Chinpao Huang

Autosomal STR Analysis by DNA Tribes

Native Population Match: Adi Pasi Tribal (Arunachal Pradesh, India), Turkey, Iban (Sarawak, Malaysia), Bhutan, Tibetan (Qinghai, China), Italy, Tuscany (Italy), Thailand, Switzerland, Nepal, Salar (Xunhua, Qinghai, China), Sicily (Italy), Southern Tunisia, Arab (Israel), Thailand, Malay (Singapore), Toscana (Italy), Korea, Istanbul (Turkey), Csango (Romania).

Global Population Match: Adi Pasi Tribal (Arunachal Pradesh, India), Pemambuco (Brazil), Turkey, Iban (Sarawak, Malaysia), Bhutan, Tibetan (Qinghai, China), Caracas (Venezuela), Italy, Tuscany (Italy), thailand, Switzerland, Sergipe (Brazil), Nepal, Salar (Xunhua, Qinghai, China), Sicily (Italy), Southern Tunisia, Costa Rica, Arab (Israel), Costa Rica.

World Region Match: Tibetan, Malay Archipelago, Levantine, North India, Aegean, Mestizo, Northwest European, Arabian, North Chinese, Southeast Asian, Mediterranean, Altaian, South Chinese, Japanese, North Africa, Eastern India, Eastern European, Mesopotamian, Australian, Finno-Ugrian, East African.

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Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Tibetan

Ethnic Tibetan autonomous entities set up by the People's Republic of China

The Tibetan people are a people indigenous to Tibet and surrounding areas stretching from Central Asia in the West to Myanmar and and China Proper in the East.

Chinese and "proto-Tibeto-Burman" may have split sometime before 4000 BC, when the Chinese began growing millet in the Yellow River valley while the Tibeto-Burmans remained nomads; Tibet split from Burma circa 500. The Tibetan language is a member of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Very little is known about the origins of the Tibetan people. Some argue that Tibetans share a genetic background with Mongols, although it is clear that other main influences do exist. Some anthropologists have suggested an Central Asian or Indo-Scythian component, and others a Southeast Asian component; both are credible given Tibet's geographic location. The romantic claim that American Hopi and Tibetans are close cousins is not likely to find support in genetic studies, although strong cultural similarities may be found between the two groups. Some light has been shed on their origins, however, by one genetic study: Su, Bing, et al. (2000), in which it was indicated that Tibetan Y-chromosomes had multiple origins, one from Central Asia while the other from East Asia.

Tibetans typically have light brown skin, black, somewhat wavy or even curly hair, moderately high cheekbones, and brown eyes, although some have very light hazel or green eyes, due to their Mongol heritage. The men typically have full moustaches but sparse beards; traditionally, they pluck out their beards with tweezers. Nomads have long braided hair, and the women usually braid their hair in 108 braids.

Tibetans have a legendary ability to survive extremes of altitude and cold, an ability no doubt conditioned by the extreme environment of the Tibetan plateau. Recently, scientists have sought to isolate the cultural and genetic factors behind this adaptability. Among their findings was a gene which improves oxygen saturation in hemoglobin and the fact that Tibetan children grow faster than other children to the age of five (presumably as a defense against heat loss since larger bodies have a more favorable volume to surface ratio). The Tibet Paleolithic Project is studying the Stone Age colonization of the plateau, hoping to gain insight into human adaptability in general and the cultural strategies the Tibetans developed as they learned to survive in this harsh environment.

The ability of Tibetans to function normally in the oxygen-deficient atmosphere at high altitudes - frequently above 4,400 metres (14,000 ft), has often puzzled observers. Recent research shows that, although Tibetans living at high altitudes have no more oxygen in their blood than other people, they have 10 times more nitric oxide (NO) and double the forearm blood flow of low-altitude dwellers. Nitric oxide causes dilation of blood vessels allowing blood to flow more freely to the extremities and aids the release of oxygen to tissues. This may also help explain the typical rosy cheeks of high-altitude dwellers. What is not yet known is whether the high levels of nitric oxide are due to a genetic mutation or whether people from lower altitudes would gradually adapt similarly after living for prolonged periods at high altitudes.

* Y-chromosome Evidence for Common Ancestry of Three Chinese Populations with a High Risk of Esophageal Cancer by Huang H, et al.

The Two-dimensional Graphs of Y-STR Frequencies

(4. Fujian Han, 10. Dongbei Han, 13. Tibetan, 18, Naxi, 14, Uygur; 15, Krigiz )

The three EC high-risk populations and Manchu form 2 clusters; the three Northern Han (labeled 10–12) and five Southern Han populations (labeled 5–9) form another group. The remaining populations are scattered. 1, Chaoshan EC high-risk population; 2, Fujian EC high-risk population; 3, Henan Taihang Mountain EC high-risk population; 4, Fujian Han; 5, Anhui Han; 6, Yunnan Han; 7, Henan Han; 8, Zhejiang Han; 9, Guangzhou Han; 10, Dongbei Han; 11, Beijing Han; 12, Tianjing Han; 13, Tibetan; 14, Uygur; 15, Krigiz; 16, Manchu; 17, Shui; 18, Naxi; 19, Zhuang. 4–9 refer to Southern Hans, 10–12 to Northern Hans, 13–17 to Northern minority nationalities, 18–19 to Southern minority nationalities.

* Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

Map of Putative Migration Routes of the Sino-Tibetan Populations

Qinghai (青海) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest

Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province of China. A large part of the area, historically called Kokonor in English until the early 20th century, lies outside of China proper and has been an ethnic melting pot for centuries, mixing Tibetan, Han Chinese, Mongol, and Turkic influences. It was a battleground during the Tang and subsequent Chinese dynasties when they fought against successive Tibetan dynasties.

Prior to 1724, most of the area that is now Qinghai was under Tibetan control, but in that year it was conquered by the armies of the Qing Dynasty. Following the defeat of the Dzungars by the Qing in the mid 18th century, the area became home to peoples from what is now northern Xinjiang known as the Kokonor Mongols (Kokonor derives from the Mongolian language name of Qinghai).

In 1928, Qinghai became a province of the Republic of China. Subsequently it became the primary base for warlord Ma Bufang, before it became a province under the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Qinghai Lake (青海湖), historically known as Koko Nor (from the Mongolian name), is a saline lake situated in the province of Qinghai, and is the largest lake in China. The names Qinghai and Kokonor both mean "Blue/Teal Sea" in Standard Mandarin and classical Mongolian. It is located about 100 km west of the provincial capital of Xining at 3,205 m (10,515 feet) above sea level in a depression of the Tibetan Plateau in the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo. Twenty-three rivers and streams empty into Qinghai Lake.

* Sequence Polymorphism of mtDNA Control Region in Chinese Qinghai Tibetan Ethnic Group and Han Population by HF Mu, et al.

Object: To study sequence polymorphism of mtDNA control region in Chinese Qinghai Tibetan group and Han population. Methods: Venous blood samples from 69 unrelated Qinghai Tibetans and Han individuals were collected and their mtDNA control region sequences were analyzed. Polymorphism indicators were calculated. The genetic distances based on Fst and Rst among eleven groups from different districts include the Qinghai Tibetan and Han population were elucidated using Nei's method. Phylogenetic tree was constructed. Results: There were 56 polymorphic loci and 59 loci found in the mtDNA control region of Tibetan group and Han population, respectively. It was indicated by the Rst distance that there was a far distance between Qinghai Tibetan and the other populations (P<0.05), and the distance was much closer between Qinghai Han and Xi'an Han, Mongolian, Changsha Han populations (P>0.05). Conclusion: There is unique genetic polymorphism of mtDNA control region both in Qinghai Tibetan and Han population. These findings may be useful in forensic identification, population genetic and migration studies.

PC analysis in 43 East Asian populations representing all the six language families spoken in this region from Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

Sino-Tibetan According to Matisoff, 2001 from Stratification in the Peopling of China: How Far does the Linguistic Evidence Match Genetics and Archaeology? by Roger Blench and Mallam Dendo

The Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family composed of, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of their number of speakers.

A few scholars, most prominently Christopher Beckwith and Roy Andrew Miller, argue that Chinese is not related to Tibeto-Burman. They point to an absence of regular sound correspondences, an absence of reconstructable shared morphology, and evidence that much shared lexical material has been borrowed from Chinese into Tibeto-Burman. In opposition to this view, scholars in favor of the Sino-Tibetan hypothesis such as W. South Coblin, Graham Thurgood, James Matisoff, and Gong Hwang-cherng have argued that there are regular correspondences in sounds as well as in grammar.

