Orochs (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

''О́рочи''), Orochons, or Orochis (self-designation: ''Nani'') are a people of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

that speak the Oroch (''Orochon'') language of the Southern group of

Tungusic languages The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the doz ...

. 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 incl ...

there were 686 Orochs in Russia. According to the 2010 census there were 596 Orochs in Russia. Orochs traditionally settled in the southern part of the

Khabarovsk Krai Khabarovsk Krai ( rus, Хабаровский край, r=Khabarovsky kray, p=xɐˈbarəfskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East and is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District ...

, Russia and on the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...

and Kopp rivers. In the 19th century, some of them migrated to

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

. In the early 1930s, the Orochi National District was created, but was cancelled shortly thereafter "due to lack of native population". Because the people never had a written language, they were educated in the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

. Their language, Oroch, is on the verge of extinction. They follow

Shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

, the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

, and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

History

Between 1963 and 1993, major changes took place in Oroch families: * Almost all Orochi marriages became inter-ethnic - in 1951-1955, 73% of Orochi marriages were mono-ethnic, and in 1991-1995 only 9%. * The share of Oroch-Russian marriages increased sharply from 9% in 1951-1955 to 82% in 1991-1995. * The maximum size of an Oroch family decreased from 10 to 7 people from 1963 to 1993. * The average family size of the Orochi in 1993 was 2.9 people, compared to 4.8 in 1963. John-Tallis-1851-Tibet-Mongolia-and-Manchuria-NE

John-Tallis-1851-Tibet-Mongolia-and-Manchuria-NE

References

External links

*
The Orochis
in

The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire ''The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire'' is a book about the small nations of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and Russia and some other post-Soviet states of today. It was published in Estonian in 1991 and in English in 2001. T ...

Ethnologue link
Ethnic groups in Russia Tungusic peoples Indigenous peoples of North Asia Khabarovsk Krai Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East Indigenous peoples in the Arctic {{Asia-ethno-group-stub