Overview
Chinese Name: 鄂温克族
English Name: The Evenki nationality
Languages: Evenki language 鄂温克语, Chinese 汉语
Total population: 3.0*104 (China mainland 2022)
Distribution: Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang
Brief introduction
The Evenki nationality 鄂温克族 are an ethnic group in Northeast Asia. They mainly live in Siberia, Russia, and the provinces of Inner Mongolia 内蒙古 and Heilongjiang 黑龙江 in China. There are also a few distributions in Mongolia.
Most of the Evenki people use their own national language, but do not have their own written language. Most of the Evenki herdsmen use the Mongolian language 蒙文, while farmers use Chinese widely. When Evenki people speak, gestures are often used to emphasize the tone. With the development of the times, in modern social life, the Ewenki people generally have mastered the Chinese and Mongolian languages.
The history of the Evenki nationality
The Evenki people are an ancient nation. As early as 2000 BC, the ancestors of the Evenki people were distributed along the shores of Lake Baikal 贝加尔湖, engaged in fishing and hunting. After the middle of the 17th century, due to the invasion of the Russian Empire 沙俄, the Qing Dynasty 清朝 moved the Ewenki to live in the Nen River 嫩江 area in the Greater Khingan Mountains 大兴安岭. In 1732, the Qing Dynasty dispatched more than 1,600 Ewenki soldiers from the Butha area and moved their families to the Hulunbuir 呼伦贝尔 grassland area to be stationed at the border. These people are the Ewenki people of today’s Ewenki Autonomous Banner 鄂温克旗.
The religion of the Evenki nationality
In the past, the Evenki mostly believed in Shamanism 萨满教, and the residents in the pastoral area also believed in Lamaism 藏传佛教. Before 1945, there were still remnants of animal worship, totem worship and ancestor worship. Some clans used birds and bears as totem worship objects.
The Cultures of the Evenki nationality
The architecture of the Evenki nationality 鄂温克族的建筑
Evenki people have no fixed residence in the forest. Their traditional dwellings are similar to the Oroqen people’s “Xie Renzhu 斜仁柱”, about 3 meters high and 4 meters in diameter. This is a conical building, a circular shack made of pine poles, a very simple tent.
Although the Ewenki people do not have a fixed residence, they have a fixed building, which is their warehouse. Their warehouse is very strange. They cut down the tops of two adjacent trees to use as pillars and then built a suspended warehouse with wood. Food, prey, clothes, utensils, etc. are stored in the warehouse. They are never locked. Other hunters can take them freely and return them afterwards.
The diet of the Evenki nationality 鄂温克族的饮食
The Ewenki people living in the virgin forests of the Greater Khingan Mountains in the north completely take meat as their daily staple food. When the Ewenki eat, the whole family sits on the ground around the fire, hangs an iron pot on a tripod, cuts the captured moose or other prey into pieces, and puts them into the boiling pot to rinse and eat.
The Ewenki people seldom eat vegetables, but only collect some wild onions, make pickles, and serve as side dishes. The drink is mainly milk tea, and butter and milk residue are added according to personal taste.
The dancing of the Evenki nationality 鄂温克族的舞蹈
The Ewenki people like simple and lively group dances, and most of them express the production and life of the Ewenki people through women’s dances. The Ewenki people worship swans and use swans as totems. Swan dance is a folk dance of the Ewenki people. The formation of this dance is inseparable from the fact that women like to imitate various gestures of swans and dance for their own entertainment in their spare time.
The rituals of the Evenki nationality 鄂温克族的礼仪
The Ewenki people worship fire like a god. Before drinking and eating meat, they throw a piece of meat into the fire and sprinkle a glass of wine before eating. When the wedding ceremony is held, the newlyweds worship the god of fire. Also, splashing fire with water is not allowed.
The handicraft of the Evenki nationality 鄂温克族的手工艺
Evenki women are good at embroidery, carving, paper cutting and other crafts. The patterns are mostly based on production and life and have a unique national style. Evenki people often go out hunting, which makes them develop the skills of using birch bark and mushrooms as raw materials, cutting various birds and beasts with knives and scissors, and carving beautiful flower patterns on utensils.
In the daily life of the Evenki people, birch bark occupies a certain position. Whether hunting, fishing, or milking, many products are made from birch bark. In addition, many Evenki costumes are also made of birch bark, such as shoes and hats made of birch bark.