One of the chief difficulties of applying the comparative method to the Sino-Tibetan languages is the morphological paucity in many of these languages, including modern Chinese and Tibetan.

In the past, Vietnamese and other Mon-Khmer languages were classified under the Sino-Tibetan tree. Today their similarities to Chinese are credited to language contact. However, what should be included in the family is yet to be settled. In the Western scholarly circle, the other tonal language families of East Asia, Tai-Kadai and Hmong-Mien, are no longer classified under the Sino-Tibetan tree either, with the similarities attributed to borrowings and areal features, especially after Benedict's publication (1972). However, in the Chinese scholarly world, Tai-Kadai and Hmong-Mien are still included in the Sino-Tibetan family.

Van Driem proposes, as did Shafer, that Chinese not have a privileged position within the family, and that the name Tibeto-Burman be restored, as it has historical precedence. He has not, however, been followed in this usage, and most linguists continue to use the term 'Sino-Tibetan' regardless of the position they assume for Chinese within the family. Most treatments, however, continue to follow the Sinitic–Tibeto-Burman dichotomy of Benedict and later Matisoff.

Himalayish is a sub-group of languages classified under the Tibeto-Burman group as described by James Matisoff and used by Ethnologue. Major Himalayish languages include Tibetan and Nepal Bhasa. Himalayish languages are spoken throughout the Himalayas, including Nepal, India, Bhutan, Tibet and other parts of China.

Map of the Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow", is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. By extension, it is also the name of a massive mountain system that includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and other, lesser, ranges that extend out from the Pamir Knot.

The Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks, the Eight-thousanders, which include Mount Everest and K2. To comprehend the enormous scale of this mountain range consider that Aconcagua, in the Andes, at 6,962 m (22,841 ft), is the highest peak outside Asia, whereas the Himalayan system includes over 100 mountains exceeding 7,200 metres (23,622 ft).

The Himalayan system, which includes outlying subranges, stretches across six countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Yangtze, rise in the Himalayas

The Himalayas, due to their large size and expanse, have been a natural barrier to the movement of people for tens of thousands of years. In particular, this has prevented intermingling of people from the Indian subcontinent with people from China and Mongolia, causing significantly different languages and customs between these regions. The Himalayas have also hindered trade routes and prevented military expeditions across its expanse. For instance, Genghis Khan could not expand his empire south of the Himalayas into the subcontinent.

Languages of the Himalayas by George van Driem

Nepali

Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia and is the world's youngest republic. It is bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India.

Perched on the southern slopes of the mighty Himalayas, Nepal is ethnically diverse, culturally rich and geographically varied with some of the world's highest mountain peaks that blend beautifully with terraced hills, broad valleys and large terrains of fertile plains.

Nepalis are descendants of migrants from parts of earlier greater Nepal, Tibet, India and parts of Burma and Yunnan along with native tribal population. Among the earliest inhabitants were the Kirat of east mid-region, Newar of the Kathmandu Valley and aboriginal Tharu in the southern Terai region. The ancestors of the Bahun and Chhetri caste groups migrated eastward from Kumaon, Garwal and Kashmir, while other ethnic groups trace their origins to North Burma, Yunnan and Tibet, e.g. the Gurung and Magar in the west, Rai and Limbu in the east, and Sherpa and Bhotia in the north.

In the Terai, a part of the Ganges Basin with 20% of the land, much of the population is physically and culturally similar to the Indo-Aryans of northern India. Indo-Aryan and East Asian looking mixed people live in the hill region. The mountainous region is sparsely populated above 3,000 meters, but in central and western Nepal ethnic Tibetans inhabit even higher semi-arid valleys north of the high Himalaya. Kathmandu Valley, in the middle hill region, constitutes a small fraction of the nation's area but is the most densely populated, with almost 5 percent of the nation's population. Nepal is a multilingual, multireligious and multiethnic society.

* Genetic Insights into the Origins of Tibeto-Burman Populations in the Himalayas by T. Gayden, et al.

Abstract: The Himalayan mountain range has played a dual role in shaping the genetic landscape of the region by (1) delineating east-west migrations including the Silk Road and (2) restricting human dispersals, especially from the Indian subcontinent into the Tibetan plateau. In this study, 15 hypervariable autosomal STR loci were employed to evaluate the genetic relationships of three populations from Nepal (Kathmandu, Newar and Tamang) and a general collection from Tibet. These Himalayan groups were compared to geographically targeted worldwide populations as well as Tibeto-Burman (TB) speaking groups from Northeast India. Our results suggest a Northeast Asian origin for the Himalayan populations with subsequent gene flow from South Asia into the Kathmandu valley and the Newar population, corroborating a previous Y-chromosome study. In contrast, Tamang and Tibet exhibit limited genetic contributions from South Asia, possibly due to the orographic obstacle presented by the Himalayan massif. The TB groups from Northeast India are genetically distinct compared to their counterparts from the Himalayas probably resulting from prolonged isolation and/or founder effects.

Bhutanese People

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked nation in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by People's Republic of China. Bhutan is separated from the nearby state of Nepal to the west by the Indian state of Sikkim, and from Bangladesh to the south by West Bengal.

Among the Bhutanese people, several principal ethnic groups may be distinguished. The largest group are the Bhutia or Bhotiya people, who can be subdivided into Ngalops and Scharchops respectively. The second dominant group is the Ngalops, a Buddhist group based in the western part of the country. Their culture is closely related to that of Tibet. Much the same could be said of the Sharchops ("Easterners"), the dominant group, who are associated with the eastern part of Bhutan (but who traditionally follow the Nyingmapa rather than the official Drukpa Kagyu form of Tibetan Buddhism). They are called the Western Bhutanese and Eastern Bhutanese respectively. In modern times, with improved transportation infrastructure, there has been much intermarriage between these groups. In the early 1970s, intermarriage between the Lhotshampas and mainstream Bhutanese society was encouraged by the government.

Arunachal Pradesh

Map of Arunachal Pradesh (in red)

Arunachal Pradesh (Hindi: अरुणाचल प्रदेश) is the easternmost state of India. Arunachal Pradesh shares a border with the states of Assam to the south and Nagaland to the southeast. Myanmar lies towards the east, Bhutan towards the west, and Tibet to the north. Itanagar is the capital of the state.

63% of the Arunachalis belong to 19 major tribes and 85 tribes, who had a tradition which is diverse and of rich culture, language and beliefs. Most of them are either of Tibeto-Burman or Tai-Burmese origin. Another 35% of the population are made up of the immigrants, including 31,000 Bengali, Bodo, Hajong and Chakma expartriates from Bangladesh, and immigrants from neighbouring Assam, Nagaland and other parts

The first ancestors of the tribal groups migrated from Tibet during the prehistoric period, and were joined by Thai-Burmese counterparts later. Except for the northwestern parts of the state, little is known about the history of Arunachal Pradesh, although the Adi tribe had legendary knowledge of the history. Recorded history was only available in the Ahom chronicles during the 16th century. The tribal Monpa and Sherdukpen do keep historical records of the existence of local chiefdoms in the northwest as well. Northwestern parts of this area came under the control of the Monpa kingdom of Monyul, which flourished between 500 B.C. and 600 A.D. This region then came under the loose control of Tibet and Bhutan, especially in the Northern areas. The remaining parts of the state, especially those bordering Myanmar, came under the control of the Ahom and the Assamese until the annexation of India by the British in 1858.

Adi People

Photo from pasighat.wordpress.com: The literal meaning of Adi is “hill” or “mountain top”.

The Adi (also Abor) is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh (in northeastern India), and they are found in the temperate and sub-tropical regions within the districts of West Siang, East Siang, Upper Siang, Upper Subansiri and Dibang Valley. The older term Abor is a deprecated exonym from Assamese meaning 'those who cannot be controlled'. Some of them are found in Southern Tibet, around areas near the Indian border.

Of Proto-Austronesian and Tibetan stock, they speak a language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family. However, their traditions believed them to be the lost descendants of the Tatars and Abo-Tani (Abo- Father; Tani- Man).

Austronesian people are a population in Oceania and Southeast Asia that speak languages of the Austronesian languages family. Austronesian peoples include: Taiwanese aborigines; the majority ethnic groups of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Madagascar, Micronesia, and Polynesia, as well as the Polynesian peoples of New Zealand and Hawaii, and the Austronesian peoples of Melanesia. They are also found in the Pattani region of Thailand, and the Cham areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Hainan, China (remnants of the Champa kingdom which covered central and southern Vietnam). The territories settled by Austronesian peoples are known collectively as Austronesia.

Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar/Татарлар), sometimes spelled Tartar, are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group or multiple ethnic groups. Most current day Tatars live all over Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Lithuania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They collectively numbered more than 10 million in the late 20th century.

The original Ta-ta inhabited the north-eastern Gobi in the 5th century and, after subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, migrated southward. In the 12th century, they were subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the Turkic Ural-Altayans towards the plains of Russia.

In Europe, they were assimilated by the local Turkic populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Volga Bulgars, Alans, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Finno-Ugric speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.

Tatars of Siberia are survivors of the Turkic population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols. Later, each group adopted Turkic languages and many adopted Islam. At the beginning of 20th century, most of those groups, except the Volga Tatars and Crimean Tatars adopted their own ethnic names and now are not referred to as Tatars, being Tatars or Tartars only in historical context. Now the name Tatars is generally applied to two ethnic groups: Volga Tatars (or simply Tatars) and Crimean Tatars. However, some indigenous peoples of Siberia are also traditionally named Tatars, such as Chulym Tatars.

The present Tatar inhabitants of Eurasia form three large groups:

those of Crimea, Bulgaria, European Russia and Western Siberia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, Poland, Romania and Turkey.

those of the Caucasus (in historical context),

and those of Eastern Siberia (in historical context).

Due to the vast movements and intermingling of peoples along with the very loose utilization of the name Tatar, current day Tatars comprise a spectrum of physical appearance. As to the original Tatars from Mongolia, they most likely shared characteristics with the Turkic invaders from Central Asia.

The name "Tatar" initially appeared amongst the nomadic Turkic peoples of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. These people may have been related to the Cumans or the Kipchaks. The Chinese term is Dada (韃靼) and is a comparatively specific term for nomads to the north, emerging in the late Tang. Other names include Dadan and Tatan.

As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and Hungary became known to Europeans as Tatars (or Tartars). After the break up of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, which included most of European Russia and was known as the Golden Horde.

* Mitogenomic Diversity in Tatars from the Volga-Ural Region of Russia by B. Malyarchuk, et al.

Abstract: To investigate diversity of mitochondrial gene pool of Tatars inhabiting the territory of the middle Volga River basin, 197 individuals from two populations representing Kazan Tatars and Mishars were subjected for analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region variation. In addition, 73 mitochondrial genomes of individuals from Mishar population were sequenced completely. It was found that mitochondrial gene pool of the Volga Tatars consists of two parts, but western Eurasian component prevails considerably (84% on average) over eastern Asian one (16%). Eastern Asian mtDNAs detected in Tatars belonged to a heterogeneous set of haplogroups (A, C, D, G, M7, M10, N9a, Y, and Z), although only haplogroups A and D were revealed simultaneously in both populations. Complete mtDNA variation study revealed that the age of western Eurasian haplogroups (such as U4, HV0a, and H) is less than 18,000 years, thus suggesting re-expansion of eastern Europeans soon after the Last Glacial Maximum.

* Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in Siberian Tatars of the Tobol-Irtysh Basin by Naumova OIu, et al.

Abstract: Data on the variation of the nucleotide sequence of hypervariable segment I (HVSI) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the coding region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been used to characterize the mitochondrial gene pool of Siberian Tatars of the Tobol-Irtysh basin (N = 218), one of three geographic/linguistic groups of Siberian Tatars. The gene pool of Siberian Tatars has been shown to contain both Asian and European mtDNA lineages at a ratio of 1 : 1.5. The mtDNA diversity of Siberian Tatars is substantially higher than that of other Turkic-speaking populations of North and Central Asia. The position of the mitochondrial gene pool of Tatars of the Tobol-Irtysh basin in the genetic space of northern Eurasia populations has been determined.

The Csángó (Romanian: Ceangău, pl. Ceangăi) are people of Roman Catholic faith, some speaking a Hungarian dialect and some Romanian. They live mainly in the Bacău County, Moldavia region. The Csángó settled there between the 13th and 15th centuries and today, they are the only Hungarian-speaking ethnic group living to the east of the Carpathians.

The name Csango is used to describe two different ethnic groups:

those concentrated in the county of Bacǎu (the southern group) and in the area surrounding the city of Roman (the northern group). We know for certain that these people are not Szeklers (Székely). They are Romanian in appearance, and the majority of them speak a Transylvanian dialect of Romanian and live according to Romanian traditions and customs. These characteristics suggest that they are Romanians from Transylvania who have joined the Romanian Catholic population of Moldavia.

those of Szekler (Székely) origin, most of whom settled in the valleys of the Trotuş and the Tazlǎu and, to a lesser extent, of the Siret. Their mother tongue is the same as that spoken by the Szeklers, and they live side by side with Romanians.

Hungarians and Their Ancestors from Probable Ancestors of Hungarian Ethnic Groups: An Admixture Analysis by C. R. Guglielmino, et al.

Rouran (柔然), Ruanruan/Ruru (蠕蠕/茹茹) also known as Tan Tan (檀檀; literally "Tartar") was the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of China Proper from the late 4th century until the late 6th century. The Rouran subdued modern regions of Xinjiang, Mongolia, Central Asia and parts of Siberia and Manchuria from the late 4th century. the power of the Rouran was broken by an alliance of Göktürks, the Chinese Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties and tribes in Central Asia in 552. The remainder of the Rouran fled into China, were absorbed into the border guards, and disappeared forever as an entity. It has sometimes been hypothesized that the Rouran are identical to the Eurasian Avars who later appeared in Europe. The Avars appeared in Central and Eastern Europe in the 6th century. Avar rule persisted over much of the Pannonian plain up to the early 9th century. Today the Pannonian plain is divided among Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Owing to cultural isolation and economic insignificance, the Adi culture was spared major disturbance. Tattooing was popular among the older women.

* Videos:A Musical Journey of Arunachal Pradesh, Adi Song from Arunachal Pradesh

* Genetic Status of North-east India's Adi Tribe Detailed by Science Daily

* Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Reveals Diverse Histories of Tribal Populations from India by Richard Cordaux, et al.

* Genetic Diversity at 15 microsatellite Loci Among the Adi Pasi Population of Adi Tribal Cluster in Arunachal Pradesh, India by S.Krithika, et al.

* The Northeast Indian Passageway: A barrier or corridor for human migrations? by Richard Cordaux, et al.

Abstract: The northeast Indian passageway connecting the Indian subcontinent to East/Southeast Asia is thought to have been a major corridor for human migrations. Because it is also an important linguistic contact zone, it is predicted that northeast India has witnessed extensive population interactions, thus, leading to high genetic diversity within groups and heterogeneity among groups. To test this prediction, we analyzed 14 biallelic and five short tandem–repeat Y-chromosome markers and hypervariable region 1 mtDNA sequence variation in 192 northeast Indians. We find that both northeast Indian Y chromosomes and mtDNAs consistently show strikingly high homogeneity among groups and strong affinities to East Asian groups. We detect virtually no Y-chromosome and mtDNA admixture between northeast and other Indian groups. Northeast Indian groups are also characterized by a greatly reduced Y-chromosome diversity, which contrasts with extensive mtDNA diversity. This is best explained by a male founder effect during the colonization of northeast India that is estimated to have occurred within the past 4,000 years. Thus, contrary to the prediction, these results provide strong evidence for a genetic discontinuity between northeast Indian groups and other Indian groups. We, therefore, conclude that the northeast Indian passageway acted as a geographic barrier rather than as a corridor for human migrations between the Indian subcontinent and East/Southeast Asia, at least within the past millennia and possibly for several tens of thousand years, as suggested by the overall distinctiveness of the Indian and East Asian Y chromosome and mtDNA gene pools.

Y-chromosome Haplogroup Frequencies in Four Northeast Indian Tribal Populations

Haplogroup relationships are shown with haplogroup-defining markers along the relevant branches of the tree. Italicized values are given in percentages; other values are absolute numbers. Asterisks (*) indicate average value

* Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

PC analysis in 18 Sino-Tibetan populations based on the 13 haplotype frequency distribution

* A Microsatellite Guided Insight into the Genetic Status of Adi, an Isolated Hunting-Gathering Tribe of Northeast India by S. Krithika, et al.

