Oroqen of the Greater Khingan Forest and Their Life of the Hunt

In the great forests of the Greater Khingan mountains, in the far northeast of China near the Amur, live the Oroqen, a small people who were, until living memory, hunters of the taiga. One of the smallest of China’s nationalities, numbering only around nine thousand, they are a Tungusic folk of the northern woods, keepers of the shaman, the birch-bark craft, and a deep reverence for the bear and the fire, who kept their hunting life later than almost any other people of China.

This account follows the Oroqen from their origins among the Tungusic hunters of the northeast, through their moving life of the hunt, the band, and the birch-bark tent, into their endangered language, their forest shamanism and the reverence of the bear, and the hunt, the birch bark, and the festivals that mark them. It ends with the Oroqen of today, one of the last of China’s hunting peoples, whose way of life was transformed within living memory, keeping their memory alive in modern China.

The Hunters of the Greater Khingan Forest
Oroqen and the Name of the People
The Oroqen Tongue of Tungusic Root
The Forests of the Greater Khingan
The Hunt, the Tent, and the Old Order
The Clan, the Band, and the Bonds of the Oroqen
The Shaman, the Bear, and the Spirits of the Forest
The Hunt, the Birch Bark, and the Ways of the Oroqen
The Hunters, the Tanners, and the Workers of Birch
Meat, the Forest, and the Table of the Hunters
The New Year, the Fire, and the Feasts
From the Forest Hunt to the People of Modern China
The Oroqen in Modern China

The Hunters of the Greater Khingan Forest

In the great forests of the Greater Khingan mountains, in the far northeast of China where Inner Mongolia meets Heilongjiang, live the Oroqen, a small people who were, until living memory, hunters of the taiga. Numbering only around nine thousand, one of the smallest of China’s peoples, they dwell in the forested ranges near the Amur and its tributaries, in a cold northern land of pine, larch, and birch.

The Oroqen belong to the Tungusic peoples of the northeast, kin in the deep past to the Manchus, the Evenki, and the other Tungusic folk of the forests and rivers of the north, and their language is of the Tungusic family. Their forebears were among the forest peoples of the northeast who lived by the hunt, and the Oroqen kept that hunting life later than almost any other people of China, into the twentieth century.

Cut off in the deep forests of the Greater Khingan, the Oroqen lived as hunters and gatherers of the taiga, moving through the woods after the game, in bands of a few families, in a way of life little changed for ages. Their very name, some hold, means the people of the mountains or the deer-herders, marking them as folk of the forest and the hunt.

To speak of the Oroqen is to speak of one of the last of China’s hunting peoples, folk of the great northern forest, keepers of the shaman, the birch-bark craft, and a deep knowledge of the taiga and its beasts. In the cold woods of the Greater Khingan, on the marches of the Amur, they hold their own place among the peoples of China as hunters of the northern forest.

A portrait of an Oroqen (Orochen), 1900s

Oroqen and the Name of the People

The people are known as the Oroqen, or in other renderings Orochen, the name they give themselves, and it is by this name that the state recognises them as one of its nationalities, one of the smallest of the recognised peoples, in the forests of the far northeast. The name is their own word for who they are, borne by the hunters of the Greater Khingan.

The meaning of the name is debated, and some hold it to mean the people of the mountains, marking them as folk of the forested ranges, while others connect it to a word for the reindeer or the deer, tying the name to the herding of deer that some of their kin practised. Whatever its root, the name marks the Oroqen as a people of the northern forest and the hunt.

The Oroqen are close kin to the Evenki and the other Tungusic hunting peoples of the northeast, with whom they share much of a way of life and a stock, yet they are a distinct people with their own name, their own bands, and their own home in the Greater Khingan. In the old records they appear under various renderings, marking the hunters of the northern woods.

Whatever the rendering, the people know themselves as one, the Oroqen, a small folk of the northern forest, hunters of the taiga, keepers of the shaman and the birch-bark craft. The name Oroqen marks them among the peoples of China as one of the last of its hunting peoples, a Tungusic folk of the great forest of the Greater Khingan.

The Oroqen Tongue of Tungusic Root

The Oroqen speak a language of the Tungusic family, close kin to the tongues of the Evenki and the other Tungusic hunting peoples of the northeast, and more distantly to Manchu. It is the everyday speech of the Oroqen, carried in the forest camps and the villages, a tongue rich in the words of the hunt, the beasts, and the taiga, born of a life in the northern woods.

For all of their history the Oroqen had no writing of their own, and their store of song, legend, and lore was carried by memory and by mouth, kept above all by the shamans and the elders. The great body of Oroqen tradition, their myths, their hunting lore, and their ritual, lived in the spoken and the sung word, handed down through the generations of the forest.

