A special people of Mongolia - Khotons

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Among the peoples of the Mongolian nationality there is an ethnic group of people distinguished by their origin and culture. These are khotons. From the mouths of the khotons themselves and other documentary sources, the origin of the khotons has several options.

Khoton Mongols are a small ethnic group. It is settled mainly in the Tarialan somon of Uvs aimag south of Lake Uvs-Nur. Also, a noticeable number of khotons live in somons adjacent to the Tarialan-Naranbulag somon (Naran-Bulak on Soviet topographic maps) and in the administrative center of the Uvs aimag in the city of Ulangom.

But the most reliable, based on the oral traditions of the khotons themselves and the research of scientists, is that during the reign Galdan Boshogt Khanthey became subjects Dzungar state … In those days, Galdan boshogt conquered the cities of eastern Turkestan and Uyguria and resettled the peoples engaged in agriculture to different places. Within the framework of these events, there is a legend that on the territory of the present Uvs aimag by Ulaang he settled a group of khotons to cultivate the land.

According to the population census of 1928 and 1930, many more khotons were registered than before. Therefore, in the course of the reform of the administrative division, Altan teelin somonfor the residence of khotons. And in 1933 this somon was renamed into somon Tarialan.

It is believed that the Dzungarian Khan Galdan-Boshogtu settled them in these places more than three centuries ago. According to another version, the khotons are descendants of the mixed Turkic population of Xinjiang, captured by the troops of the Qing dynasty in the 17th - first half of the 18th century. Academician B. Ya. Vladimirtsov, travelers and researchers P. K. Kozlov and B. B. Baradiin, geographer and ethnographer G. N. Potanin preferred the Kara-Kyrgyz element in the question of the origin of the Khotons and noted the predominant role of the Kyrgyz in the ethnogenesis of the Khotons.

One of the largest Russian Turkologists of the first half of the 20th century, Academician A. N. Samoilovich, who conducted research on the Khoton tribe, also held a similar opinion and wrote about this: “… judging only by the beliefs of the Khotons, it is permissible that they included the Kara-Kyrgyz, East Turkestan Sarts, and, perhaps, Cossack-Kirghiz."

At the same time, on the basis of linguistic analysis, the scientist gives preference to the Kara-Kyrgyz element in the question of the origin of the Khotons, referring as evidence also to the Khoton legend, cited by G. N. Potanin, about the origin of the Sarybash clan (compare with the Kyrgyz tribe Sarybagysh) from forty girls. This legend, according to A. N. Samoilovich, is undoubtedly of Kara-Kyrgyz origin. Many modern scientists adhere to a similar position. Today the Mongolian khotons are fully assembled to the Mongols, and their language and custom have become Mongolian.

Khotons have a very high proportion of carriers of the Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a1 - 83%, which is the result of gene drift explained by the bottleneck effect that this population went through, descended from a small number of founding ancestors who migrated to the region of northwestern Mongolia in the 17th century; most likely, the “bottleneck” was passed by this population several times. DNA studies of Mongolian scientists Ts. Tserendash and J. Batsuur confirmed that 45-50% of the Khoton gene pool come from the Kyrgyz, the next most significant share belongs to the Uighurs and Uzbeks, and not at all significant share - to the Kazakhs. Indeed, among the modern Turkic peoples, the Kyrgyz are carriers of a high proportion of the haplogroup R1a1 - 63%.

Currently living in Mongolia more than 10 thousand khotons, they live mainly in Tarialan somon, Uvs aimag, in northwestern Mongolia south of Uvs-Nuur Lake. And the word "tarialan" in translation means arable land.

In the places of their settlement on the fan of the Kharkhira River, irrigation systems were created 300 years ago, which determined significant differences from the surrounding nomadic livestock population. These differences persist to this day, it is no coincidence that the area of compact residence of Khotons was given such a name. Also, a noticeable number of khotons live in the neighboring Tarialan somon somon Naranbulag.

The very first researchers who paid attention to khotons were the Russian scientists Potanin and Vladimirtsov, who visited these places in the 1910s. The scientist Potanin traveled to the places of residence of the Khotons, got acquainted with their way of life and language. And the scientist Vladimirtsov studied more deeply the features of the Khoton language. He also wrote down their legends and epics from the words of the khotons themselves. From the studies of Vladimrtsov, it became clear that hotons have Turkic origin. He recognized over 100 words from the Turkic language in their language. And they themselves said that they have a different origin from the Derbets.

Vladimirtsov also established that from the point of view of anthropology, they are similar to the peoples of eastern Turkestan, even their farming method retained the features of eastern Turkestan.

Khotons differ from the surrounding local population (and from all Mongols) in anthropological type, since despite the practice of mixed marriages, they still have features of the Pamir type of face.

Previously, the Khotons used their own language of the Turkic group - the Khoton language. At present, the Khotons have completely switched to the dialect of the Kalmyk (Oirat) language, characteristic of the Derbets, the main ethnic group inhabiting the Ubsunur aimag. Some sources note that the speech of the Khotons retained more original Oirat features than the dialect of the Derbets and Bayats proper, which experienced a significant Khalkha influence.

Historically, all khotons were Muslims, however, over the centuries of living in a region where the surrounding population professes BuddhismIn combination with elements of shamanism, the khotons lost most of the Islamic rituals; the local population adopted customs that were incompatible with the Islamic doctrine. Nevertheless, this ethnic group retains the memory of both Turkic and Muslim origins. In ritual practice, fragments of Islamic prayers continue to be used (only in the Khoton language).