Oroch people

Not to be confused with the Oroqen people of China or the Orok people of Sakhalin Island.

Orochs
Alternative names:
Nani

Total population
(1,000 (est.))
Regions with significant populations
Russia Khabarovsk Krai: 426 Magadan Oblast: 126 Sakhalin oblast: 42 Primorsky krai: 24	596
Ukraine	288 (2001)
Languages
Oroch language, Russian
Religion
Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy, Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Ainu, Nivkh, Itelmen, Evens , Koryaks, Evenks, Ulchs, Nanai, Orok, Udege

History of the Priamurye region (also including Heilongjiang, Amur Oblast and southern part of Khabarovsk Krai)
Sushen
Mohe • Shiwei
Balhae
Khitan
Liao dynasty • Daurs
Jin dynasty (1115–1234) • Nivkh
Eastern Jin (1215–1234)
Yuan dynasty • Evenks
Yeren Jurchens • Solon Khanate
Qing dynasty • Nanais • Ulchs
Russian Exploration • Negidals
Manchus–Cossacks wars (1652–1689)
Nerchinsk
Government-General of Eastern Siberia
Aigun
Li–Lobanov Treaty
Siberian Regional Government
Far Eastern Republic
Far Eastern Oblast
Soviet invasion of Manchuria (1945)
Sino-Soviet border conflict
Far Eastern Federal District

Orochs (Russian О́рочи), Orochons, or Orochis (self-designation: Nani) are a small people of Russia that speak the Oroch (Orochon) language of the Southern group of Tungusic languages. According to the 2002 census there were 686 Orochs in Russia. According to the 2010 census there were 596 Orochs in Russia.

Orochs traditionally settled in the southern part of the Khabarovsk Krai, Russia and on the Amur and Kopp rivers. In the 19th century, some of them migrated to Sakhalin. In the early 1930s, the Orochi National District was created, but was cancelled shortly thereafter "due to lack of native population".

Because the people never had a written language, they were educated in the Russian language. Their language, Oroch, is on the verge of extinction. They follow Shamanism, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Buddhism.

Orochis placed near the Sea of Japan on an 1851 map

External links

• The Orochis in The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
• Ethnologue link