The Kurykans (russian: Курыканы; zh, 骨利干

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Gǔlìgān'' <

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

ZS: *''kuət̚-liɪ^H-kɑn'') were a Turkic Tiele tribe, that inhabited the

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

area near the Mongol border in the 6th century Early Kurykans migrated from

Yenisey The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук ...

river.V.A. Stepanov "Origin of Sakha: Analysis of Y-chromosome Haplotypes Molecular Biology, 2008, Volume 42, No 2, p. 226-237,2008 According to the article on "the Origin of

Yakuts The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts ...

, Analysis of the Y-Chromosome Haplotypes", published by the researchers from the

Tomsk Tomsk ( rus, Томск, p=tomsk, sty, Түң-тора) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, located on the Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. The city is a not ...

National Research Medical Center of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

in the Russian "Molecular Biology" journal in 2008: Gumilyov and Okladnikov proposed that Kurykans were ancestors of

, though this is still uncertain.

Peter B. Golden Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is an American historian who is Professor Emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on Turkic peoples, Turkic and Central Asian Studies, ...

notes that the name Kurykan is etymologisable on the basis of Mongolic ''quriğan'' "lamb" (compare Khalkha: хурга ''hurga'' < Middle Mongolian ''quraɣ-a(n)'') yet no additional evidence exists that Kurykans also spoke a

Mongolic language The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language f ...

. In translation from the Old Turkic, word ''quri'qan ~ qoriyan'' is translated as a camp, or a military camp and has parallels in the old written Mongolian language in the form of ''khogiua(n) ~ xoruya(n)''. Thus, "kurykan", perhaps, in its essence, is not an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

, but a common name in relation to the region and the territorial community that inhabits it, at least at an early stage. Therefore, a possible translation of the term "uch kurykan" is "three military camps". Before their migration, Yakuts were subject to some Mongolic admixture in the 7th century. The Yakuts originally lived around

Olkhon Olkhon ( rus, Ольхо́н, also transliterated as Olchon; bua, Ойхон, ''Oikhon'') is the third-largest lake island in the world. It is by far the largest island in Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia, with an area of . Structurally, it const ...

and the region of

. Beginning in the 13th century they migrated to the basins of the Middle Lena, the

Aldan Aldan may refer to: ;People *Gille Aldan, the first bishop of Galloway, Scotland * Andrey Aldan-Semenov (1908–1985), Russian writer *Duke Aldan, a fictional character in '' Langrisser IV'' video game ;Places *Aldan, Russia, a town in the Sakha R ...

and Vilyuy rivers under the pressure of the rising Mongols. The northern Yakuts were largely hunters, fishermen and reindeer herders, while the southern Yakuts raised cattle and

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

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* Indigenous peoples of North Asia Turkic peoples of Asia History of Siberia {{ethno-stub

See also

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