Excerpt: Arunachal Pradesh (situated between latitude 26°30′N and 29°30′N and longitude 91°30′E and 97°30′E) is the abode of 26 major Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes and 110 sub-tribes and minor tribes, majority claiming their descent from the Tibetan region during different time periods (evident from the available ethno-historical accounts and folklore tradition). One of the largest tribe of the region is Adi, a collective tribe distributed in the temperate and sub-tropical regions within the districts of West Siang, East Siang, Upper Siang, Upper Subansiri and Dibang Valley in central Arunachal Pradesh. They share similar physical features of that of East Asian populations and speak Adi dialects which belong to North-Assam branch of Tibeto-Burman sub-linguistic family. The ethno-history suggests their origin from southern regions of Tibet (China) and traces their migration and settlement history of their ancestors (the ‘Tani’ group) at different time periods during about 5th–7th century AD

The inclusion of populations from East and South-east Asia in the phylogenetic analyses reveals the clustering of the Luoba ethnic group of Tibet with the Adi groups of Arunachal Pradesh. According to the ethnologue information, Luoba Tibetan (Boga'er Luoba), categorized under the North-Assam branch of the Tibeto-Burman sub linguistic family, is also alternatively referred to as Adi/Abor and is supposed to have been derived from the ‘Tani’ group, the putative ancestral population of Adi. They are located in southern fringes of central Tibetan region, which is adjacent to the Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The clustering of Luoba with Adi further supports the ethno-historical accounts of their putative common origin.

The fifty populations from East and Southeast Asian countries along with the Adi and other Indian Tibeto-Burman populations show an interesting pattern of clustering. Some Tibeto-Burman populations of India (e.g. Adi tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, populations from Ladakh, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Garo of Meghalaya) get clustered with the Tibetan populations from Tibet and China whereas some others (e.g. Drokpa, Balti of Ladakh and Bhutia of Sikkim) cluster along with Southeast Asian populations. All the morphologically similar populations, irrespective of their linguistic affiliation, cluster together possibly with respect to their geography and ethno-historical account of migration.

* The Himalayas as a Directional Barrier to Gene Flow by Tenzin Gayden, et al.

Geographic Distributions of Major Y-chromosome Haplogroup Frequencies

* Genetic Structures of the Tibetans and the Deng People in the Himalayas Viewed from Autosomal STRs by Kang L, et al.

Abstract: In the previous studies, the populations in Tibet exhibited a complicated genetic structure, indicating that those populations might be the admixture of East Asian and South/Central Asian populations, or have a North Asian origin. However, there have not been sufficient genetic data to support this hypothesis. In this study, we analyzed 15 autosomal polymorphic tetranucleotide short tandem repeat loci (D5S818, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51) for three populations from Tibet, namely, Deng/Mishmi (n=114), Qamdo Tibetan (n=78) and Lhasa Tibetan (n=101). The total number of observed alleles and the average heterozygosity for all samples were 394 and 0.7574, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance and estimated G(ST) (0.0198) for these allele frequency data suggested the genetic divergence among Tibetan populations was significant. Furthermore, our new allele frequency data for 13 loci were compared with those of 41 world populations previously reported. Results from phylogenetic and multidimensional scaling analyses indicated that: (1) the Deng in Tibet has unique genetic characteristics different from the Tibetans; (2) populations living in the Himalayas area (Deng, Luoba/Adi) composed of a distinct cluster and are closely related to each other than to any other ethnic groups in East Asia; (3) the Tibetans are most similar to the North Asians. This genetic structure is consistent with the geographical barriers and linguistic classifications.

Salar

The Salar people (撒拉族) are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They numbered 104,503 people in the last census of 2000 and live mostly in Qinghai (in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County 循化撒拉族自治縣 and Hualong Autonomous County of the Hui Nationality 化隆回族自治縣), in Gansu (in Jishishan Autonomous County of the Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Nationalities 積石山保安族東鄉族撒拉族自治縣) and in Xinjiang (in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture 伊犁哈薩克自治州).

Their ancestors were migrating Oghuz Turks who intermarried with the Tibetans, Han Chinese, and Hui. They are a patriarchal agricultural society and Muslims.

History: According to Salar tradition, they are the descendants of the Salyr tribe, belonging to the Turkic Oghuz tribe of the Seljuk Turks. They also claimed to be descendants of Oghuz Khan (Modu Chanyu). The word "Salyr meant "those who wave swords, spears and hammers everywhere". During the Tang Dynasty period, the Salyr tribe dwelt within China's borders - later moving west towards Central Asia.

The two brothers Haraman and Ahman, forefathers of the present day Salar tribe once lived in the Samarkand area. They held a lot of prestige at the local Islamic mosques, thus they gained the jealousy and hatred from the local king and ruling class which led to persecution. To flee from all this, the two brothers along with eighteen members of the same tribe saddled a white camel with their local water, soil, and a koran before heading east to looking for a new place to settle.

Samarkand is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study.

Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and the Mediterranean (Silk Road). At times Samarkand has been one of the greatest cities of Central Asia. Founded circa 700 BC by the Persians.

The wandering party trekked through the northern route of the Tian Shan mountain ranges into the Jiayuguan pass and passing through the present day Suzhou District, Ganzhou district, Ningxia, Qinzhou District, Gangu County, and eventually stopping at Ganjiatan (within today's Xiahe County).

Later, another forty sympathizers from Samarkand also followed their footsteps - they passed through the southern route of the Tian Shan mountain ranges and entered Qinghai. They journeyed along the Qinghai and Hunan coast into what is now Guide County and twelve of them decided to stay there.

The remaining twenty eight travellers met up with the Haraman group at Ganjiatan, and together they journeyed to today's Xunhua region. However during the night, their camel ran away so they lit a torch to try and track down the camel. The next day they climbed unto a nearby mountain to take a glance at the whole area. They saw that the soil was fertile and that it was a good place to settle.

Shortly after coming down the mountain they discovered spring water and found the lost camel lying beside the water. The people then measured the water and the soil and took note that the weight of the soil was the same as the soil which they had brought from Samarkand.

As a result, these two groups of migrants settled in this Xunhua region. As time progressed, these Samarkand people merged with the local Tibetan, Hui, Han Chinese and Mongolian peoples eventually forming the Salar people of today.

During the time of Genghis Khan's (1206–1227) conquest, they were known as the Salyr tribe of Khorasan. One Salyr chief agreed to submit his lieutenants Aqman and Qaraman as mercenaries to the Mongol army.

In this way, these Turkmen Salyrs were spared the destruction which was brought upon the Khwarezmian Empire by the Mongol army. Forty years after Genghis Khan's conquest of Khwarezm, the Salyr lieutenants Aqman and Qaraman also joined the Mongols in the Siege of Diaoyu in Sichuan, a Song Dynasty stronghold.

The Salar language has two large dialect groups. The divergence is due to the fact that one branch was influenced by the Tibetan and Chinese languages, and the other branch by the Uyghur and Kazakh languages. Salar is not a written language. There are reported similarities with Turkmen. (Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan.). Amazingly, speakers of Salar and Turkish can generally understand each other to a large degree, even though one ethnic group lives in Central China and the other in Anatolia, thousands of miles away. Linguistic evidence points to a possible western Turkic, Oghuz origin of the Salar.

In 1781, Qing armies crushed a Salar uprising with the results being disastrous for the Salar. As much as 40% of their entire population was killed in the revolt.

Neighbor-joining tree of 61 Eurasian populations, based on Y-chromosome biallelic haplotype frequencies from The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity by R. Spencer Wells, et al.

Cluster I: Greek, Yagnobi, Armenian, Turkmen, Czeck/Slovak, Orkney, British, Basque
Cluster II: Iranian, Turkish, Kazbegi, Azeri
Cluster III: Tuvinian, Nenets
Cluster IV: Kazak, Mongolia, Cambodian, Dungan, Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Cluster V: Macedonian, Russian/North, Russian/Tashkent, Ukrainian, Kyrgyz, Tajik/Khojant, Ishkashim
Cluster VI: Bartangi, Hunza, Sinte Roman
Cluster VII: Arab/Bukhara, Tajik/Samarkand, Shugnan, Tajik/Dushanbe, Yadhava, Sourashtran, Kallar
Cluster VIII: Uzbek, Tatar, Karakalpak, Uighur

The Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking people in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Smaller diaspora populations of Uzbeks from Central Asia are also found in Iran, Turkey, North America, and Western Europe. Their roots can be traced back to Turkic, Persian, Arabic and Mongolian origins.

The Karakalpaks (also Qaraqalpaqs) are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and in the (former) delta of Amu Darya on the southern shore of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. However, small numbers can also be found in Iran and Turkey, and smaller communities in Kazakstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.

The Karakalpak language is a member of the Kypchak Turkic family of languages, which includes Tatar, Kumyk and Kazakh, in addition to Karakalpak. The Kipchak family is a subgroup of the Turkic languages, which most linguists believe to be member of an Altaic language family. Within the Kypchak Turkic family, Karakalpak is most closely related to Kazakh and Nogai. Due to its proximity to the Uzbek language areal, much of the vocabulary and grammar has an Uzbek influence.

