People or range · Self-governing peoples of Mongolia and the Steppe · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tubas

The Tubas are the forest people the Secret History names among the peoples Jochi subdues in 1207, after the Oirat, Buryat, Barkhun, Ursut, Khabkhanas and Khankhas and before the Kyrgyz.

Chinese sources of the seventh century already have Dubo or Tupo in the upper Yenisei and the eastern Sayans (Wikipedia's History of Tuva calls it the earliest written record of the Tuvans). They are hunters, trappers and herders of the Tuva basin's northern forest and the Sayan flank, with no chief named and no state. The Kyrgyz, who held Tuva until the thirteenth century on one reading, may have taken furs from them; no source dates that to 1200.

Their winter camps are in the sheltered river valleys of the Kaa-Khem and the Uyuk.

Who holds it

Title
Elders and clan heads; no chief named
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

See the evidence note.

Overlord

Perhaps the Kyrgyz: not pinned.

What it holds

  • Hunting grounds for sable and squirrel in the Sayan forest
  • Herds on the valley pastures of north Tuva
  • River valleys for winter camps (the Uyuk, the Kaa-Khem, the Turan basin)

How it was acquired

Inherited ranges.

Allies and rivals

See the summary.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing under elders and clan heads; a tributary of the Kyrgyz perhaps, not pinned. No raid or war recorded in 1199-1200.

Wealth

Herds, hunting and furs.

Military

Hunters and herders; no castles.

Threats

  • Dzud (winter of ice), a hard year for the herds

Places of note

  • Winter camps in the Uyuk basin (guess): River-valley winter camps of the Tuva forest edge. No camp is named.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: One name in the Secret History's 1207 list and seventh-century Chinese notices; the 1200 location is inferred from the order of Jochi's route.

On the map: Position inferred from Jochi's route of 1207; the Tubas may have ranged further east into Todzha.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, 'History of Tuva'
  2. B. R. Zoriktuev, on the Mongol campaign to the Yenisei in 1207, Tuva.Asia
  3. Wikipedia, 'Mongol conquest of Siberia'
  4. The Secret History of the Mongols, an English translation with numbered sections and dating footnotes (sections 141-169), read at anyflip

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.