Living in the northeast among the Manchu, the Mongol, the Daur, and the Han, the Oroqen were long in contact with these peoples, and their language took in words from them, above all from Chinese in later times, while their Tungusic core endured. Many Oroqen came to know Chinese or the tongues of their neighbours for the wider world.

In the modern age standard Chinese has become the language of writing, of school, and of daily life, and most Oroqen now speak it, so that their own Tungusic tongue, spoken by so few and unwritten, is among the most endangered languages in all of China. The keeping of the Oroqen language is a matter of the deepest concern, for it is a precious survival of the speech of the northern hunters.

The Forests of the Greater Khingan

The homeland of the Oroqen is the great forest of the Greater Khingan mountains, in the far northeast of China where Inner Mongolia meets Heilongjiang, near the Amur river and its tributaries that mark the border with Russia. This is a cold northern land of taiga, of pine, larch, and birch clothing the mountains, cut by many rivers and streams, and buried in deep snow through the long, hard winters.

The Greater Khingan is a land of forest and of game, of deer, elk, boar, bear, and the fur-bearing beasts of the north, and it was on this abundance that the Oroqen lived, moving through the woods after the game in the round of the hunting year. The rivers gave fish and a way through the forest, and the birch and the other trees gave the materials of the Oroqen life.

On this forested land the Oroqen lived not in fixed villages but in camps, moving with the hunt, and their home was the conical tent of poles covered with birch bark in summer and hides in winter, easily raised and struck and left behind as the band moved on. The forest, not any settled place, was the homeland of the hunting Oroqen.

Rooted to the great forest of the Greater Khingan and the marches of the Amur, the Oroqen made their homeland in the northern taiga. It is a land of pine, larch, and birch, of deep snow and rushing river, of game and fur, where one of the last of China’s hunting peoples moved through the woods after the beasts, keeping the shaman and the birch-bark craft in the cold northern forest.

The Hunt, the Tent, and the Old Order

The old way of the Oroqen was the way of the hunt, for until living memory they lived as hunters and gatherers of the taiga, moving through the forest after the game in bands of a few families, in a life little changed for ages. The men hunted the deer, the elk, the boar, and the bear, and trapped the fur-bearing beasts, and the women gathered the plants, the berries, and the roots of the forest.

The band, a few related families moving together, was the unit of the old Oroqen life, and it moved with the game and the seasons through the woods, camping where the hunt was good and moving on as it failed. The horse was the companion of the Oroqen hunter, for the Oroqen hunted on horseback through the forest, and some kept and rode the reindeer as well.

Wealth was reckoned not in land or in great herds but in the skill of the hunter, the horses, the furs, and the game, and the standing of a man rested on his prowess in the hunt. The furs the Oroqen took were traded to the Han, the Manchu, and the Russians for the goods they could not make, and in the days of the Qing the Oroqen were valued as hunters and soldiers of the frontier.

Governed by the elders and the leaders of the band, and moving through the forest after the game, the Oroqen lived as free hunters of the northern taiga. A small Tungusic people of the Greater Khingan, keepers of the shaman and the birch-bark craft and of a deep knowledge of the forest, they held to their hunting way through the long centuries, later than almost any other people of China.

The Clan, the Band, and the Bonds of the Oroqen

Oroqen society rested on the household, the clan, and the band, the ties of kin that bound the hunters of the forest. Descent was reckoned through the father’s line, and the Oroqen were ordered into clans, each bearing its name and tracing a common ancestor, and the members of a clan honoured the same forebears, owed one another the duties of kin, and married outside the clan.

The band, a few related families moving and hunting together, was the everyday unit of the old Oroqen life, guided by its elders and its leader, and the clan bound the bands together across the forest. The Oroqen built no wide state and knew no king, and authority rested on age, on the skill of the hunter, and on the respect owed to the shaman and the elders.

The Oroqen were known for a notable equality and a way of sharing, above all in the sharing of the game, for the beast that a hunter took was shared among the band according to custom, so that all had a portion, a way fitting to a hunting people where the fortune of the hunt was uncertain. This custom of sharing bound the band and secured all against want.

Women worked beside the men, gathering the plants and the berries, tanning the hides, making the birch-bark ware and the clothing, and keeping the camp, and the honouring of the elders and the shaman ran through the life of the band. Through the household, the clan, and the band, the Oroqen individual was bound into a close and sharing community of the northern forest.