Like Finnish, Hungarian, and Turkish, Karakalpak has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually Subject Object Verb.

The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known by its controversial name Uyghurstan or East Turkistan) in the People's Republic of China.

Historically the term "Uyghur" was applied to a group of Turkic-speaking tribes that lived in the Altay Mountains. Along with the Göktürks (Kokturks), the Uyghurs were one of the largest and most enduring Turkic peoples living in Central Asia.

* The Origins and Genetic Structure of Three Co-resident Chinese Muslim Populations: the Salar, Bo'an and Dongxiang by Wei Wang, et al.

Abstract: A genome-based investigation of three Muslim populations, the Salar, Bo'an, and Dongxiang, was conducted on 212 individuals (148 males, 64 females) co-resident in Jishisan County, a minority autonomous region located in the province of Gansu, PR China. The Salar are believed to be of Turkic origin, whereas the Bo'an and Dongxiang both speak Mongolian. Biparental dinucleotide markers on chromosomes 13 and 15 indicated elevated mean homozygosity in the Salar (0.32), Bo'an (0.32), and Dongxiang (0.27), equivalent to inbreeding coefficients ( F is ) of 0.16; 0.12; 0.01, confirming varying levels of endogamous and consanguineous marriage in all three communities. Y-chromosome unique event polymorphisms (UEPs) showed that males in the three communities shared common ancient origins, with 80–90% of haplotypes in common. However, the high levels of community-specific Y-chromosome STR haplotypes strongly suggested the action(s) of founder effect, genetic drift and preferential consanguinity during more recent historical time. By comparison with the marked inter-community differentiation revealed by the Y-chromosome STRs (29.4%), the mtDNA data indicated similarity between the female lineages of each community with just 1.2% inter-community variation. The combined use of these different marker systems gives an in-depth historical perspective, and provides evidence of past inter-marriage between genetically diverse male founders of each community and Han Chinese females with subsequent community endogamy.

Korean

Koreans are believed to be descendants of Altaic- or proto-Altaic-speaking tribes, linking them with Mongolians, Tungusics, and Turks. Archaeological evidence suggest proto-Koreans were Altaic-language-speaking migrants from south-central Siberia, who populated ancient Korea in successive waves from the Neolithic age to the Bronze Age.

Studies so far of polymorphisms in the human Y-chromosome have produced evidence to suggest that the Korean people have a very long history as a distinct, mostly endogamous ethnic group with successive waves of people moving to the peninsula and three major Y-chromosome haplogroups.

Korean males display a very high frequency of a derived subclade of Manchurian origin, Haplogroup O2b1* (P49). In fact, Haplogroup O2b1* comes close to being the modal Y-chromosome haplogroup in Korea, occurring in approximately 35% of all Korean males.

There is moderate to high frequency of Haplogroup O3 and Haplogroup C3. Origin of Haplogroup O3 is thought to be diverse, some of them having expanded from Manchuria with Haplogroup O2b and some of them having expanded from southern China by people with rice agriculture such as the Hmongs. Haplogroup C3 is though to be the original inhabitants of the area related to the Nivkhs.

A population genetic study demonstrated DNA evidence of the origin of Koreans from the central Asian Mongolians, and the Koreans are more closely related to the Japanese and quite distant from the Chinese.

* The Peopling of Korea Revealed by Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosomal Markers by Han-Jun Jin, et al.

Abstract

Background: The Koreans are generally considered a northeast Asian group because of their geographical location. However, recent findings from Y chromosome studies showed that the Korean population contains lineages from both southern and northern parts of East Asia. To understand the genetic history and relationships of Korea more fully, additional data and analyses are necessary.

Methodology and Results: We analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation in the hypervariable segments I and II (HVS-I and HVS-II) and haplogroup-specific mutations in coding regions in 445 individuals from seven east Asian populations (Korean, Korean-Chinese, Mongolian, Manchurian, Han (Beijing), Vietnamese and Thais). In addition, published mtDNA haplogroup data (N=3307), mtDNA HVS-I sequences (N=2313), Y chromosome haplogroup data (N=1697) and Y chromosome STR data (N=2713) were analyzed to elucidate the genetic structure of East Asian populations. All the mtDNA profiles studied here were classified into subsets of haplogroups common in East Asia, with just two exceptions. In general, the Korean mtDNA profiles revealed similarities to other northeastern Asian populations through analysis of individual haplogroup distributions, genetic distances between populations or an analysis of molecular variance, although a minor southern contribution was also suggested. Reanalysis of Y-chromosomal data confirmed both the overall similarity to other northeastern populations, and also a larger paternal contribution from southeastern populations.

Conclusion: The present work provides evidence that peopling of Korea can be seen as a complex process, interpreted as an early northern Asian settlement with at least one subsequent male-biased southern-to-northern migration, possibly associated with the spread of rice agriculture.

Thai People

The Thai (or Tai) are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of languages.

The earliest mention of the Thai, as a nation in south China called NAN-JOA (Nanzhao or Nanman), comes from Chinese records dating back to the sixth century BC. These early Thai emanated out of the Yunnan region and dispersed into the general area of what is today Thailand. These Thai peoples arrived in various waves and displaced the earlier native Mon and Khmer populations as they settled the region with a large group settling in Thailand during the Sung period of China roughly around 960 AD.

The Tai ethnicity stretches from Hainan to eastern India and from southern Sichuan to Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam, which speak languages in the Tai family and share similar traditions and festivals, including Songkran. Despite never having a unified nation-state of their own, the peoples also have historically shared a vague idea of a "Siam" nation, corrupted to Shan or Assam in some places, and most self-identify as "Tai".

Comparative linguistic research seems to indicate that the Tai people were a proto-Kradai-speaking culture of southern China, and that they may have originally been of Austronesian descent. Prior to inhabiting mainland China, the Tai are suspected to have migrated from a homeland on the island of Taiwan where they spoke a dialect of Proto-Austronesian or one of its descendant languages. After the arrival of Sino-Tibetan speaking ethnic groups from mainland China to the island of Taiwan, the Tai would have then migrated into mainland China, perhaps along the Pearl River, where their language greatly changed in character from the other Austronesian languages under influence of Sino-Tibetan and Hmong-Mien language infusion. The coming of the Han Chinese to this region of southern China may have prompted the Tai to migrate in mass once again, this time southward over the mountains into Southeast Asia. While this theory of the origin of the Tai is currently the leading theory, there is insufficient archaeological evidence to prove or disprove the proposition at this time, and the linguistic evidence alone is not conclusive. However, in further support of the theory, it is believed that the O1 Y-DNA haplogroup is associated with both the Austronesian people and the Tai. The prevalence of Y-DNA Haplogroup O1 among Austronesian and Tai peoples also suggests a common ancestry with the Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Hmong-Mien peoples some 35,000 years ago in China. Y-DNA Haplogroup O2a is also found at high frequency among most Tai peoples, which is a trait that they share with the neighboring Austroasiatic peoples.

The Tai have historically resided in China, India and continental Southeast Asia since the early Tai expansion period. Their primary geographic distribution in those countries is roughly in the shape of an arc extending from northeastern India through southern China and down to Southeast Asia.

In southern China, people speaking Kam–Tai (Zhuang-Dong) languages are mainly found in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, and Hainan.

Daic People: The Kradai or Kra-Dai languages, also known as Daic, Kadai, or Tai-Kadai, are a language family of highly tonal languages found in southern China and Southeast Asia. The diversity of the Kradai languages in southeastern China, especially on Hainan, suggests that this is close to their homeland. The Tai branch moved south into Southeast Asia only in historic times, founding the nations that later became Thailand and Laos in what had been Austroasiatic territory.

The Kradai languages were formerly considered to be part of the Sino-Tibetan family, but outside of China they are now classified as an independent family. They contain large numbers of cognates with Sino-Tibetan languages. However, these are seldom found in all branches of the family, and do not include basic vocabulary, indicating that they are old loan words (Ostapirat 2005).

In China, they are called Zhuang-Dong languages and are generally considered Sino-Tibetan along with the Miao-Yao languages.

Several Western scholars believe that Kradai is related to or a branch of the Austronesian language family, in a family called Austro-Tai. There is a substantial but limited number of cognates in the core vocabulary. There is yet no agreement as to whether they are mainland Austronesian languages which remained on the mainland, a backmigration from Taiwan to the mainland, or a later migration from the Philippines to Hainan during the Austronesian expansion.

