire district barely reaches a million. The main city of Yakutia is Yakutsk, which grew out of the Yakut prison on the right bank of the Lena. One of the features of the region is that two state languages ​​officially coexist on its territory - Russian and Sakha.

Where did the Yakuts come from

There are legends about the origin of the Yakuts. One of them, for example, claims that this people is the fundamental principle of all mankind, since Adam and Eve, from whom all people on Earth descended, were northerners. Another version speaks of the existence in antiquity of a certain Tygyn, from whom the Yakuts allegedly originate. There is also an opinion that the Yakuts are the Tatar tribes of the times of the Horde, that they are the descendants of the ancient Europeans, that the Evenks are genetically close to them and many, many others. Nevertheless, archaeologists' research revealed that people began to live on the territory of the future Yakutia already in the Paleolithic times. In the first millennium of our era, the ancestors of the Evenks and Evens came here, the Turkic-speaking tribes continued to populate the area of ​​the region until the fifteenth century. According to historians, the Yakuts were formed as a result of a mixture of Turkic-speaking and local tribes. Also in the blood of the Yakuts there may be genes of alien Tungus.

Features of the Yakuts

In appearance, the Yakut is easy to recognize. They tend to have an oval face with a broad forehead, slightly slanted eyelids, and large, black eyes. The mouth is also large, the enamel of the teeth is yellowish, the nose is usually humped, but it can also be straight. The color of the skin gives off a grayish yellow or is swarthy. The hair is black, coarse, not curly. Growth is usually small. Yakuts have a rather high life expectancy.

This nation has a well-developed hearing, vision, on the contrary, is not very good. They do not differ in speed of movement, everything is done slowly. There are no super-strong athletes among the Yakuts either. The nation is highly productive. Since ancient times, horse breeding, cattle breeding, fishing, and hunting for fur-bearing animals have been considered their main occupations. The Yakuts also processed wood, dressed skins, sewed carpets, clothes, blankets.

Religion occupies a huge place in the life of the Yakuts. Now they are Orthodox, but since ancient times their life has been closely connected with shamanism (in some places this has remained to this day).

Yakut dwelling

Since the ancestors of the Yakuts were nomadic people, the current Sakhalars (this is their self-name) live in yurts (of course, not all of them, this does not apply to city dwellers). Their settlements are a collection of several houses. The dwelling of the Yakuts differs from the Mongolian yurts in that it is built from round logs, and not from felt. In this case, only small trees are used. Cutting high, large for them is a sin - this is one of the traditions and customs of the Yakuts.

The roof is made cone-shaped, and the door is located from the east. In addition, Yakut yurts have many small windows, along which there are a variety of sunbeds - low and high, wide and narrow, fenced off from each other so that small rooms are obtained. The highest sunbed is intended for the owner, the lowest is located near the entrance to the house.

As a rule, yurts are placed in the lowlands so that they are not blown by the wind. Often houses are made collapsible - if the tribe leads a nomadic lifestyle. The choice of a place to build a dwelling is very important for the Yakuts - it should bring happiness.

National Costume

The Yakut costume directly depends on temperature conditions - the climate in the Republic of Sakha is not hot, which is why clothes are often sewn using horse or cow skin (and not just fabric). For winter attire, fur is taken.

The costume itself is a caftan with wide sleeves and a belt, combined with leather pants and fur socks. In addition, Yakuts wear fabric shirts, belted with a belt. The material, in addition to fur and leather, is used the most diverse - and silk, and cloth, and rovduga. In ancient times, suede suits were often sewn. The festive costume is more flared down, with puff sleeves and turn-down collars.

Yakut wedding

A wedding among the Yakuts is a special phenomenon. There is an ancient sacred tradition, according to which the parents of a baby, almost from the very moment of birth, must find her a future life partner. They choose a boy and for many years observe his life, character, habits, demeanor - after all, it is very important not to make a mistake in the game for your daughter. As a rule, first of all they pay attention to those boys whose fathers have good health, strong, hardy, able to work with their hands - make yurts, get food and so on. This means that such a man will transfer all his skills and abilities to his son. Otherwise, the boy is not considered as a potential "groom". Some parents of daughters manage to choose a future husband for their baby quickly, for some this process takes quite a long time.

