The Yenisei and Tian Shan Kyrgyz: Resolving the Debate on Kyrgyz Origins in Historical Scholarship - Valikhanov/Abramzon + Genetics

The research of prominent historians Chokan Valikhanov and Saul Abramzon, supported by modern genetic data, convincingly confirms the indigenous cultural and genetic affiliation of the Kyrgyz to the Tian Shan region.

This scientific evidence refutes the widespread myth of a supposed mass migration or forced deportation of the Kyrgyz from the Yenisei to the south, and also debunks the misconception that the Kyrgyz and Khakas are distinct peoples.

Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865)

“The origins and history of the Kara-Kyrgyz remain an unresolved and contentious question for scholars working with Chinese and Eastern historical sources.

Most researchers, however, hold the opinion that today’s Buruts are none other than the Yenisei Kyrgyz, who were relocated in the past century by the Dzungars to new nomadic pastures. Because of this, they are considered identical to the Khakas of the Tang Dynasty and the Kilikiz of the Yuan Dynasty.

Rashid al-Din, in his History of the Mongols, classifies the Kyrgyz among the forest peoples of southern Siberia, who lived in the region of Barkhudjin-Tukum.

The name Kem-Kemjüt, given to the Kyrgyz by him and by Abulgazi, recalls Kem (Yenisei) and the Kemchuk River, which were likely the nomadic lands of this people at the time.

During the conquest of Siberia, Russian Cossacks encountered the Kyrgyz on the Abakan and Yus rivers and waged fierce wars against them from the 17th century to the early 18th century. After that, the name of this people suddenly disappeared from Siberian chronicles.

Fischer believed that they were relocated by the Dzungar Khoi-Taiji and, based on rumors, assumed that their new homeland must be somewhere near the borders of Tibet and the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Levshin notes that Swedish officers were the first to document this event in history and asserts that their relocation was the result of a special agreement between the Russian government and the Dzungar Khoi-Taiji.

However, the Chinese call the Kata Kyrgyz Buruts and say that they migrated to their present nomadic lands from the Kunlun Mountains, where they lived during the Tang Dynasty under the name Bulu or Pulu.

Father Hyacinth (Iakinf) was the first to distinguish the Kyrgyz of southern Siberia from the present-day Buruts. He considered the latter to be a Turkic tribe and, to differentiate them from the former, referred to them as Kergiz.

Ritter, in his Erdkunde von Asien, incorrectly conflates the Kyrgyz-Buruts with the Kyrgyz-Kaisaks (Kazakhs), considering them all to be a migration of the Yenisei Kilikiz or Khakas.

Following Klaproth and Abel Rémusat, he classifies them as an Indo-Germanic tribe that became Turkified due to intertribal mixing.

Regarding the disappearance of the Kyrgyz from Russian Siberia in the 17th century, Ritter states that, under pressure from their neighbors, they withdrew to their kindred Buruts in Western Turkestan and to the steppes southeast of the Irtysh. Consequently, he considers the Buruts to be the ancient inhabitants of their present nomadic lands (Tian Shan).

This is the current state of the question regarding the origins of today’s Kara- Kyrgyz. To clarify this confusion, we turned to oral traditions and obtained the following information:

The people known as the Wild Stone Kyrgyz or Kara-Kyrgyz simply call themselves Kyrgyz. The name Burut, given to them by the Kalmyks and Chinese, is entirely unfamiliar to them.

The Kyrgyz consider the Andijan Mountains to be their original homeland.

There is no preserved tradition among them regarding a migration from southern Siberia.

However, there is a tradition that their nomadic movements expanded from south to north, reaching the Black Irtysh, the Altai, and the Khangai Mountains, and extending eastward as far as Urumqi.

Based on this information, we believe that the Kara - Kyrgyz are identical to the Yenisei Khakas or Kyrgyz, known in Chinese pronunciation as Ki-li-ki-zï. A Chinese chronicler, a contemporary of the Mongols, states that Kili-ki-zï in the local language means “forty maidens” (kırk—forty, kız—girl).

Modern Kyrgyz also use this etymology to explain their name. Furthermore, we believe that the Kyrgyz expanded eastward to their current nomadic lands in ancient times, as Kyrgyz (Kili-ki-zï) are mentioned in the 1253 route of Hulagu Khan in the Tian Shan region.

