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The Evenks (obsolete: Tungus) are a nomadic Tungusic people, one of the Northern Indigenous Peoples (pop. 35,527, 2002 census) of Siberia and the Russian Far East. The Evenki (Simplified Chinese:鄂温克族; Pinyin: Èwēnkè Zú) form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.
Evenks of Russia
The Evenks were formerly known as tungus. This designation was spread by the Russians, who acquired it from the Yakuts and the Siberian Tatars (in the Yakut language tongus) in the 17th century. The Evenks have several self-designations of which the best known is even, evenk. This became the official designation for the people in 1931. Some groups call themselves orochen ('an inhabitant of the River Oro'), orochon ('a rearer of reindeer'), ile ('a human being'), etc. At one time or another tribal designations and place-names have also been used as self-designations, for instance manjagir, birachen, solon, etc. Several of these have even been taken for separate ethnic entities. The Evens or Lamuts receive a separate mention because, though originally close to the Evenks, they are now considered to be a different people.
The Evenks inhabit a huge territory of the Siberian taiga from the River Ob in the west to the Okhotsk Sea in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Manchuria and Sakhalin in the south. The total area of their habitat is about 2,500,000 km². In all of the Russian Federation only the Russians inhabit a larger territory. According to the administrative structure, the Evenks inhabit, amongst others, the Tyumen and Tomsk regions, the Krasnoyarsk district (esp. Evenkia), the Irkutsk, Chita, and Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, the Khabarovsk district and the Sakhalin region. However, their autonomous national territory is confined solely to the Krasnoyarsk district, where 4,632 of the 35,527 Evenks live (according to 2002 census). More than 18,200 Evenks live in Yakutia.
Anthropologically the Evenk belong to the Baikal or Paleo-Siberian group of the Mongolian type, originating from the ancient Paleo-Siberian people of the Yenisei River up to the Okhotsk Sea.
The Evenk language is the largest of the northern group of the Manchu-Tungus languages, a group which also includes the Even and Negidal languages.
Evenks of China
There are approximately 26,000 Evenks in China (the Solon, the Tungus, the Ainak, the Nakagyr and the Orochon), of whom nearly 23,000 live in the Hulunbuir region in the north of the Inner Mongolia Province, near the city of Hailar.
Religion
Although many of them have adopted Lamaism (which is the mainstream form of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism) the Evenkis of both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are a nominally Orthodox Christian people. Along with their Even cousins and a few other tribes in Siberia, they are some of the only Asiatic peoples who nominally practice Orthodox Christianity, which they had voluntarily adopted (as opposed to being coerced to do so) during contacts from Russian expansion into Siberia. There are also around 3,000 Evenks in neighbouring Heilongjiang Province.
External references
Ethnic groups in Russia | Tungusic peoples | Indigenous peoples of North Asia
Ewenken | Ewenki | Evenkit | Evenks | 예벤키족 | エヴェンキ | Ewenkowie | Эвенки | evenker | 鄂温克族
"Evenks"