Kul Tigin 684-731 CE

November 18, 2023

Kul Tigin 684-731 CE

Kul Tigin was the son of the founder of the Second Turkic Empire. He was of the Ashina clan, as the leaders of the First Turkic Empire also were. The Turks first appear in history around the 540s CE, first mentioned by the Chinese Book of Zhou. Like the first Turks, his statue shows facial features similar to modern-day East Asians. Genetic studies show that despite a similar steppe lifestyle, the original Turks weren't related to the Scythians or Huns, but were overwhelmingly of Northeast Asian origin. Artwork largely reflects this also. They probably learned the steppe lifestyle from cultural proximity to or being ruled over by the Xiongnu, in my opinion. The Turks had a large empire that included a lot of different people, including Caucasoid populations. Caucasian populations seem to have started intermarrying with Turks in the 6th C. CE (A Dynamic 6,000-Year Genetic History of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe), though even by the 7th C. CE it still wasn't considered normal to see Caucasian features amongst the Turks as evidenced by the treatment of Ashina Simo for his "Sogdian" features.

"The first genetic analysis on the Empress Ashina [lived 551-582 CE] in 2023 by Xiaoming Yang et al. found nearly exclusively Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry (97,7%) next to minor West-Eurasian components (2,3%), and no Chinese ("Yellow River") admixture. The small West-Eurasian component corresponded to a single admixture event (possibly Afanasievo-related) dating to around 1566 ± 396 years before Ashina's lifetime (ie dating to c. 1000 BC). This supports the almost exclusive Northeast Asian origin of the Ashina tribe and the Göktürk Khanate. The ancient Türkic royal family of the Göktürk Khaganate was found to share genetic affinities to post-Iron Age Tungusic and Mongolic pastoralists, while having heterogeneous relationships towards various later Turkic-speaking groups, suggesting genetic heterogeneity and multiple sources of origin for the later populations of the Turkic Empire."

-Ancient genome of Empress Ashina reveals the Northeast Asian origin of Göktürk Khanate