Their migrations from the Tian Shan to the Khangai Mountains and back continued in subsequent times, as confirmed by oral traditions.

These migrations ceased only when a powerful Oirat or Dzungar state emerged between the Altai and the Tian Shan.

The widely accepted scholarly opinion that the migration of the Kyrgyz from the Yenisei to the Tian Shan in the early 18th century was carried out by the Dzungars based on a mutual agreement with the Russian government is not entirely accurate, according to new evidence we have obtained.”

–Chokan Valikhanov, Essays on Dzungaria

S.M. Abramzon (1905–1977)

“How the Kyrgyz came to the Tian Shan and whether they are directly related to the Yenisei Kyrgyz remains, to this day, a question not yet definitively resolved, although there is evidence of the penetration into the Tian Shan region as early as 47 BCE by some tribes of the Jian-Kun (Gyan-Huns), who, together with Central Asian tribes—the Huns and the Xianbei—formed the ancient Kyrgyz tribes.

It is apparent that during the 8th–10th centuries there was a movement of Kyrgyz tribes into the Tian Shan. One Persian source from the 10th century (Hudud al-‘Alam) mentions the Kyrgyz in the Tian Shan. Similar references are found in Istakhri.

Analysis of available sources allows us to confidently support Aristov’s hypothesis that a significant number of Kyrgyz tribes inhabited the Tian Shan long before the beginning of the 16th century.

Several facts support this. A part of the land of Hyagas—that is, the Kyrgyz—was already part of the western Turkic domains in the 7th century, which included the northern Tian Shan.

In the 9th century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz were neighbors of, and maintained active relations with, the Karluks and other tribes occupying the Tian Shan region.

It is reasonable to assume that already in this era, due to the mobility of nomadic tribes and the intensity of assimilation processes, some Yenisei Kyrgyz gradually moved southward and ended up within the Tian Shan.

A number of Kyrgyz also penetrated the northern part of Eastern Turkestan and likely the Tian Shan during the 10th century, at a time when the Kyrgyz were pushed out of Mongolia by the Kara-Khitans.

Finally, at the beginning of the 15th century, the pagan Oirats or Kalmyks—southern neighbors of the Yenisei Kyrgyz—invaded the eastern part of the Tian Shan, which was then occupied by the Mongols.

It is quite possible that among them were some Kyrgyz tribes who, for various reasons, remained in the Tian Shan after the main body of the Kalmyks returned to their homeland in the 1470s.

Both before and after this, under Mongol rule, various tribal migrations took place continuously. It is therefore reasonable to assume that among the population of the Tian Shan, there was a presence of numerous Kyrgyz tribes.

It is no coincidence that the name of the unknown tribe Bekrin or Mekrin—one of whose members was the mother of the Mongol khan Qaidu, who ruled in the second half of the 13th century in the Tian Shan region—coincides with the name of the Kyrgyz clan Bagrin.

Rashid al-Din wrote of this mountain tribe that they were ‘neither Mongols nor Uighurs.’

The physical type of the Kyrgyz, and the significant presence among them of clan and tribal names such as Mongoldor, Mogol, and Mongush, point to very close ethnogenetic ties between the Kyrgyz and Mongols.

The composition of the Kyrgyz tribes formed in the Tian Shan included, as a very significant component, not only remnants of previously residing tribes, groups of Yenisei Kyrgyz, and Mongols, but also Altaic tribes closely related to the Kyrgyz.

This is supported by the presence of completely analogous clan and tribal names among both the Kyrgyz and the tribes of the Sayan-Altai region, as well as the considerable linguistic proximity between modern Kyrgyz and Oirat (Altai) languages.”

— S.M. Abramzon, Essay on the Culture of the Kyrgyz People

DNA 🧬

Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin, Nature

“Historically, ancient Kyrgyz were considered to be the Yenisei Kyrgyz that may perhaps be concerned with the Tashtyk culture.

They lived on the upper reaches of Yenisei River in the south of the Minusinsk Basin and dispersed among many stock-raising peoples of the Sayano-Altai from the 6th to 13th century.

