Chulyms


The Chulyms, also Chulym Tatars, are a Turkic people in the Tomsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia.

History

The Chulym Tatars first came to the Chulym River when they were driven from their homes in the Sibir Khanate by the forces of Ermak Timofeevich.
They used to live along the middle and lower reaches of the Chulym River. The Russians used to call them the Chulymian Tatars. The Chulyms appeared in the 17th - 18th century as a result of mixing of some of the Turkic groups, who had migrated to the East after the fall of the Siberia Khanate, partially Teleuts and Yenisei Kyrgyz with the small groups of Selkups and Kets. The Chulyms were not a nomadic tribe. They adopted farming and cattle breeding from the Russian peasants in that area. Most of the Chulyms' descendants blended with the Khakas and Russians.
According to the 2002 census, there were 656 Chulyms in Russia. They speak Chulym-Turkic language known as Ös and adhere to Russian Orthodoxy mixed with their original Shamanist beliefs.