The Shaman, the Bear, and the Spirits of the Forest

The religion of the Oroqen was the shamanism of the northern forest, a worship of the spirits of the sky, the mountains, the rivers, the trees, and the beasts, and of the ancestors, in which the shaman stood as the link between the people and the unseen world. The shaman, drumming and dancing into a trance, journeyed to the spirits, healed the sick, read the causes of misfortune, and led the great rites of the band.

The Oroqen shamanism is among the best known of the shamanic traditions of the north, and the Oroqen shaman, with the drum and the costume hung with iron and cloth, was a figure of power and awe, chosen and called by the spirits and trained in the vast lore of the chants and the rites. Indeed the very word shaman comes from the Tungusic tongue of peoples such as the Oroqen.

A special reverence among the Oroqen was for the bear, the great beast of the forest, held in awe and honoured with rites, for the bear was thought akin to humankind, and the killing and the eating of a bear were hedged about with ceremony, apology, and taboo, so that the spirit of the bear should not be angered. The fire, too, was revered, and the spirit of the hearth honoured with offerings.

In the modern age the old shamanism has all but passed away, and the last of the Oroqen shamans died within living memory, yet the memory of the shaman, the reverence of the bear and the fire, and the honouring of the spirits of the forest and the ancestors remain part of the Oroqen sense of themselves, the faith of one of the last of China’s hunting peoples.

Chuonnasuan, the last shaman of the Oroqen

The Hunt, the Birch Bark, and the Ways of the Oroqen

The heart of Oroqen tradition was the hunt, the round of the hunting year through the forest, the tracking and taking of the deer, the elk, the boar, and the bear, and the trapping of the fur-bearing beasts, and the deep knowledge of the taiga and its ways handed down from father to son. To be a hunter, skilled and brave, was the mark of the Oroqen man.

The working of birch bark was a great craft and tradition of the Oroqen, for the birch of the northern forest gave a light, strong, and waterproof material that the Oroqen fashioned into boxes, baskets, buckets, and the coverings of the summer tent, often decorated with fine incised patterns. Birch-bark ware was among the characteristic goods of the Oroqen and of the forest peoples.

The shamanism of the forest, with the shaman, the drum, and the reverence of the bear and the fire, ran as a tradition through the old Oroqen world, binding the band to the spirits and the ancestors. The rites of the hunt, the ceremony of the bear, and the honouring of the fire were among the deepest of Oroqen customs.

Song and the telling of tales filled the life of the forest camp, the myths, the hunting lore, and the history of the people carried in the spoken and the sung word, and the games and the horse-craft of the hunters marked their gatherings. Through the hunt, the birch bark, and the shaman, the Oroqen marked their identity and the passages of life in ways carried down from their forebears in the northern forest.

The Hunters, the Tanners, and the Workers of Birch

The crafts of the Oroqen were the crafts of hunters of the northern forest, drawing on the gifts of the taiga. The working of birch bark was chief among them, for the birch gave a light and waterproof material that the Oroqen fashioned into boxes, baskets, buckets, cradles, and the coverings of the summer tent, often adorned with fine incised or coloured patterns, a craft of the women above all.

The tanning and working of hides and furs gave the Oroqen their clothing, for the skins of the deer and the other beasts of the forest made the warm garments, the boots, and the coverings of the winter tent, sewn and adorned by the women. The dress of deerskin, cut and sewn for the cold, was the mark of the forest hunter, and its making a great skill of the household.

The making of the conical tent of poles, covered with birch bark or hides, the fashioning of the bows, the traps, and the gear of the hunt, and the working of wood and bone into the tools of daily life were crafts of the Oroqen, all suited to a moving life in the forest. The gear of the horse and the reindeer, for those who kept them, was likewise made by the people.

The crafts of the Oroqen were those of a hunting and moving people, light, portable, and drawn from the forest, the birch bark, the hides, the wood, and the bone. Yet it is for the birch-bark ware and the deerskin dress above all that the crafts of the Oroqen are known, an art bound to the hunt and the taiga of the great northern forest of the Greater Khingan.

Meat, the Forest, and the Table of the Hunters

The food of the Oroqen was the food of hunters of the northern forest, built above all on the meat of the game they took, the deer, the elk, the boar, and the other beasts of the taiga, roasted, boiled, or dried and smoked to keep through the long winter. Meat was the mainstay of the Oroqen table, in a way rare among the peoples of China, for the Oroqen were hunters before they were anything else.

To the meat were added the fish of the rivers and the plants, the berries, the roots, and the wild vegetables that the women gathered from the forest, and the Oroqen knew well the gifts of the taiga, its mushrooms, its nuts, and its herbs. The forest gave the people their food in its season, and the storing and preserving of meat and gathered food carried them through the winter.