(KAF supplement:

Alexander Bernshtam: “The first records of the ancient Gyan-Gunn-Kyrgyz date back to approximately 209-201 BCE, when, according to Chinese chronicles, the Hunnic chieftain Modu Shanyu subdued several tribes, among them the Dinlins and the Gégūn (aka Gyan-Gunn or Jyan-Kün)

Sima Qian Records of the Grand Historian Vol. 110  "後北服渾庾、屈射、丁零、鬲昆、薪犁之國。…… 是時漢初定中國，……。" translation: "Later in the North [Modun] subdued the Hunyu, Qushe, Dingling, Gyan-Gun, and Xinli nations. [...] It was when the Han had just stabilized the Central Region, [...]. [i.e. 202 BCE]")

Notably, according to the records of Xin Tangshu, the majority of the Jyan -Gun (Kyrgyz) people are “all tall and big and have red hair, white faces, and green eyes”and the ones with “dark hair and eyes”claimed to be the descendants of Li Ling, grandson of the famous general Li Guang during the Han Dynasty.

The Kyrgyz are an admixed population between the East and the West. Different patterns have been observed in the patrilineal gene pool of the Kyrgyz.

Extremely low Y-diversity and the presence of a high-frequency 68.9% Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1-M17 (a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker are striking features of Kyrgyz populations in central Asia.

Moreover, recent genome-wide SNP study on Central Asian Kyrgyz by Petr Triska et al. suggested that high levels of shared IBD blocks in Central Asian Kyrgyz and other Altaic-speaking populations from Southern Siberia (Tuva, Buryat) and North Asia (Yakut), support their recently formed common genetic core in Southern Siberia.

As reported in the other Kyrgyz populations, the highest frequencies of Haplogroup R1a1a-M17+, M198+, M458−were also present in the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz (Urumchi Kyrgyz: 56% and Kizilsu Kyrgyz: 46%).

This haplogroup generally was frequent in a wide geographic area extending from South Asia to Central East Europe and South Siberia. Zerjal et al. postulated that it could be the most evident male genetic legacy of the “Kurgan Culture”population expansion.

We further tested the diagnostic markers R1a1a1b1a-Z282 and R1a1a1b2-Z93.

Of the 143 Kyrgyz R1a1a-M17+, M198+, M458−samples, more than 90% were assigned to Central Asian lineage R1a1a1b2-Z93 whereas the rest belonged to European lineage R1a1a1b1a-Z282.

Among the Asian R1a1a1b2-Z93 lineages, R1a1a1b2a2-Z2125 is quite common in Kyrgyzstan and Afghan Pashtuns (40%), and less frequent in other Afghan ethnic groups and some Caucasus and Iran populations (10%).

Notably, the basal lineage R1a1a1b2-Z93* is commonly distributed in the South Siberian Altai region of Russia.

Three competing hypotheses have been debated regarding the origins of the Kyrgyz:

•an upper Yenisei River (Minusinsk basin) origin, advocated by Russian academician G.F. Miller (1705–1783) in his History of Siberia

•a Tenir Too Mountains origin, which holds that the Kyrgyz were the indigenous Central Asian,

•and a multiple independent origin, suggesting that the Kyrgyz consisted of at least two ethnic groups of Central Asian.

In this study, a set of 108 Y chromosome SNPs and 17 or 24 Y chromosome microsatellites was employed to trace the genetic components of the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz paternal gene pool.

We found that the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz were characterized by the presence of two major Y chromosome haplogroups (R1a1a1b2a2a-Z2125 and C2b1a3a1-F3796).

Haplogroup R1a1a1b2a2a-Z2125 was the most common lineage Kyrgyz. It was frequent in several Central Asian populations.

The oldest specimen (SVP27, Utyevka VI, kurgan 7, grave 1 [2200–1900 BCE]) of this lineage originated from the Early Bronze Age Potapovka culture (closely related to the Sintashta culture) site from south of the Sok River in the Samara oblast, Russia.

According to the published ancient DNA data, we found that, in Middle Bronze Age, Haplogroup R1a1a1b2a2a- Z2125 was mainly found in Sintashta culture population from Kamennyi Ambar 5 cemetery, western Siberia, in Fedorovo type of the Andronovo culture or Karasuk culture population from Minusinsk Basin, southern Siberia, and in Andronovo culture populations from Maitan, Ak-Moustafa, Aktogai, Kazakh Mys, Satan, Oy-Dzhaylau III, Karagash 2, Dali, and Zevakinskiy stone fence,

Kazakhstan.

