Udege (russian: Удэгейцы; ude, удиэ or , or Udihe, Udekhe, and Udeghe correspondingly) are a native people of the
Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...
and
Khabarovsk Krai regions in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. They live along the tributaries of the
Ussuri
The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...
,
Amur
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...
,
Khungari, and
Anyuy Rivers. The Udege speak the
Udege language
The Udege language (also Udihe language, Udekhe language, Udeghe language) is the language of the Udege people. It is a member of the Tungusic family.
History
Previously an oral language, in 1931 an alphabet was created for writing Udege as a pa ...
, which belongs to the
Tungusic language family. Their religious beliefs include
animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather syst ...
,
animal worship, and
shamanism. The Udege are mainly engaged in
hunting
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...
,
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
, and
ginseng
Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus '' Panax'', such as Korean ginseng ('' P. ginseng''), South China ginseng ('' P. notoginseng''), and American ginseng ('' P. quinquefolius''), typically characterized by the presence of ginsenosides ...
harvesting. According to the 2002
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
, there were 1,657 Udege in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, a slight increase from 1,500 in 1970. This was down to 1,496 Udege in Russia in the 2010 census. They are one of the closest ethnic groups to the
Manchu and
Nanai, and are possibly of
Xi Yeren Jurchen origin.
The largest settlements of Udege are in:
* Khabarovsk krai: Gvasiugi (
Imeni Lazo District
Imeni Lazo District (russian: райо́н и́мени Лазо́) is an administrativeResolution #143-pr and municipalLaw #194 district (raion), one of the seventeen in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the south of the krai. The area o ...
) and Arsenievo (
Nanaysky District
Nanaysky District (russian: Нана́йский райо́н) is an administrativeResolution #143-pr and municipalLaw #194 district (raion), one of the seventeen in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. The area of the district is . Its administrative center ...
)
* Primorsky kra:
Agzu (
Terneysky District), Krasny Yar and Olon (
Pozharsky District)
Since the advent of
Perestroika, the Udege, led by
Pavel Sulyandziga
Pavel Vasilievich Sulyandziga (russian: Павел Васильевич Суляндзига born 20 February 1962 in Olon, Pozharsky District, Primorsky Kray) is a Russian indigenous rights activist of Udege nationality. He is a member of th ...
, have been actively involved in the struggle for control over their traditional territories along the
Bikin River
The Bikin (russian: Бики́н) is a river in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais in Russia. It is a right tributary of the Ussuri, and is long, with a drainage basin of . Its main tributaries are the rivers Alchan, Klyuchevaya, Kontrovod and Ze ...
. A central objective has been the establishment of a
Territory of Traditional Natural Resource Use of federal status, which was proposed in cooperation with the national umbrella organisation
RAIPON and the Russian
Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography
The Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography or N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (russian: Институт этнологии и антропологии им. Н.Н. Миклухо-Маклая; abbreviated as ИЭА ...
but failed to be approved by the authorities.
[Discrimination against indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation]
(Parallel report submitted to the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, RAIPON, June 13, 2008)
According to the
2001 Ukrainian census
The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989. , out of 40 Udeges living in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, only 8 declared
Udege as their native language. Most of the Udeges in Ukraine indicated Russian (19) or Ukrainian (6) as their native language. 7 of them named another language.
Ethnonyms
Until the end of the
19th
19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number.
Mathematics
19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...
and beginning of the
20th century Russian and Western researchers did not separate Udege and
Oroch, considering them one people (often called ''Orochoni''). The first who substantiated their ethnic isolation was ''S. N. Brajilovsky''. He was also the first to introduce the
ethnonym Udihe, Udiheitsi (russian: удээ, удэхэ, удихэ), which became an official, in particular autoethnonym already in the thirties of the
20th century. Until that time, the Udege did not have a common self-name. Each territorial group had its own self-name: Hungarian - Hungake, Bikinska - Bikinka, Anyuyska - Uninka, and so on.
Also known is the
eхonym Udege Kekari () — so called udege neighboring peoples, mainly Orochi and Manchzhur, and this term is sometimes found in Western and
Russian literature.
External links
* Maksim Russo
Map of languages of Russia: Udege(
Polit.ru, 10 марта 2019)
* http://www.tooyoo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Russia/bibl/Udege.html
{{Authority control
Tungusic peoples
Indigenous peoples of North Asia
Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
People from Khabarovsk Krai
People from Primorsky Krai
Ethnic groups in Russia
Ethnic groups in Siberia