Matchmaking also refers to the traditions and customs of the Yakuts and goes as follows. The girl is forbidden to leave the house on this day, and the parents go to the house of the candidate for her hand and heart. They do not talk with the guy himself, but with his parents, painting them in colors all the virtues of their daughter - here it is very important to try to make the future daughter-in-law like them in absentia. If the guy’s parents don’t mind, then they call the size of the bride price - before, bride money was given in deer (this is still preserved in some places), now it is money. When the parents shake hands, solemn preparations for the wedding begin. The mother prepares the girl for the ceremony. She must also give her daughter a dowry, which certainly includes richly decorated outfits - this shows that the bride is not from the poor.

The wedding attire of the Yakuts used to be sewn only from natural materials, now it is not so necessary. Only one thing is important: a dazzling white color, it means purity and purity. Also, the dress must have a tight belt.

The time of the wedding is chosen by the girl. At first, the bride and groom are in different yurts. The shaman (instead of him there may be the father of the bride or the mother of the groom) fumigates them with birch bark smoke - it is believed that this cleanses the newlyweds from various slanders and everything bad. Only after this rite are they allowed to see each other and make a traditional circle around their future home (important: until this moment, the bride and groom do not meet eye to eye, there must always be someone next to them). Then they are declared legal husband and wife and a meal begins, during which the girl must have amulets - they protect the newly-made family from evil and disease. Traditional dishes at the Yakut wedding are venison, beef, fish, foal. From drinks - koumiss and wine.

Before the wedding, Yakut girls can walk with their heads uncovered; after getting married, the young wife must henceforth hide her hair from everyone except her husband.

Yakut art

Yakut songs are also special. First of all, we are talking about olonkho - local epic folklore, which is considered to be a type of poetry. It is performed like an opera. it ancient species Yakut art, which is now considered a UNESCO heritage.

Olonkho can be of any size - the maximum reached thirty-six thousand (!) Lines. They include all the traditional legends and legends of the Yakuts. Not everyone can perform Yakut songs - for this it is necessary to have an oratorical gift and the ability to improvise, as well as be able to give your voice different intonations and colors. Olonkho is told without interruption - up to seven nights in a row, so the performer must also have a good memory (however, this is - distinguishing feature all Yakuts).

The Yakuts also have their own national musical instrument. It looks like a jew's harp, some consider it just a variety of a jew's harp. This instrument is called khomus. The art of the Yakuts also includes throat singing, for which they are very famous.

Traditions and customs

Some traditions and customs of the Yakuts have long remained unchanged. So, even today they greatly revere nature, believing that it is alive. They believe in the existence of good and evil spirits and that nature helps to fight the latter. So, for example, lightning, thunder, thunderstorm, according to their beliefs, pursue evil spirits. The wind also has its own spirits - they guard peace on earth. The Yakuts especially revere water, they bring offerings to it - boats made of birch bark. Do not put anything sharp into the water - it can injure her. Fire among the Yakuts is considered the patron saint of the hearth, before it was not extinguished, but moving from place to place, they took it with them in special pots. The Yakuts pay special respect to the spirit of the forest, which helps them in their hunting. The sacred animal for this people is the bear, whose claws they wear as amulets and talismans.

Their numerous holidays are closely connected with the traditions and customs of the Yakuts. For example, Ysyakh, which takes place at the beginning of summer. This is a family holiday, symbolizing the friendship of peoples, it is considered the most important among the Yakuts. Its other name is “Kumiss Feast”. At its end, it is imperative to perform a special round dance in honor of the sun - in this way the luminary is thanked for the warmth.

Blood feud also belongs to the traditions and customs of the Yakuts. There are also many birth rituals. And at death, you need to call one of the youth to yourself and leave all your connections to him - tell him both about friends and enemies.

1. Yakutia is the only region in our country where three time zones operate at once (the difference with Moscow is 6, 7 and 8 hours).
2. Almost half of the territory of Yakutia is located beyond the Arctic Circle.
3. Yakutia has the first place in the Russian Federation in terms of the total amount of reserves of all natural resources.
4. In addition to the two state languages, the Evenki, Even, Dolgan and Yukaghir dialects are widespread in the Republic of Sakha.
5. Yakuts do not grow body hair.
6. Almost every Yakut family has special national knives with an asymmetrical blade.
7. The Yakut legend says that the stone Sat, which is taken from the stomachs of birds and animals, is considered magical, but it will lose its power if a woman looks at it.
8. Sakhalar is the self-name of the Yakuts, and Sakhalyar is a person born from the marriage of a Yakut and a European.

This is not all the features and customs of the Yakuts. Such interesting nation you need to study long and carefully in order to fully imbue their spirit, - however, like any other nationality on Earth.