Eugene Schuyler, 1876 – “The Kyrgyzes are a nomadic people, divided into two distinct groups: the Kyrgyzes (Kaisaks) and the Kara-Kyrgyzes or Buruts.
The latter are considered the true Kyrgyzes—mountain dwellers, wild and rugged—living around Lake Issyk-Kul, in the Semirechye region, and in the mountainous ranges of Kokand.
The Kyrgyz-Kaisaks are already a mixture with Russian Cossacks and related Mongol tribes; the Cossacks themselves are also a blend of Russian and Tatar free communities.
Today, the Kyrgyzes live both in the Ural region and in the green steppes of the Kara-Kum (Black Sands) between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. They migrate across the Syr Darya and travel as far south as Khiva.
In their green steppe, they have developed irrigation by digging small canals that flow into a large and deep channel. This fact indicates that Kyrgyz families and clans reside in their steppes even during winter, showing a somewhat settled way of life, while others never leave their homeland at all. However, the majority still continue to migrate for the winter from the Kara-Kum across the Syr Darya.
The Kyrgyz-Kaisaks speak one of the purest dialects of the Tatar language, although their original tribal origins have significantly changed—even physically—due to the incorporation of many foreign elements, particularly Mongolic ones.”
– Turkestan: Notes on a Journey Through Russian Turkestan, Kokand, Bukhara, and Kulja by Eugene Schuyler, honorary member of the American Geographical Society and the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, London, 1876.
What does DNA science reveal about the origins of the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs? 🧬
Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang, University of Toronto, Canada
Kyrgyz
“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.
Kazakhs
Haplogroup C2 (formerly known as C3) reaches its highest frequency among the Kazakhs (66~73.7% among the Kazakhs of Kazakhstan, 75.47% among the Kazakhs of Xinjiang (Zhong et al. 2010: figure 1), 78% among the Kazakhs of Karakalpakstan (Balaresque et al. 2015: supplementary figure 1) and 59.7% among the Kazakhs of the Altai Republic in Russia (Dulik et al. 2011, 2–3), whose ancestors include the Qipchaqs and other Turkic groups, and the Mongols, among others.
C2 is the major haplogroup of the Mongols, Kazakhs, and Evenks, who belong to the proposed Altaic language family (for the Evenks, see Pakendorf et al. 2007: 1017, table 5: C-M217 and its subclades C-M48 and C-M86 correspond to C2; for the Mongols and Kazakhs, see Wells et al. 2001: 10245, table 1: M130 and M48 correspond to haplogroup C2; Zerjal et al. 2002: 474: haplogroups 10 and 36 correspond to haplogroup C2).
Haplogroup C2 is also the main paternal clan among the Buryats (see Kharkov et al. 2014: 183), who are the Mongolic people”
- 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’
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