The Yenisei Kyrgyz (), were an ancient Turkic people who dwelled along the upper Yenisei River in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Depression from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The heart of their homeland was the forested Tannu-Ola mountain range (known in ancient times as the Lao or Kogmen mountains), in modern-day Tuva, just north of Mongolia. The Sayan mountains were also included in their territory at different times. The Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate existed from 538 to 1219 CE; in 840, it took over the leadership of the Turkic Khaganate from the Uyghurs, expanding the state from the Yenisei territories into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin.
History
The Yenisei Kyrgyz correlated with Čaatas culture and may perhaps be correlated to the Tashtyk culture. Their endonym was variously transcribed in Chinese historical texts as Jiegu (結骨), Hegu (紇骨), Hegusi (紇扢斯), Hejiasi (紇戛斯), Hugu (護骨), Qigu (契骨), Juwu (居勿), and Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), but first appeared as Gekun (or Ko-kun; ) or Jiankun (or Chien-kun; ) in Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han, respectively. Peter Golden reconstructs underlying *Qïrğïz < *Qïrqïz< *Qïrqïŕ and suggests a derivation from Old Turkic qïr 'gray' (horse color) plus suffix -q(X)ŕ/ğ(X)ŕ ~ k(X)z/g(X)z.
Around 202 BCE, Xiongnu chanyu Modun conquered the Kyrgyzes –then known to Chinese as Gekun (鬲昆), along with the Hunyu (渾庾), Qushe (屈射), Dingling (丁零), and Xinli (薪犁). Duan Chengshi wrote in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang that the mythological ancestors of Kyrgyz tribe (Jiānkūn bùluò 堅昆部落) were "a god and a cow" (神與牸牛), (unlike Göktürks, whose mythological ancestress was a she-wolf; or Gaoche, whose mythological ancestors were a he-wolf and a daughter of a Xiongnu chanyu), and that Kyrgyzes' point of origin was a cave north of the Quman mountains (曲漫山), which was identified with either the Sayan or the Tannu-Ola; additionally, Xin Tangshu mentioned that Kyrgyz army was stationed next to Qīngshān 青山 "Blue Mountains", calqued from Turkic Kögmän (> Ch. Quman) and the river Kem (> 劍 Jiàn). By the time the Gokturk Empire fell in the eighth century CE, the Yenisei Kyrgyz had established their own thriving state based on the Gokturk model. They had adopted the Orkhon script of the Göktürks and established trading ties with China and the Abbasid Caliphate in Central Asia and the Middle East.
The Kyrgyz khagans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate claimed descent from the Chinese general Li Ling, grandson of the famous Han dynasty general Li Guang. Li Ling was captured by the Xiongnu and defected in the first century BCE and since the Tang imperial Li family also claimed descent from Li Guang, the Kyrgyz khagan was therefore recognized as a member of the Tang imperial family. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had said to them that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners."
In 758, the Uyghurs killed the Kyrgyz Khan and the Kyrgyz came under the rule of the Uyghur Khaganate. However, the Yenisei Kyrgyz spent much of their time in a state of rebellion. In 840 they succeeded in sacking the Uyghur capital, Ordu-Baliq in Mongolia's Orkhon Valley and driving the Uyghurs out of Mongolia entirely. On February 13, 843 at "Kill the Foreigners" Mountain, the Tang Chinese inflicted a devastating defeat on the Uyghur Qaghan's forces. But rather than replace the Uyghurs as the lords of Mongolia, the Yenisei Kyrgyz continued to live in their traditional homeland and exist as they had for centuries. The defeat and collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate triggered a massive migration of Uyghurs from Mongolia into Turfan, Kumul and Gansu, where they founded the Kingdom of Qocho and Gansu Uyghur Kingdom.
When Genghis Khan came to power in the early 13th century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz submitted peacefully to him and were absorbed into his Mongol Empire, putting an end to their independent state. During the time of the Mongol Empire, the territory of the Yenisei Kyrgyz in northern Mongolia was turned into an agricultural colony called Kem-Kemchik. Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty, also sent Mongol and Han officials (along with colonists) to serve as judges in the Kyrgyz and Tuva regions.
Some of the Yenisei Kyrgyz were relocated into the Dzungar Khanate by the Dzungars. In 1761, after the Dzungars were defeated by the Qing dynasty, some Öelet, a tribe of Oirat-speaking Dzungars, were deported to the Nonni basin in northeastern China (Manchuria) and a group of Yenisei Kyrgyz were also deported along with the Öelet. The Kyrgyz who moved to northeastern China became known as the Fuyu Kyrgyz, but they have now mostly merged with the Mongol and Chinese population.