Dukha people

Common card · No. 386806

The Dukha, Duha, Dukhans or Duhalar (Mongolian: Цаатан, Tsaatan, духа́, Dukha) are a small Turkic community of semi-nomadic reindeer herders living in a sum of Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia called Tsagaannuur. The Dukha are divided into two major territorial groups: East Taiga (whose members for the most part trace their ancestry to reindeer herders whose territory spanned from northeast Tuva to the area north of Lake Hövsgöl); and West Taiga (whose members for the most part trace their ancestry to reindeer herders whose territory spanned from southeast Tuva to the area of Ulaan Taiga in present-day Mongolia). They are the only reindeer herders in Mongolia, and their ancestors are considered some of the earliest domesticators of any animal. The Tsaatan, whose name means ‘those who have reindeer’ in the Mongolian language, were originally Tuvinian reindeer herders.

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