Altai people
Алтайлар (Altailar) Алтай-кижи (Altai-kiji) | |
|---|---|
Top: Altai people in 1911. Bottom: Altai people in the Altai Republic and neighboring areas | |
| Total population | |
| 83,326 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Russia | 83,125 |
| Mongolia and China | several thousand |
| Kazakhstan | 201 |
| Languages | |
| Altai languages (Northern or Southern), Russian | |
| Religion | |
| up to 86% "Altai Faith" (modern synthesis of Burkhanism, Shamanism, other indigenous religions), other Russian Orthodoxy, Baptist Protestantism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kyrgyz, Teleuts, and other Turkic peoples, especially other Siberian Turkic peoples Oirats | |
The Altai people (Altay: Алтай-кижи, romanized: Altay-kiji, pronounced [ɑltɑj-kidʒi]), also the Altaians (Altay: Алтайлар, romanized: Altaylar, pronounced [ɑltɑjlɑr]), are a Turkic ethnic group of indigenous peoples of Siberia mainly living in the Altai Republic, Russia. Several thousand of the Altaians also live in Mongolia (Altai Mountains) and China (Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang) but are not officially recognized as a distinct group and listed under the name "Oirats" as a part of the Mongols, as well as in Kazakhstan where they number around 200. For alternative ethnonyms see also Tele, Black Tatar, and Oirats. During the Northern Yuan dynasty, they were ruled in the administrative area known as Telengid Province.