Iban People

Map of Malaysian Borneo, Sarawak

The Ibans are a branch of the Dayak peoples of Borneo. They were formerly known during the colonial period by the British as Sea Dayaks. Ibans were renowned for practising headhunting and tribal/territorial expansion. A long time ago, being a very strong and successful warring tribe, the Ibans were a very feared tribe in Borneo. They speak the Iban language.

Today, the days of headhunting and piracy are long gone and in has come the modern era of globalization and technology for the Ibans. The Iban population is concentrated in Sarawak, Brunei, in the West Kalimantan region of Indonesia. They live in longhouses called rumah panjai or rumah panjang. Most of the Iban longhouses are equipped with modern facilities such as electricity and water supply and other facilities such as (tar sealed) roads, telephone lines and the internet. Younger Ibans are mostly found in urban areas and visit their hometowns during the holidays. The Ibans today are becoming increasingly urbanised while (surprisingly) retaining most of their traditional heritage and culture.

According to oral histories, the Iban arrived in western Sarawak from Indonesia about 1675.

The consensus interpretation in modern anthropology is that nearly all indigenous peoples of South East Asia, including the Dayaks, are descendants of a larger Austronesian migration from Asia, thought to have settled in the South East Asian Archipelago some 3,000 years ago. About 2,450 years ago, metallurgy was introduced; it later became

The Dayak people of Borneo possess an indigenous account of their history, partly in writing and partly in common cultural customary practices. In addition, colonial accounts and reports of Dayak activity in Borneo detail carefully cultivated economic and political relationships with other communities as well as an ample body of research and study considering historical Dayak migrations. In particular, the Iban or the Sea Dayak exploits in the South China Seas are documented, owing to their ferocity and aggressive culture of war against sea dwelling groups and emerging Western trade interests in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 km².

The Iban language belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, and is related to Malay, more closely to Sarawakian Malay.

Austronesian has several primary branches, all but one of which are found exclusively on Taiwan. The Formosan languages of Taiwan are grouped into as many as nine first-order subgroups of Austronesian. All Austronesian languages spoken outside Taiwan (including its offshore Yami language) belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch, sometimes called Extra-Formosan.

* Video: Iban Tribes Warriors of Sarawak

Iban of Sarawak: Chronicle of a Vanishing World by Vinson H. Sutlive

Media and Nation Building: How the Iban Became Malaysian by John Postill

* HLA Polymorphism in Three Indigenous Populations of Sabah and Sarawak by J. S. Dhaliwal, et al.

Abstract: One hundred and fifty-eight Kadazan, Iban and Bidayuh individuals registered with the Malaysian Marrow Donor Registry were typed for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A, HLA-B and HLA-DR. Six, seven and eight HLA-A alleles as well as 13, 15 and 16 HLA-B alleles were detected in the Kadazan, Bidayuh and Iban, respectively. The most common HLA-A allele in all three groups was HLA-A*24 with a frequency of 0.456, 0.490 and 0.422 in the Kadazan, Bidayuh and Iban, respectively. The most common HLA-B allele detected in the Kadazan was HLA-B*40 with a frequency of 0.333; for the Bidayuh and the Iban it was HLA-B*15 with a frequency of 0.460 and 0.275, respectively. The HLA-DR allele with the highest frequency in the Kadazan was HLA-DR*1502 with a frequency of 0.500. In the Iban and the Bidayuh, HLA-DRB1*1202 was the most common DR allele with frequencies of 0.235 and 0.310, respectively. The two most common haplotypes for the Kadazan are A*34-B*38-DR*1502 and A*24-B*40-DR*0405, whereas for the Bidayuh they are A*24-B*15-DR*1602 and A*24-B*35-DR*1202 and for the Iban they are A*34-*B15-DR*1502 and A*24-B*15-DR*1202.

HLA-A24 (A24) is a human leukocyte antigen serotype within HLA-A serotype group. This group currently is dominated by A*2402. A24 and A*24 are almost synonymous in meaning.

A*2402 has one of the highest "A" frequencies identified for a number of peoples, including Papua New Guineans, Indigenous Taiwanese (Eastern Tribals), Yupik and Greenland Eskimos. It is common over much of Southeastern Asia.

HLA-B15 (B15) is an HLA-B serotype. The serotype identifies the B*15 gene-allele protein products of HLA-B.

B15 is a broad antigen can be subdivided into several split antigens that are often used in characterization. B*15 is the largest allele grouping for any known human autosomal locus. One reason for the diversity of this group is that B15 is among a group of alleles enriched in the original humans that left Africa and dispersed across East Asia and Australia. As people traveled east the frequency of many alleles dropped or disappeared from migrants. However B*15 persisted, expanded and diversified. The wide range and complex environment selected for new alleles and promoted their expansion.

HLA-B15 allele *1502 is associated with the severe skin conditions Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TENS) caused by allopurinol drug sensitivity in East Asians.

HLA-DR12(DR12) is a HLA-DR serotype that recognizes the DRB1*1201 to *1203, *1206.

There are only 2 common allels for DRB1*12, *1201 and *1202. *1202 is more common on the West Pacific Rim and particularly Indochina and the South Pacific.

DR12 is associated with vulval lichen sclerosus, and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis.

DRB1*1202 is found to be increased in narcolepsy associated sudden death syndrome in the Thai population, and narcolepsy in the Japanese population.

* Phylogenetic Relationships of the Orang Asli and Iban of Malaysia Based on Maternal Markers by K.C. Ang, et al.

Abstract: Malaysia remains as a crossroad of different cultures and peoples, and it has long been recognized that studying its population history can provide crucial insight into the prehistory of Southeast Asia as a whole. The earliest inhabitants were the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia and the indigenous groups in Sabah and Sarawak. Although they were the earliest migrants in this region, these tribes are divided geographically by the South China Sea. We analyzed DNA sequences of 18 Orang Asli using mitochondrial DNA extracted from blood samples, each representing one sub-tribe, and from five Sarawakian Iban. Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from hair samples in order to examine relationships with the main ethnic groups in Malaysia. The D-loop region and cytochrome b genes were used as the candidate loci. Phylogenetic relationships were investigated using maximum parsimony and neighbor joining algorithms, and each tree was subjected to bootstrap analysis with 1000 replicates. Analyses of the HVS I region showed that the Iban are not a distinct group from the Orang Asli; they form a sub-clade within the Orang Asli. Based on the cytochrome b gene, the Iban clustered with the Orang Asli in the same clade. We found evidence for considerable gene flow between Orang Asli and Iban. We concluded that the Orang Asli, Iban and the main ethnic groups of Malaysia are probably derived from a common ancestor. This is in agreement with a single-route migration theory, but it does not dismiss a two-route migration theory.

* Haplotype Diversity of 17 Y-Chromosomal STRs in Three Native Sarawak Populations (Iban, Bidayuh and Melanau) in East Malaysia by YM Chang YM

Abstract: 17 Y-STRs (DYS456, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS389II, DYS458, DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS393, DYS391, DYS439, DYS635 or Y-GATA C4, DYS392, Y-GATA H4, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS448) have been analyzed in 320 male individuals from Sarawak, an eastern state of Malaysia on the Borneo island using the AmpFlSTR Y-filer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). These individuals were from three indigenous ethnic groups in Sarawak comprising of 103 Ibans, 113 Bidayuhs and 104 Melanaus. The observed 17-loci haplotypes and the individual allele frequencies for each locus were estimated, whilst the locus diversity, haplotype diversity and discrimination capacity were calculated in the three groups. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that 87.6% of the haplotypic variation was found within population and 12.4% between populations (fixation index F(ST)=0.124, p=0.000). This study has revealed that the indigenous populations in Sarawak are distinctly different to each other, and to the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia (Malays, Chinese and Indians), with the Melanaus having a strikingly high degree of shared haplotypes within. There are rare unusual variants and microvariants that were not present in Malaysian Malay, Chinese or Indian groups. In addition, occurrences of DYS385 duplications which were only noticeably present in Chinese group previously was also observed in the Iban group whilst null alleles were detected at several Y-loci (namely DYS19, DYS392, DYS389II and DYS448) in the Iban and Melanau groups.

Malaysian Chinese is a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the fifteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries.

Most Chinese immigrants of Malaya came from southern China, mostly from the province of Fujian and Guangdong. In the nineteenth century, many came as indentured labourers, known as coolies (Chinese: 苦力). Others came freely to work, and were supported by Clan Associations. By 1911, the Chinese population in Malaya had reached 269,854, and around a million circa 1949.

The Hokkien is the largest group in Malaysia. It forms the largest language group in Penang, Malacca, Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Selangor -- mostly in Klang and coastal region of Selangor and western Johor. Hokkien is also commonly spoken in Sarawak as the Hokkien are the largest group of Chinese ethnic while there formed smaller groups of them in Sabah.

