The Mongolic peoples are a collection of East Asian-origin ethnic groups in East Asia, North Asia, and Eastern Europe, who speak Mongolic languages. Their ancestors are referred to as Proto-Mongols. The largest contemporary Mongolic ethnic group is the Mongols. Mongolic-speaking people, although distributed in a wide geographical area, show a high genetic affinity to each other, and display continuity with ancient Northeast Asians.
List of ethnic groups
Contemporary ethnic groups
Ethnonym Population Primary regions Religion Mongols 10,000,000 Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China), various Mongolian autonomous divisions (China) Tibetan Buddhism, Tengrism (Mongolian shamanism) Dongxiangs 775,000 Dongxiang Autonomous County, Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County (China) Sunni IslamBuryats 556,000 Buryatia, Agin-Buryat Okrug, Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug (Russia) Tibetan Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism (Mongolian shamanism)Monguor 281,928 Qinghai, Gansu (China) Tibetan Buddhism, TengrismTorghut202,000Xinjiang (China), Kalmykia (Russia), Khovd (Mongolia)Tibetan Buddhism, Mongolian shamanismKalmyks 200,000 Kalmykia (Russia) Tibetan BuddhismDaurs 132,000 Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, Meilisi Daur District (China) Tibetan Buddhism, Tengrism (shamanism)Khatso 60,000 Tonghai County (China) Tibetan BuddhismSogwo Arig 40,000 Qinghai (China) Tibetan Buddhism, Bon Sichuan Mongols 29,000 Muli Tibetan Autonomous County, Yanyuan County (China) Tibetan BuddhismBonan 20,000 Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County (China) Sunni Islam, Tibetan BuddhismHamnigans 10,000 Zabaykalsky Krai (Russia), Northeastern Mongolia, Hulunbuir (China) Tibetan Buddhism, shamanismSart Kalmyks12,000Issyk-Kul Region (Kyrgyzstan)Sunni IslamYugurs 6,000 Sunan Yugur Autonomous County (China) Tibetan Buddhism, TengrismKangjia 2,000 Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (China) Sunni IslamMoghols2,000Herat (Afghanistan)Sunni IslamTomaoYang Deliang. "Re-investigating Tuomao People" (托茂再考), Lanzhou University, 2020. Available at: https://rcenw.lzu.edu.cn/c/202003/787.html. Accessed 15 July 2025.500Qinghai, Xinjiang (China)Sunni IslamKaryms2Buryatia (Russia)Orthodox Christianity, Tibetan BuddhismGurans?Zabaykalsky Krai, Buryatia (Russia)Orthodox Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism
In addition, Mongolized Soyots live in Buryatia. Their population is 3,600 people. Soyots are one of the indigenous minority peoples of Russia. They are descendants of Turkified Samoyeds. At the same time, a number of orientalists (Zhukovskaia, Nanzatov, Baldaev and others) consider modern Soyots as a sub-ethnos within the Buryat people: "... here the ethnic composition of the population was formed, which remains relatively stable to this day - Bulagats, Khongodors, Soyots, who (some earlier, others later) became subethnic groups of the Buryats."Natalia Zhukovskaia (2005)."Бурятские шаманки на международной конференции (тункинский опыт, июль 2004 г.) // Женщина и возрождение шаманизма.". Москва: Российская академия наук. Институт этнологии и антропологии имени Н. Н. Миклухо-Маклая. Page 129. In Russian: "... здесь сформировался тот этнический состав населения, который относительно стабильно сохраняется до сегодняшнего дня - булагаты, хонгодоры, сойоты, которые (одни раньше, другие позже) вошли как субэтносы в состав бурят."
Ethnic groups of Mongolian origin
Following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, many Mongol elites assimilated into their Turkic subjects, adopting Islam and Turkic culture while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions. This led to the formation of a new Turco-Mongol elite. The Mughals are one group which descend from these elites. They are the descendants of the Barlas (as noted by Sabitov, the Mughals associate their origins with the Barlas tribe) and other Mongol tribes (Rudenko mentions such tribes as the Kauchin, Arlat, Jalair, and Barlas). They currently speak Indo-Aryan languages such as Urdu.
The Mongols took part in the ethnogenesis of the Hazaras."Хазарейцы • Большая российская энциклопедия - электронная версия". bigenc.ru. In Russian: "Упоминаются с 16 в. До 19 в. говорили на монг. языке." The high frequency of haplogroup C2-M217 is consistent with the purported Mongolian origin of many of the Hazaras.Жабагин М. К. (2017). Анализ связи полиморфизма Y-хромосомы и родоплеменной структуры в казахской популяции. Moscow. p. 71. In Russian: "...за счет высокой частоты гаплогруппы С2-М217, что согласуется с монгольским происхождением хазарейцев." Modern Hazaras speak Hazaragi, one of the dialects of the Dari/Persian language. Same happened to the Aimaq people who purported their descendancy through Borjigin and Barlas clans.
