- Tofalar
Tofalars (Тофалары, тофа (tofa) in Russian; formerly known as карагасы, or karagas) are a Turkic-speaking people in the
Irkutsk Oblast inRussia . Their origins,language , andculture are close to those of the easternTuvans-Todzhins . Before theOctober Revolution , the Tofalars used to be engaged innomad icreindeer breeding intaiga andhunting . The Tofalars were resettled by theSoviet government by1932 . Young Tofalars learned Russian at new Soviet-built schools, while cultural traditions such ashunting andshamanism were discouraged or prohibited. According to the2002 census , there were 837 Tofalars inRussia (2,828 in 1926, 476 in 1959, 570 in 1970, 576 in 1979 and 722 in 1989).External links
* [http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/tofalars.shtml The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060127085251/http://sapir.ling.yale.edu/~ASLEP/ASLEP.htm Altai-Sayan Language & Ethnography Project]
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