The Hakka also form the most populous dialect group in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), parts of Johor notably Kulai, Selangor-Kuala Lumpur and Pahang. Hakkas are also found in large numbers in Johor Bahru and Perak, of which they possibly constitute the largest dialect group.

* Is Nasopharyngeal Cancer Really a "Cantonese Cancer"? by JT Wee, et al.

Abstract: Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is endemic in Southern China, with Guandong province and Hong Kong reporting some of the highest incidences in the world. The journal Science has called it a "Cantonese cancer". We propose that in fact NPC is a cancer that originated in the Bai Yue ("proto Tai Kadai" or "proto Austronesian" or "proto Zhuang") peoples and was transmitted to the Han Chinese in southern China through intermarriage. However, the work by John Ho raised the profile of NPC, and because of the high incidence of NPC in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, NPC became known as a Cantonese cancer. We searched historical articles, articles cited in PubMed, Google, monographs, books and Internet articles relating to genetics of the peoples with high populations of NPC. The migration history of these various peoples was extensively researched, and where possible, their genetic fingerprint identified to corroborate with historical accounts. Genetic and anthropological evidence suggest there are a lot of similarities between the Bai Yue and the aboriginal peoples of Borneo and Northeast India; between Inuit of Greenland, Austronesian Mayalo Polynesians of Southeast Asia and Polynesians of Oceania, suggesting some common ancestry. Genetic studies also suggest the present Cantonese, Minnans and Hakkas are probably an admixture of northern Han and southern Bai Yue. All these populations have a high incidence of NPC. Very early contact between southern Chinese and peoples of East Africa and Arabia can also account for the intermediate incidence of NPC in these regions.

Excerpt: Before the last ice age, continental Asia extended to Japan and Taiwan through two coastal landmasses known as Tunghailand and Nanhailand (from the Gulf of Tonkin to Japan) and to Borneo and Java through Sundaland (now the Gulf of Siam and Java Sea); now all are under the sea after the rise in sea levels (Figure 3). The original southern China aborigines (protoBaiyue) probably wandered freely along this coastal region, but after the ice age and the following rising sea levels, they became isolated on the islands of Taiwan, Hainan, Borneo, and islandic Southeast Asia. Some of these people were also believed to have migrated north and across the Bering Strait into Alaska, Greenland, and the Americas.

* Ancient Jades Map 3,000 Years of Prehistoric Exchange in Southeast Asia by Hsiao-Chun Hung, et al.

The distribution of Taiwan nephrite artifacts in Southeast Asia (from Ancient Jades Map 3,000 Years of Prehistoric Exchange in Southeast Asia by Hsiao-Chun Hung, et al.) . The green zone represents the currently known distribution of Taiwan nephrite artifacts. The green triangle locates the Fengtian nephrite deposit. Yellow stars represent sites outside Taiwan with positively identified Fengtian nephrite artifacts (Taiwan itself has >108 jade-bearing sites, and these cannot be shown individually). Blue stars represent sites with jade artifacts of possible Fengtian origin. Black circles represent sites that have identified nephrite of non-Fengtian origin.

Excerpt: We have used electron probe microanalysis to examine Southeast Asian nephrite (jade) artifacts, many archeologically excavated, dating from 3000 B.C. through the first millennium A.D. The research has revealed the existence of one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. Green nephrite from a source in eastern Taiwan was used to make two very specific forms of ear pendant that were distributed, between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D., through the Philippines, East Malaysia, southern Vietnam, and peninsular Thailand, forming a 3,000-km-diameter halo around the southern and eastern coastlines of the South China Sea. Other Taiwan nephrite artifacts, especially beads and bracelets, were distributed earlier during Neolithic times throughout Taiwan and from Taiwan into the Philippines.

* Ancestry of the Iban Is Predominantly Southeast Asian: Genetic Evidence from Autosomal, Mitochondrial, and Y Chromosomes by Tatum S. Simonson, et al.

PCA Based on NRY Haplogroup Frequencies

(Iban, Taiwan Chinese, Taiwan Aborigine)

Abstract: Humans reached present-day Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) in one of the first major human migrations out of Africa. Population movements in the millennia following this initial settlement are thought to have greatly influenced the genetic makeup of current inhabitants, yet the extent attributed to different events is not clear. Recent studies suggest that south-to-north gene flow largely influenced present-day patterns of genetic variation in Southeast Asian populations and that late Pleistocene and early Holocene migrations from Southeast Asia are responsible for a substantial proportion of ISEA ancestry. Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that the ancestors of present-day inhabitants came mainly from north-to-south migrations from Taiwan and throughout ISEA approximately 4,000 years ago. We report a large-scale genetic analysis of human variation in the Iban population from the Malaysian state of Sarawak in northwestern Borneo, located in the center of ISEA. Genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers analyzed here suggest that the Iban exhibit greatest genetic similarity to Indonesian and mainland Southeast Asian populations. The most common non-recombining Y (NRY) and mitochondrial (mt) DNA haplogroups present in the Iban are associated with populations of Southeast Asia. We conclude that migrations from Southeast Asia made a large contribution to Iban ancestry, although evidence of potential gene flow from Taiwan is also seen in uniparentally inherited marker data

Excerpt: Uniparental marker analyses also indicate a strong genetic influence from mainland Southeast Asia, although there is substantial influence from paternal lineages appears to be associated with northern Asian groups (Table S2; Table S3). The NYR haplogroup frequencies in the Iban and their relation to other populations are shown in Fig. 3. PC1 separates the Taiwanese Aborigines, Philippines, Nusa Tenggara, and Moluccas from the Iban, other Southeast Asian populations, and the Chinese populations. The separation between the Iban and an aboriginal Taiwanese group based on PC1 argues against strong Taiwanese influence on the Iban. On PC2, the Iban, Vietnamese, Chinese, Philippines, and Aboriginal Taiwanese cluster separately from the Malaysian, Southern Bornean, and to the greatest extreme, the Nusa Tenggara and Moluccas populations.

Among the 89 Iban males, the NRY O sub-haplogroups (frequency of O2a = 0.42 and O3 = 0.40) are the most frequent. Haplogroup O2a is found at high frequency throughout Southeast Asia and is common among indigenous, isolated populations such as the Hainan Aborigines located off the mainland coast of Southeast Asia. These results suggest a similar prehistory in the Iban and these Southeast Asian populations. The next most frequent NRY haplogroup is O3, which is distributed throughout East Asia, ISEA, and Oceania, and may represent a substantial contribution from Taiwan. Haplogroups O1, K, C, and F are also present, but at lower frequencies (0.04, 0.08, 0.04, and 0.01, respectively). Haplogroup O1 may reflect the impact of the Out-of-Taiwan migration, although better resolution is necessary to specify Taiwan as the source population. The K, C, and F haplogroups are thought to have originated in Melanesian, Asian, and out-of-Africa migrant populations, respectively. The NRY haplogroup frequencies reflect male-specific gene flow from Southeast Asia, although they do not preclude more recent but less substantial contributions from northern populations such as that of Taiwan.

* Y-chromosomal STRs Haplotypes in the Taiwanese Paiwan Population by Fang-Chin Wu, et al.

MDS Plot Based on Pairwise Φst Values Calculated for the Paiwan (filled circle) and Ten Reference Populations (open circles)

(Minnan (China), Taiwan (Taiwanese), Melanau, Iban)

* Genetic Admixture History of Eastern Indonesia as Revealed by Y-chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis by S. Mona, et al.

