Tsaatan people (Dukha people): Those who have reindeer

The Tsaatan people of northern Mongolia are a nomadic people who depend on reindeer for nearly all aspects of survival, as well as cultural, spiritual, linguistic, and economic identity. The Tsaatan, which means ‘those who have reindeer’ in the Mongolian language, were originally Tuvinian reindeer herders. Tuvinians are the major ethnic group of the Republic of Tuva (in Russia), which shares a national border with Mongolia.

According to the Finnish ethnographer and linguist Juha Janhunenís brief description, the Tsaatan “can probably be regarded as the most primitive reindeer people presently living.”

Originating from the Sayan mountain region in Russian Siberia and Mongolia’s northern-most province of Hovsgol, the Tsaatan, or ethnic Dukha people, are credited as one of the world’s earliest domesticators of any animal. Written records by a traveling Chinese monk in 499 A.D., and 3,000-year-old stone carvings of reindeer in the area, are evidence of the Tsaatan’s ancient relationship with their reindeer.

According to the prolific Mongolian ethnographer S. Badamkhatan, the Tsaatan were known in early Mongolian sources as Soyot Uriankhai, taigyn irged (Mon. “citizens of the taiga”), and oin irged (Mon. “citizens of the forest”) until 1935 when the Mongolian word tsaatan, or “reindeer herder”, was first published in the newspaper Unen.

Tsaatan maintain small herds of between 7 and 160 reindeer per family, utilizing the domesticated deer (Rangifer tarandus) for renewable resources, and imbuing them with value as essential members of the community.

The Tsaatan usually live in a group comprising several families who live in tents next to each other in the forest. These residential groups are normally close relatives such as parents and their children or siblings, but the relationship can sometimes be affinal or even friendship. The former type resembles an extended family. The membership of a residential group often change seasonally.
Tsaatan people (Dukha people): Those who have reindeer