Subsequently, from Late Bronze Age to Medieval Age, this lineage was observed among Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Hungary and Moldova, except for Russia and Kazakhstan.

Notably, in Tianshan area of Kyrgyzstan, the lineage was seen in Scythian_Saka and Hun people at 259-93 BCE and 286–406 CE, respectively.

Therefore, on basis of the spatial and temporal distribution of haplogroup R1a1a1b2a2a-Z2125, some Kyrgyz might have a Siberian origin.”

-Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin; Sun, Chang; Cui, Wei; Xu, Yi-ran; Meng, Hai-liang; Shi, Mei-sen; Zhu, Bo-feng; Li, Hui (March 2022), "Dual origins of the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz: the admixture of Bronze age Siberian and Medieval Niru'un Mongolian Y chromosomes", Nature

Igor Rozhansky, Yokkaichi Research Center, Tokyo, Japan

“The land of present-day Kyrgyzstan, inhabited at the turn of the era by Saka and Wusun tribes, was conquered by the Yenisei Kyrgyz (Khakas) in the 8th century AD. Since Kyrgyzstan is a natural mountain fortress of the Tian Shan, it is an island-like community, similar to the Lithuanian Tatars, with high genetic inertia and limited external influences.

Essentially, all four groups are Scythians: the Saka-Scythians, the Wusun-Scythians, the Yenisei Kyrgyz-Scythians, and the Lithuanian Tatar-Scythians.”*

— Igor Rozhansky, Yokkaichi Research Center, Tokyo, Japan, “Lithuanian Tatars: DNA Ancestors Traced to the Eurasian Steppes”

Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang, University of Toronto, Canada

“The Xin Tangshu states that “their (the Kyrgyz) language and script were identical to those of the Uyghurs” (其文字言語，與回鶻正同) (Xin Tangshu 217b.6148). It also notes the distinct physical phenotype of the Kyrgyz.

The Xin Tangshu reports: “The people are all tall and large, with red hair, fair skin, and green eyes” (人皆長大，赤髮、皙面、綠瞳) (Xin Tangshu 217b.6147).

According to the Xin Tangshu, the neighboring tribe of Boma (駁馬) or Bila (弊剌) resembled the Kyrgyz, although their language was different (Xin Tangshu 217b.6146).

This may indicate that the Kyrgyz were originally a non-Turkic people who became Turkicized during the Kök Türks period, at least partially through intertribal marriages. The Xin Tangshu states that “the Kök Türks sent women as wives to [the leaders of the Kyrgyz]” (突厥以女妻其酋豪) (Xin Tangshu 217b.6149).

Regarding Aré (阿熱), the ruler of the Kyrgyz who destroyed the Uyghur Khaganate, his wife was a Karluk woman, and his mother was a Türgesh (Xin Tangshu 217b.6149). Moreover, the Xin Tangshu states that the Kyrgyz “mixed with the Dingling” (其種雜丁零) (Xin Tangshu 217b.6146–47).

Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (defined by mutation Z93), is the genetic marker of the Indo-European pastoralists, who migrated from modern-day Ukraine to modern-day Iran, India, the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region, the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia during the Bronze Age.

Naturally, R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), occurs at high frequency among the Turkic peoples now residing in the Yenisei River and the Altai Mountains regions in Russia.

Compared to the Tuvinians, the Khakass (whose name was created by the Soviets from Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), a Chinese name for Kyrgyz, since they were regarded as descending from the Kyrgyz have noticeably higher percentages of R1a1 (35.2%) and much lower percentages of haplogroups C (1.1%) and Q (4%). However, N is also the most prevalent haplogroup (50%) of the Khakass (Gubina et al. 2013: 339; Shi et al. 2013)

As for the Altaians, the Altai-Kizhi (southern Altaians) are characterised by a high percentage of R1a1 (50%) and low to moderate percentages of C2 (20%), Q (16.7%) and N (4.2%) (Dulik et al. 2012: 234).

