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The Khakas people are the Turkic people of Southern Siberia living on the left bank of the Yenisei river of Khakassk-Minusinsk basin. The Khakas people are the titular nationality of the Republic of Khakassia - a unit of the Russian Federation. The Republic stretches for 460 km s from ihe north to the south and for 200 kms from the west to the east. The Republic of Khakassia borders on the Krasnoyarsk territory, the Republics of Tuva and Altai and Kemerovsk region. The climate of the Republic is temperate continental with a cold winter and a hot summer. Sharp change in temperature, air and precipitation is characteristic of the region. The nature of Khakassia is unique in its beauty and variety. There are wonderful alpine meadows and wilderness, the mountainous taiga, the endless steppes with balmy refreshing air. Two thirds of the territory of Khakassia is occupied by the mountains. The Kuznetsk AI a tau is in the western part of the Republic, the highest peaks of which are 1,700 to 2,000 metres high. The peak called Verkhny Zub (or Podnebesny) is 2,178 metres high. The Zapadny Sayan forms the southern border of Khakassia. Its axial mountain ridge Sayansk is 2,500 metres above the sea level. There is vast hollow land with rich soil at the foot of the mountains.
Modern Khakassia is a multi-ethnic region where more than twenty ethnic groups live. The major ethnic groups are the Russians and the Khakas people. According to the census of 2002, the population of the Khakas ethnic group is 75,000 in number, 70,000 of them lived in the Republic. The Khakas people are divided into four sub-ethnic groups: Kachintsy KJiaash, Kfutas), Sagaitsy (Sagai), Kyzyltsy (Khyzijl) and Koibaly (Khoihal). The latter are practically assimilated with the Kachinisy. In 19?7 theethnic name "a Khakas" was borrowed from the Chinese manuscripts to mark the indigenous population of the Khakas - Minusinsk basin, the term KJìiagtìs denoted the medieval population living in the valley of the Central Yenisei. The term Khiagas recorded in the Chinese sources of Tang dynasty (9th -10* centuries) as conveyed the name of the Yenisei Kurgises
At present the Khakas people arebilingual, speaking both the Khakas and Russian languages. The Khakas language belongs to Uighur-Oguzsk...