Tofalars

The Tofalars are a Turkic people of the Siberian branch living in the Eastern Sayan Mountains of Irkutsk Oblast. For centuries they herded reindeer and lived by hunting and the fur trade. In summer their villages can be reached only by air.

Tofa is close to Tuvan and is critically endangered. The people number fewer than a thousand, but textbooks have been prepared for schools to keep the language and culture alive.