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The Dingling/Gaoche/Chile/Tiele (丁零/高車/敕勒/铁勒) peoples were an ancient Siberian people. They originally dwelled in the area west of modern day Lake Baikal at the bank of Lena River and were already around during the time of the Xiongnu Empire.
Origin and migration
The Dinglings were a numerous, warlike, vital ethnos of hunters, fishers, and gatherers of the southern Siberian mountain taiga from the Lake Baikal to Altai Range. They dominated this area for millennia, from the Neolithic down to the founding of the Xiongnu Confederacy. Along the edges of the retreating glaciers, among grazing herds of game animals like mammoth, bison, elk, reindeer, musk ox, etc., a large part of the proto-Dingling gradually wandered along the streams of the Amur, Lena and Aldan, all the way to the Pacific coast, and further to Alaska. Another group of this ethnos migrated toward the northwest in the watersheds of the Irtysh, Ob and Yenisei.
In Chinese chronicles, the Dingling usually correspond with tribe's name like Gaoche, Chile and Tiele, and in many chronicles they were considered to be the former Dinglings under commentaries made in the later era. The Dingling are not longer mentioned by the 7th century and gradually replaced, the anthropology of Dinglings were unknown since there was never been a record from any chronicle or commentary. According to the Weilue, one group of Dingling escaped to the western steppe in Kazakhstan while the remaining Dingling became absorbed into various Altaic peoples known as the Gaoche, and later, the Tiele. Groups such as Xueyantuo (Syr-Tardush), Basmil (Baximi), Oguz (Wuhu), Uyghur (Weihu), and the northern most Yakut (Guligan) from the Lake Baikal are the Tiele tribes. Section of a typical extract from the Book of Sui volume 84:
The forebear of the Tiele belonged to those of Xiongnu descendants, and had the largest divisions of tribes. They occupied along the valleys, scattering in the vast region west to the Western Sea Sea:
- At the area north of the Duluo River River, are the Pugu, Tongluo, Weihu *, Bayegu, Fuluo, which are composited into the Sijin legion, other tribes such as Mengchen, Turuhu, Sijie, Hun, Hu, Xue and so forth, also dwelled in this area. They have a 20,000 invincible armies.
- In the regions west of Yiwu the north of Yanqi White Mountains Shan, come to the abodes of Qipi, Boluozhi, Yizhi, Supo, Nahe, Wuhu *," target="_blank" >Hugu [Kirgiz, Yezhi, Yunihu and so forth. They have a 20,000 invincible armies.
- After passing the south west from the Gold Mountains Mountains, are the Xueyantuo Zhileer, Shipan [Yueban, Daqi and so forth. They have a 10,000 invincible armies.
- Leaving these, we come to the regions north of Kang near the river of Ade Bigan [Pecheneg" target="_blank" >*, Juhai, Hebixi, Hecuo, Suba, Yemo, Keda and so forth. They have a 30,000 invincible armies.
- At the western portion, from the east to the west of the De Yi Sea Sea, are the Sulu, Hesan *, Suoye, Miecu, Longhu and so forth. They have a 8,000 invincible armies.
- Until we reach to the east of Fulin Byzantine Empire, are the Enqu, Alan *, Beiru, Jiuli, Fuwahun and so forth. They have a nearly 20,000 invincible armies.
- And lastly, in the regions south of the Northern Sea Baikal, dwell the Dubo * and also some other tribes.
The names of these tribes are different, but all of them can be classified as Tiele. The Tiele don't have a master, they are subjected to the both Eastern and Western Gokturks separately. They don't have permanent residence, and moved with the changes of grass and water. The main characteristic of them, are ferociousness and tolerance. They are the good riders and archers, and especially greed without restraint that make one's living by looting. These tribes toward the west are more cultivated, in respect that they breed on cattles and sheeps, but are shortage of horses. Since the Gokturks had established a state, they have been recruited as the auxiliary of empire and conquered both east and westard, thus annexed all of the northern regional lands.
The customs of the Tiele and Gokturks are not much different. However a man of the Tiele lives in his wife's home after marriage and will not return to his own home with his wife until the birth of a child. In addition, the Tiele also bury their dead under the ground.
Etymology
Although the words dingling, gaoche, chile and tiele (as in modern Mandarin pronunciation of pinyin romanisation) are often used interchangeably, this usage is erroneous as pointed out by modern academia. Dingling refers an extinct ethnic group. The Gaoche was an ethnic-tribe that expelled by Juan Juan from Mongolia and founded a state (487-541) at Turpan, which was descended in part from the Dingling. The Tiele was a collection of tribes of different Altaic ethical-origins which largely descended from the Chile. All four groups somewhat happened to occupy quite a similar geographical area in succession of each other with an exception for the first one.
Language
According to Russian linguist experts on Slavic languages, proposed that probably, the Proto-Dinglings spoke a polysynthetic language with an active typology, and exhibited, linguistically and culturally, a unified ethnic community. Heinrich Werner's Zur jenissejisch-indianischen Urverwandtschaft, (Concerning Yeniseian-Indian Word Origins). developed a new genealogical concept, which he terms “Baikal-Siberic,”in which the Yeniseian peoples (Arin, Assan, Yug, Ket, Kott, and Pumpokol), the Na-Dene “Indians,” and the Ding-ling folk of the ancient Chinese chronicles can all be traced back to “Proto-Dingling.” The linguistic comparison of Na-Dene and Yeniseian shows that the quantity and character of the correspondences point unequivocally to common origin (Urverwandtschaft).”
Ding-ling can be seen to resemble (1) the Yeniseian word *dzheng ‘people’ > Ket de?ng, Yug dyeng, Kott cheang; and (2) the Na-Dene word *ling or *hling ‘people’, as manifested in the name of the Tlingit (properly hling-git ‘son of man, child of the people’), etc.
Rulers of Gaoche
| Family names and given name | Durations of reigns |
|---|---|
| Family name and given name | |
| 副伏羅阿伏至羅 Fùfúluó Āfúzhìluó | 487-? |
| 跋利延 Bálìyán | ? |
| 彌俄突 Mí'étú | ? |
| 伊匐 Yīfú | ? |
| 越居 Yuèjū | ? |
| 比造 Bǐzào | ? |
| 去賓 Qùbīn | ?-541 |
References
- The Peoples of the West, from the Weilue, by Yu Huan
- Gumilev, L.N. "The Huns. Central Asia in Ancient Times", (Russian: Khunnu),1960
- Suribadalaha. Mengguzu Zuyuan Xinkao, Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe, 1986. *
See also
"Dingling"