Tongra

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Tongra were one of the peoples of the Toquz Oghuz. Both the Tang chapters and the Göktürk inscriptions name them.

The Kül Tegin inscription gives them one line, and the line concerns a death. Ten champions of the Tongra were surrounded and killed at the funeral feast of Toŋa Tegin.^[1] The monument was raised by their overlords. It records this subject clan through the men it lost.

The Tongra also stand among the people of the Uyghur khan. The north face of the Tariat inscription lists the khan’s cavalry as the Nine Tatars, the Az and the Tongra.^[2] A rock text of five letters at Khöshööt Tolgoi in Govi-Altai province in Mongolia reads tuŋrač or toŋrač. Its first readers took this for a man’s name, and others for the name of the Tongra.^[3]

References

^ Kül Tegin inscription; Tekin 1968, p. 271
^ Aydın 2013, p. 18
^ Badam 2024, p. 32

Sources

Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215 (after Jiu Tangshu)
Kül Tegin inscription

Literature

Colin Mackerras, The Uighur Empire According to the T'ang Dynastic Histories (1972)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Talât Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968)
Erhan Aydın, Tariat Yazıtı’nın kuzey yüzünün 5. satırı üzerine yeni okuma ve anlamlandırma önerileri (2013)
Azzaya Badam, Moğolistan’da 2018–2021 Yılları Arasında Bulunan Runik Yazıtlar (2024)