A drink of the Oroqen was made from the blood or the milk of the deer, and in later times tea and grain wine, got by trade, came to the forest camps. The sharing of the game and the food among the band, according to custom, was a mark of the Oroqen, a way fitting to a hunting people where the fortune of the hunt was uncertain.

From the venison and the game of the taiga to the fish, the berries, and the wild plants of the forest, the food of the Oroqen was that of a hunting people of the north, a food of the wild and the gathered rather than of the field. The meat of the hunt, shared among the band, was the heart of the Oroqen table in the great forest of the Greater Khingan.

The Greater Khingan forest of the Oroqen

The New Year, the Fire, and the Feasts

The festivals of the Oroqen turned on the round of the hunting year and on the honouring of the spirits, the fire, and the ancestors. The new year, kept in the depth of the northern winter, was a great occasion of the gathering of the band and the kin, the sharing of the good things of the hunt, and the honouring of the fire and the ancestors after the hard cold of the season.

The reverence of the fire was among the deepest of Oroqen customs, and the spirit of the hearth was honoured with offerings, above all at the new year and the great occasions, for the fire was the life of the camp in the bitter cold of the forest. The rites of the fire and the hearth bound the band and honoured the spirit that kept them from the cold.

The rites of the hunt and the ceremony of the bear, held when a bear was taken, were among the great occasions of the Oroqen, hedged about with ceremony, apology, and feasting, so that the spirit of the great beast should be honoured and not angered. The shaman led the great rites of the band, and the gatherings were filled with song, tale, and the games of the hunters.

The passages of life, birth, marriage, and death, gathered the kin for ceremony, the wedding marked by the gift of horses and by feasting. At all these occasions the sharing of the game, the honouring of the fire and the ancestors, the songs and tales, and the games and horse-craft of the hunters brought the band together, so that the Oroqen met the great moments of life and the year with feast and rite in the forest.

From the Forest Hunt to the People of Modern China

The Oroqen are counted among the Tungusic peoples of the northeast, hunters of the great forests of the Amur and the Greater Khingan from ancient times, kin to the Evenki and the other forest peoples of the north. Their forebears lived by the hunt in the taiga, in a way of life little changed for ages, on the marches of the Chinese, the Mongol, and the Russian worlds.

In the days of the Qing the Oroqen, valued as hunters and marksmen, were drawn into the service of the Manchu state, enrolled in the banners and used as soldiers and hunters of the frontier, and they traded the furs of the forest to the Han, the Manchu, and the Russians. Yet in their deep forests they kept their hunting life and their bands largely as before.

The coming of the Russians to the Amur and the drawing of the frontier, and the pressures of the modern age, touched the Oroqen and their forest, and in the twentieth century the wars and the changes that swept the northeast reached even the taiga. The felling of the forest and the coming of the state and the market began to change the old hunting life.

After the founding of the People’s Republic the Oroqen were recognised as one of the official nationalities of China, one of the smallest of the recognised peoples, and the Oroqen autonomous banner was established in their homeland. In the modern age the state moved the Oroqen from the hunting life to fixed villages, and the hunt was in time ended by law, bringing a great change to one of the last of China’s hunting peoples.

The Oroqen in Modern China

Today the Oroqen number only around nine thousand, one of the smallest of China’s peoples, living still in the forests and the towns of the Greater Khingan in the far northeast, above all in the Oroqen autonomous banner in Inner Mongolia and the neighbouring parts of Heilongjiang. A small people who were until living memory hunters of the taiga, they have seen their whole way of life transformed within a few generations.

In the twentieth century the state moved the Oroqen from their forest camps to fixed villages, and in time the hunt, on which their whole life had rested, was ended by law for the protection of the forest and its beasts, so that the Oroqen, within living memory, ceased to be hunters. This was a great and hard change, the ending of a way of life of untold ages.

The Oroqen now live in villages and towns, in the wider economy of the northeast, and many have taken up farming, herding, and the trades of the modern world, while the memory of the hunting life is kept in story, in museum, and in festival. Their Tungusic tongue, spoken by so few and unwritten, is among the most endangered in all of China, and its keeping is a matter of the deepest care.

Through the ending of their old way the Oroqen carry their heritage with pride. The memory of the hunt and the taiga, the birch-bark craft and the deerskin dress, the shaman and the reverence of the bear and the fire, and their rich store of song and tale endure as marks of who they are. One of the last of China’s hunting peoples, folk of the great northern forest, the Oroqen keep their memory alive in modern China.