Siberian branch
Sakha (Yakut)
The northernmost Turk people, whose culture adapted horse and cattle herding to the subarctic.
Sakhalar / Yakutlar
The Sakha are the largest Indigenous people of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the largest constituent republic of Russia, whose capital is Yakutsk. Their language is the most north-easterly of the Turk languages and is an official language of the republic.
Sakha culture is known for adapting horse and cattle herding to one of the coldest inhabited climates on earth, and for the olonkho — a long heroic epic performed by master storytellers.
- Language
- Sakha (Yakut), a Siberian Turk language with many Mongolic loanwords
- Branch
- Siberian
- Homeland
- The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), north-eastern Siberia (Russia)
- Also living in
- Other regions of Russia
Key dates
13th–15th centuries
Ancestors of the Sakha settle in the middle Lena basin.
17th century
The region is incorporated into the Russian state.
1990s
Yakutia becomes the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Heritage
- Olonkho, the Sakha heroic epic
- Yhyakh, the summer-solstice festival
- The khomus (jaw harp) and horse-culture traditions
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Yakut”