Historical ethnic groups
Xiongnu Donghu Xianbei — founders, in the 1st century CE, of the first Mongolic empire, namely Xianbei state Wuhuan Rouran Yujiulü Duan Qara'unas Yuwen Kumo Xi Murong Tuyuhun Tuoba Qifu Tufa Shiwei Didouyu Khitan Yelü Zubu
General characteristics
Languages
Languages of the Mongolic peoples belong to the Mongolic language family. The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken in Eastern Europe (Kalmykia), Central Asia, North Asia, and East Asia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongol residents of Inner Mongolia and Buryatia, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.
Religions The Mongolic peoples are predominantly followers of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1576, the Gelug Tibetan school which was founded by the half-Mongol Je Tsongkhapa became the state religion of Mongolia. Some groups such as Dongxiangs and Bonan people adopted Sunni Islam, as did Moghols in Afghanistan and Mughals in India. Among a part of the population, the ethnic religion, namely Tengrism (Mongolian shamanism) is preserved. A small number of Christians emerged under the influence of the Russian Church and Western missionaries.
Mongolian shamanism, more broadly called the Mongolian folk religion, or occasionally Tengerism, as refers to the animistic and shamanic indigenous religion that has been practiced in Mongolia and its surrounding areas (including Buryatia and Inner Mongolia), as well as among Daur and other peoples, at least since the age of recorded history. In the earliest known stages, it was intricately tied to all other aspects of social life and to the tribal organization of Mongolian society. Along the way, it has become influenced by and mingled with Buddhism. Tengrism was transformed into a monotheistic religion only at the imperial level within aristocratic circles.
Culture
The Culture of Mongolia has been heavily influenced by the Mongol nomadic way of life and shows similarities to other East Asian and Central Asian cultures. The various Mongolic ethnic groups share a highly similar culture and traditions, but have specific differences in clothing styles and cuisine. Although Mongolian traditional clothing (deel) has changed little since the days of the empire, there have been some changes in styles which distinguish modern Mongolian dress from historic costume. Each tribe or clan has its own deel design distinguished by cut, color, and trimming. Mongolian cuisine is primarily based on meat and dairy, with some regional variations. The most important public festivals are the Naadam. A Naadam involves horse racing, wrestling, and archery competitions. For families, the most important festival is Tsagaan Sar (Lunar New Year), which is roughly equivalent to the Chinese New Year and usually falls into January or February. Mongolia has a very old musical tradition. Key traditional elements are throat-singing, the Morin Khuur (horse head fiddle) and other string instruments, and several types of songs. Mongolian melodies are typically characterized by pentatonic harmonies and long end notes.
Origin The ethnogenesis of Mongolic peoples is largely linked with the expansion of Ancient Northeast Asians. They subsequently came into contact with other groups, notably Sinitic peoples to their South and Western Steppe Herders to their far West. The Mongolians pastoralist lifestyle, may in part be derived from the Western Steppe Herders, but without much geneflow between these two groups, suggesting cultural transmission. Juha Janhunen argues that Mongolic languages originated in Western Manchuria,: "There is, indeed, reason to assume that Mongolia is primarily the source region of the Turkic language family, while the Mongolic homeland was located further to the east, in western Manchuria." and split early on from the Para-Mongolic languages such as Khitan and Tabgach when Mongolic speakers (likely the Shiwei recorded in historical annals) spread from their original homeland in the West Liao River basin to Northwestern Manchuria, near the historically-attested Mongol homeland. Furthermore, Altaic peoples including Mongolic speakers were found to have primary Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) Neolithic ancestry from the Amur region, supporting a theory of their origins from the Amur and surrounding regions.
Genetics Mongols and other Mongolic-speaking groups, show high genetic affinity to each other, followed by genetic proximity to Central and East/Southeast Asian peoples. The analysis of 175 Mongolic samples, representing 6 ethnic groups, incorporating results of the 1000 Genomes Project panel, revealed genetic homogeneity between different Mongolic groups, and that Northeast, East, and Southeast Asian populations are closer to each other than to other Eurasian populations.
Maternal lineages Mongolic peoples maternal lineages are primarily shared with East Asians (54%) and Southeast Asians (28%), while around 14% are shared with Europeans and other West Eurasian populations. The remaining 4% are distributed throughout Eurasia and not associated with a specific group.
A study based on mtDNA noted that ancient populations in Mongolia had a mixed West and East Eurasian origin, while modern Mongolians are characterized by substantially less West Eurasian maternal ancestry. It is suggested that many West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups in modern Mongolians are believed to have arrived around 2,500-5,000 years ago, or the Mongolian Bronze Age. A smaller number arrived in the early Iron Age. Research by Rogers, et al. provides evidence that some West Eurasian maternal lineages had made it to Mongolia east of the Altai mountains prior to the Bronze Age. The K hg may represent an ancient addition from early western foragers that had intermixed with early agriculturalists (Spengler, 2015), similar with the probable origins of the C hg found in the ancient Ukraine (Nikitin et al., 2012). The J1c8a haplotype might be from a regional polymorphism that is linked to migrating populations after the expansion of agriculturalism from the Middle East, perhaps associated with the development of caprine pastoralism that reached southeast Kazakhstan by at least 2800 BCE (Hermes et al 2020)." During the medieval period, a continuous increase in East Asian mitochondrial lineages was detected, which these authors attribute to Genghis Khan's Pax Mongolica.
Paternal lineages