| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 10,000[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia NortheasternMongolia Hulunbuir, China | |
| Languages | |
| Khamnigan Old Barag dialect ofEvenki | |
| Religion | |
| Mongolian shamanism, Tibetan Buddhism[3][4][5] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mongolic peoples,Evenks |
TheKhamnigan,Hamnigan Mongols, orTungus Evenki,[6] are an ethnic subgroup ofMongolizedEvenks.Khamnigan is theBuryat–Mongolian term for all Ewenkis. In the early 16th century, the Evenks of Transbaikalia or Khamnigans were tributary to theKhalkha.[7] They who lived aroundNerchinsk and the Aga steppe faced both Cossack demands for tribute andKhori-Buriats trying to occupy their pastures. Most of them came under the Cossack rule and enrolled the Cossack regiments in theSelenge valley. The Khori Buriats occupied most of the Aga steppe and forced the Ewenkis to flee to theQing Dynasty.
After 1880 Russia's Khamnigan moved to semi nomadic herding of cattle, sheep, camels and horses. Some time after 1918 the Evenks, along with their Buriat neighbors, fled over the border into Mongolia and Hulun Buir, establishing the current Khamnigan communities there. The Khamnigan of Mongolia, numbering 300 households, are scattered among the Buriats and speak only the Khamnigan dialect ofBuriat language. They live around the Yeruu Lake,Dornod andKhentii provinces as well asMöngönmorit ofTöv Province.
Another community migrated toInner Mongolia in China. They still use a language heavily influenced by Russian and attach symbolic importance to bread.[6]
There areapproximately 535 Hamnigans in Mongolia andapproximately 3,000 Hamnigans inSelenge Province, Mongolia. Not all Hamnigans are of Tungusic origin; there are some Mongols among the Hamnigans. In China, the Khamnigan (around 2,500) are classified as Evenks.
| Sino-Tibetan |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austroasiatic | |||||||||||
| Austronesian | |||||||||||
| Hmong-Mien | |||||||||||
| Mongolic | |||||||||||
| Kra–Dai | |||||||||||
| Tungusic | |||||||||||
| Turkic | |||||||||||
| Indo-European | |||||||||||
| Others | |||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||
Underlined: the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups ranked by population in their language families according to2020 census | |||||||||||
