Tungusic peoples

"Tungusic peoples" is a linguists' umbrella for the many nations of Siberia and north-east China who speak Tungusic (Manchu–Tungus) languages. They range from the Manchus, who number more than ten million and once ruled China, to reindeer-herding Evenki of the taiga and small fishing peoples of the Amur, some counting only a few hundred members. Their languages fall into a northern branch, led by Evenki and Even, and a southern branch that includes Manchu, Xibe and Nanai.

The label is an outsider's word. "Tungus" was the Russian name for the Evenki, picked up from the Yakuts, and English scholars began using "Tungusic" for the language family in the 1850s. A supposed link with the ancient Donghu of Chinese records rests on a chance likeness of sound and is now widely rejected. Most researchers place the Tungusic homeland in the Amur region of north-eastern Manchuria; one recent study puts it near Lake Khanka, and genetic work in the lower Amur suggests an expansion beginning before 3500 BC. As Tungusic speakers spread north and west, they displaced many older Siberian languages.

Chinese sources record a succession of peoples in the forests and river valleys of Manchuria, among them the Sushen, the Yilou and the Mohe, though how directly these connect to later Tungusic groups is uncertain. The Mohe, who were part of the kingdom of Balhae, are described as settled farmers who raised pigs and grew soybeans, millet and rice alongside hunting. Their likely descendants, the Jurchens, first appear by name in Chinese records in 748.

The Jurchens lived as vassals of the Khitan Liao dynasty until they rebelled and founded their own Jin dynasty, which ruled over Chinese lands from 1115 to 1234 and created a script for their language. Centuries later the Jianzhou chief Nurhaci, who ruled from 1616 to 1626, united most Jurchen tribes, organised them into the Eight Banners and commissioned an alphabet based on Mongolian script. His successor Hong Taiji renamed the people Manchus in the 1630s, and the dynasty became the Qing, which governed China until 1912. Over that time most Manchus adopted Chinese as their language.

The northern peoples followed quite different ways of life. By 1600 the Evenki of the Lena and Yenisei valleys were skilled reindeer herders, riding their animals with a distinctive shoulder saddle and keeping small herds, often around 25 head, mainly for transport and milk while hunting wild game for meat. They lived in conical tents of birch bark or reindeer hide. Belief centred on spirits in all natural things, a world divided into upper, middle and lower realms, and the shaman; many of these ideas survived nominal conversion to Orthodox Christianity in the eighteenth century. Amur peoples such as the Nanai, Ulch and Udege absorbed Chinese influences, from dragon-embroidered robes to the Chinese New Year.

From the seventeenth century the Tsardom of Russia pushed across Siberia, and Cossacks collected fur tribute from Evenki clans, sometimes holding chiefs' relatives hostage. Rival Russian and Qing claims in Tungusic lands were settled by the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689. In Soviet times collectivisation, forced settlement and Russian-language schooling eroded languages and traditions.

Recent counts list about 10.4 million Manchus and some 190,000 Xibe in China, around 69,500 Evenki across Russia, China and Mongolia, 22,500 Evens and 17,500 Nanai, with groups such as the Negidals and Oroks numbering in the hundreds. Only about 75,000 people speak a Tungusic language natively. Xibe, kept alive in Xinjiang since a Qing garrison moved there in the 1760s, is now the most spoken; Manchu itself had only 18 native speakers in one village as of 2007. Many Evenki in Russia still herd reindeer, fish and hunt.

Our maps draw the Tungus in 200 BCE and 700, 800 and 900 CE, and "Tungusic Tribes" in 1200, across the Amur basin and the forests north of it. The outline is approximate; it sits beside the Xiongnu in 200 BCE, the Khitans and Balhae in 900, and the Mongol Empire in 1200.