The Tofalar (also Karagas or Tofa; Тофалары, тофа (tofa) in Russian) people are a Turkic people who live in Tofalariya, in the southwestern part of Nizhneudinsky District, Irkutsk Oblast of Russia. The Tofalar population is highly mixed with Russians due to the presence of Russian settlers and high rates of intermarriage.
Prior to Soviet rule, the Tofalar led a nomadic lifestyle in the taiga, engaging in reindeer husbandry and hunting. Afterwards, they were resettled by the Soviet government and forced to adopt sedentarism and were discouraged from practicing hunting and shamanism. According to the 2010 census, there were 762 Tofalar in Russia.
Etymology
Tofalar is an endonym and contains the Turkic plural suffix -lar, thus translating to "Tofas"; Tofalar means "people of the deer." During the Old Turkic period, the ancestors of the Tofalar underwent Turkification, adopting a Turkic language
P. S. Pallas and J. G. Georgi initially regarded the Tofalar as a Samoyedic people, and that they had only adopted their Turkic language from the Tuvans in the 19th century. The Tofalar eventually moved from their homeland on the slopes of the Sayan Mountains up north to their current location during the 17th century. The Tofalar were required to pay the yasaq, and every gunbearer had to pay a fixed number of sable furs, though this amount was often arbitrarily increased. They were converted to Christianity early on but continued to adhere to shamanism.
Before the Soviet takeover, Tofalar mainly bartered with Russians, Buryats, and Mongol traders, acquiring saddles of Buryat and Mongol manufacture, hunting knives, axes, felt saddlecloths, harnesses, treated sheepskin, and diverse textiles and ornaments.
Culture
Subsistence
The Tofalar were traditionally nomadic, and their economy centered around reindeer husbandry, trapping, and hunting. They lived in traditional conical tents (chum), which were made of animal hide in the winter and birch bark (polotnishch) in the summer. Traditional Tofalar music instruments include the chadygan, a stringed instrument like the gusli, and the charty-hobus, which is similar to balalaika; music was played to accompany songs and dances at festivals.