EVENKS

Evenks: translation

/ Evenki

Ethnic group. Formerly known as the Tungus, the Evenks are an indigenous Paleo-Siberian population of approximately 35,000, widely scattered across some 2.5 million square kilometers. They are classified as one of theindigenous peoples of the north. The Evenkilanguageis a member of the northern branch of the Manchu-Tungus family, distantly related to Manchu. The Evenks reside in a huge swath ofSiberian taigafrom the Ob River in the west to the Sea of Okhotsk in the east, and from theArctic Oceanin the north to Manchuria in the south. While they form the titular minority ofKrasnoyarskKrai’sEvenkiysky Municipal District, where they make up 21 percent of the population, they are also located in the Russian regions ofTyumen,Tomsk,Irkutsk,Zabaykalsky,Amur,Buryatiya,Sakha,Khabarovsk,Sakhalin, and other parts of Krasnoyarsk, as well asMongoliaandChina. Evenks are nominallyRussian Orthodoxbut maintain many of their traditionalshamanisticbeliefs.

See alsoEvens.