The major differences between the Khakass and the southern Altaians are the lower frequency of haplogroup N (in another study, haplogroup N is found at high frequency (32%) among the Altaians in general: see Gubina et al. 2013: 329, 339) and the higher frequencies of haplogroups C2 and Q among the latter.

The descent of the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) of the Tien Shan Mountains region (Kyrgyzstan) from the Yenisei Kyrgyz is debated among historians.

However, among the modern Turkic peoples, the former have the highest percentage of R1a1 (over 60%). Since the West Eurasian physiognomy of the Yenisei Kyrgyz recorded in the Xin Tangshu was in all likelihood a reflection of their Eurasian Indo-European marker R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), one may conjecture that the Tien Shan Kyrgyz received their R1a1 marker from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. That is, the former are descended from the latter.

The other Y-chromosome haplogroups found among the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) are C2 (12~20%), O (0~15%) and N (0~4.5%).50 The lack of haplogroup Q among the Qirghiz (Kyrgyz) mostly distinguishes them from the Altaians.

During the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, the Yenisei River region was inhabited by Indo-Europeans. The dna study of 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from the middle of the second millennium bc to the fourth century ad shows that the Yenisei pastoralists mostly belonged to haplogroup R1a1 (Keyser et al. 2009: 401)

The high frequency of R1a1 among the modern-day Kyrgyz and Altaians may thus prove that they are descended from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. In addition, this may explain the reason why medieval Chinese histories depict the Kyrgyz as possessing West Eurasian physiognomy.

The Y-chromosomes of the Kök Türks have not been studied. After the collapse of the Second Türk Khaganate in 745 ce, the Kök Türks became dispersed and it is difficult to identify their modern descendants.

If they were indeed descended from the Eastern Scythians aka Saka (Suo) or related to the Kyrgyz, as the Zhoushu states (Zhoushu 50.908), the Ashina (royal Türkic dynasty, possibly related to the Turko-Jewish Khazar Khaganate, according to Peter B. Golden of Rutgers University) may have belonged to the R1a1 lineage.” - Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang, University of Toronto, Canada, “A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples.

Volkov V.G., Kharkov V.N., Stepanov V.A., Russian Academy of Science

“The Southern Altaians and the Tian Shan Kyrgyz are descendants of close relatives of the Yenisei Andronovans, most likely the descendants of the Altai Andronovans.

It is well known that linguists and ethnographers have long established a close linguistic and ethnic kinship between the Kyrgyz and the Southern Altaians.

Some historians believe that the Kyrgyz and the Southern Altaians once belonged to a single community.

The haplotypes of the carriers of the Andronovo and Tagar cultures show the greatest similarity with the haplotypes of the Southern Altaians and the Tian Shan Kyrgyz.

It is also highly probable that the spread of Indo-Iranian languages in this region is linked specifically to the R-L342.2 subclade.

At the same time, there is virtually no doubt that representatives of this subclade formed the core of the Indo-Aryans who ‘invaded’ India approximately 3,500 years ago.

Preliminary results indicate the following: while the distribution range of the SNP marker L342.2 is significant, it remains confined within Asia.

In Europe, this SNP marker is practically absent, except among populations of clear Asian origin, such as Ashkenazi Jews, as well as Lithuanian and Volga Tatars.

This SNP marker is more frequently found among the following population groups: Arabs (primarily those living on the border with Iraq), Turks, Pakistanis, North and South Indians, Afghans, Southern Altaians, Tian Shan Kyrgyz, and Bashkirs.

According to most researchers specializing in Aryan studies, the semi-nomadic pastoralist tribes of the Srubnaya and Andronovo cultural-historical communities represent the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.

These tribes are possibly the legendary Aryans who, in the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE, entered ancient Iran, crossed the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, and invaded the Indus Valley.

The modal 15-marker haplotype of one of the Southern Altaian groups within haplogroup R1a1a, as presented in O.A. Balaganskaya’s study (Balaganskaya, 2011: 22), fully coincides with the modal haplotype of the most numerous R1a1a cluster among the Tian Shan Kyrgyz.”

— Volkov, Kharkov, Stepanov, Russian Academy of Science, “The Andronovo and Tagar Cultures in Light of Genetic Data.”

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