Altai people

Altai people
Алтайлар (Altailar)
Алтай-кижи (Altai-kiji)

Top: Altai people in 1911.
Bottom: Altai people in the Altai Republic and neighboring areas
Total population
83,326
Regions with significant populations
 Russia 83,125[1]
 Mongolia and
 China		several thousand[2]
 Kazakhstan201[3]
Languages
Northern Altai, Southern Altai, Russian
Religion
up to 86%[4] "Altai Faith" (modern synthesis of Burkhanism, Shamanism, other indigenous religions),[5] other Baptist Protestantism, Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhism, Russian Orthodoxy, and Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Kyrgyz, Teleuts, and other Turkic peoples, especially other Siberian Turkic peoples
Flag of the Altai Republic

The Altai people (Altay: Алтай-кижи, romanized: Altay-kiji, pronounced [ɑltɑj-kidʒi]), also the Altaians (Altay: Алтайлар, romanized: Altaylar, pronounced [ɑltɑjlɑr]), are a Turkic ethnic group of indigenous peoples of Siberia mainly living in the Altai Republic, Russia.[6][7] Several thousand of the Altaians also live in Mongolia (Altai Mountains) and China (Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang) but are not officially recognized as a distinct group[2] and listed under the name "Oirats" as a part of the Mongols, as well as in Kazakhstan where they number around 200.[8] For alternative ethnonyms see also Tele, Black Tatar, and Oirats. During the Northern Yuan dynasty, they were ruled in the administrative area known as Telengid Province.

  1. ^ "Оценка численности постоянного населения по субъектам Российской Федерации". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  2. ^ a b Olson, James S. (1998). "Altai". An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. pp. 9–11. ISBN 0-313-28853-4.
  3. ^ Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on statistics. 2009 CensusArchived 2012-04-24 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference regnum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference BourdeauxFilatov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Tishkov, Valery A., ed. (1994). "Алтайцы" [Altaians]. Народы России: Энциклопедия [Peoples of Russia: an Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia Pub. ISBN 5-85270-082-7.
  7. ^ Zhukovskaia, Natalia L. (2007) [1999]. "Алтайцы" [Altaians]. In L.M. Mints (ed.). Народы мира: Энциклопедия [Peoples of the World: an Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Moscow: OLMA Media Group. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-5-373-01057-3.
  8. ^ Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on statistics. 2009 CensusArchived 2012-04-24 at the Wayback Machine