Two-dimensional MDS Plot Based on a Fst Distance Matrix Computed from NRY Haplogroup Frequencies

(TCH - Taiwan Han Chinese, VIN - Vietnamese, CHI - Chinese, KOR - Korean, SMT - Sumatra, MAL - Malay, SBO- South Borneo, JAV - Java)

Open white circles: AN-speaking groups; full black circles: NAN (Papuan)-speaking groups; full gray circles: all other populations (irrespective of languages). Groups with more than five samples were not considered. Abbreviations are as following: ADR: Adonara (eastern Indonesia, EI), ALR_p: NAN Alor (EI), ETR_a: AN eastern Timor (EI), FLO: Flores (EI), LMB: Lembata (EI), PNT_p: NAN Pantar (EI), PNT_a: AN Pantar (EI), SLR: Solor (EI). Additional data are from Kayser et al. (2001, 2003, 2006) and additionally from Mona et al. (2007) for NRY data, and from Tommaseo-Ponzetta et al. (2002) for mtDNA data: MOL: Moluccas (pooled from Hiri and Ternate, EI), TEN: Nusa Tenggara (pooled Alor, Flores, Roti, Timur; EI), KAR: Karon (Northwest New Guinea, NWNG), BAH: Baham (NWNG), BIK: Biak (NWNG), EKA: Ekari (NWNG), HAT: Hatam (NWNG), MAB: Maibrat (NWNG), MAN: Mantion (NWNG), MOI: Moi (NWNG), MSK: Moskona (NWNG), WAN: Wandamen (NWNG), IRA: Irarutu (NWNG), ONI: Onin (NWNG), THE: Tehit (NWNG), ASM: Asmat (Southwest New Guinea, SWNG), AWY: Awyu (SWNG), CIT: Citak (SWNG), DAN: Dani/Lani (SWNG), KET: Ketengban (SWNG), KRW: Korowai (SWNG), MAP: Mappi (SWNG), MY: Muyu (SWNG), UNA: Una (SWNG), YAL: Yali (SWNG), KMB: Kombai (SWNG), TRO: Trobriand (Papua New Guinea, PNG), BRN: Bereina (PNG), KAP: Kapuna (PNG), TOL: Tolai New Britain (PNG), PCO: PNG coast, PHL: PNG highlands, FIJ: Fiji, AS1: Australian Aborigines Arnhem Land, AS2: Australian Aborigines Great Sandy Desert, CHI: Han Chinese (East Asia, EA), TAB: Taiwan Aborigines (EA), TCH: Taiwan Han Chinese (EA), VTN: Vietnam (EA), KOR: Korea (EA), MAL: Malay (Southeast Asia, SEA), PHI: Philippines (SEA), SBO: South Borneo (SEA), SMT: Sumatra (SEA), JAV: Java (SEA), COK: Cook Islands (Polynesia, POL), FUT: Futuna (POL), NIE: Niue (POL), TOK: Tokelau (POL), TON: Tonga (POL), TUV: Tuvalu (POL), WES: West Samoa (POL).

Two-dimensional MDS Plot Based on a Fst Distance Matrix Computed from mtDNA Sequences

(TCH - Taiwan Han Chinese, SBO- South Borneo, SMT - Sumatra, JAV - Java, SLR - Solor)

Malays in Singapore

Malays in Singapore (Orang Melayu Singapura) make up about 14 % of the country's population, as based on the broader definition of a "Malay race" rather than the more specific "Malay ethnic group".

The seventeenth-century Malay chronicle, the Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals, tells of the founding of a great trading city on the island of Temasek in 1299 AD by a prince from Palembang. Palembang was then the capital of the diminishing Srivijayan Empire. The prince, Sri Tri Buana, (also known as Sang Nila Utama) was said to be a descendant of Alexander the Great and an Indian princess called Shahru Al-Bariyah. Legend states that he renamed the city Singapura ("lion city") after sighting a strange beast that he took to be a lion although there is no real historical evidence of this.

Temasek ('Sea Town' in Javanese; 淡馬錫) was the name of an early city on the site of modern Singapore.While the early history of Singapore is obscured by myth and legend, some conclusions can be drawn from archaeological evidence and from written references by travelers. Archaeology points to an urbanised settlement on the site by the fourteenth century. Allusions by travelers give some evidence that there may have been a city or town present as early as the second century. At its height, the city boasted a large earthen city wall and moat; many of the buildings were built with stone and brick foundations. Remains of old pottery, coins, jewellery and other artifacts have been found, with many of these artifacts believed to be imported from various parts of China, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. These are sometimes seen as evidence of the city's status as a regional trade centre. An aquatic route which is part of the larger Silk route, passes through Temasek.

In the mid-fourteenth century, Singapura suffered raids by the expanding Javanese Majapahit Empire to the south and the emerging Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya to the north, both at various times claiming the island as a vassal state. Around 1388, the ruler of Palembang, Parameswara, came to Singapore to flee from Majapahit control. He murdered the king and seized power. It was a futile act. The Srivijayan Empire, already in decline, finally met its end when Majapahit attacked its capital Palembang in 1391. In 1396, Majapahit or Ayutthaya forces drove out Parameswara, who fled northward and founded kingdom of Malacca in 1400.

* Video: History of Singapore 新加坡的歷史 Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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Map of the Silk Road

Native Population Match: Adi Pasi Tribal (Arunachal Pradesh, India), Turkey, Iban (Sarawak, Malaysia), Bhutan, Tibetan (Qinghai, China), Italy, Tuscany (Italy), Thailand, Switzerland, Nepal, Salar (Xunhua, Qinghai, China), Sicily (Italy), Southern Tunisia, Arab (Israel), Thailand, Malay (Singapore), Toscana (Italy), Korea, Istanbul (Turkey), Csango (Romania).

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Levant

The Levant is a geographical term that refers to a large area in Southwest Asia, south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Desert in the south, and the Zagros Mountains in the east. The term is also sometimes used to refer to modern events or states in the region immediately bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

* History of the Levant

Arab (Israel)

Map of Arab population, 2000

Arab citizens of Israel (also Arab Israelis, Israeli Arabs or Palestinian Israelis) refers to the non-Jewish population of Arab or Arabic-speaking citizens of Israel. Arab citizens comprise almost 20% of the population of Israel. The majority identify themselves as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship

In genetic genealogy studies, Palestinians and Negev Bedouins have the highest rates of Haplogroup J1 (Y-DNA) among all populations tested (62.5%). Semitic populations, including Jews, usually possess an excess of J1 Y chromosomes compared to other populations harboring Y-haplogroup J. The haplogroup J1, associated with marker M267, originates south of the Levant and was first disseminated from there into Ethiopia and Europe in Neolithic times. In Jewish populations J1 has a rate of around 15%, with haplogroup J2 (M172) (of eight sub-Haplogroups) being almost twice as common as J1 among Jews (<29%). J1 is most common in the southern Levant, as well as Syria, Iraq, Algeria, and Arabia, and drops sharply at the border of non-semitic areas like Turkey and Iran. A second diffusion of the J1 marker took place in the seventh century AD when Arabians brought it from Arabia to North Africa.

Haplogroup J1 (Y-DNA) includes the modal haplotype of the Galilee Arabs (Nebel et al. 2000) and of Moroccan Arabs (Bosch et al. 2001) and the sister Modal Haplotype of the Cohanim, the "Cohan Modale Haplotype", representing the descendents of the priestly caste Aaron. J2 is known to be related to the ancient Greek movements and is found mainly in Europe and the central Mediterranean (Italy, the Balkans, Greece).

According to a 2002 study by Nebel et al., on Genetic evidence for the expansion of Arabian tribes, the highest frequency of Eu10 (i.e. J1) (30%–62.5%) has been observed so far in various Muslim Arab populations in the Middle East. (Semino et al. 2000; Nebel et al. 2001). The term “Arab,” as well as the presence of Arabs in the Syrian desert and the Fertile Crescent, is first seen in the Assyrian sources from the 9th century B.C.. (Eph'al 1984).

In recent years, many genetic surveys have suggested that, at least paternally, most of the various Jewish ethnic divisions and the Palestinians — and in some cases other Levantines — are genetically closer to each other than the Palestinians or European Jews to non-Jewish Europeans.

Results of a DNA study by geneticist Ariella Oppenheim appears to match historical accounts that Arab Israelis and Palestinians, together as the one same population, represent modern "descendants of a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times", albeit religiously first Christianized then largely Islamized, and all eventually culturally Arabized. Referring to those of the Muslim faith more specifically, it reaffirmed that Palestinian "Muslim Arabs are descended from Christians and Jews who lived in the southern Levant, a region that includes Israel, Sinai and part of Jordan." Geneticist Michael Hammer praised "the study for 'focusing in detail on the Jewish and Palestinian populations.'"

While both the Palestinians and the world's distinct Jewish populations have mixed with invading and host populations respectively, Oppenheim's team found "that Jews have mixed more with other populations, which makes sense because they were more likely to leave the Levant.".

However, a follow-up [Nebel et al. 2001 study] corrected that Jews were found to be more closely related to north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks,and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors. The same study of Nebel 2001 also suggest that Bedouins from the Levant and Palestinians, represent "early lineages derived from the Neolithic inhabitants of the area" albeit with "additional lineages from more-recent population movements.", largely from the Arabian Peninsula.

Map of Israel and the Mediterranean from The Origin of Palestinians and Their Genetic Relatedness With Other Mediterranean Populations by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, et al.

Abstract: The genetic profile of Palestinians has, for the first time, been studied by using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variability and haplotypes. The comparison with other Mediterranean populations by using neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses reveal that Palestinians are genetically very close to Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian- Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. The relatively close relatedness of both Jews and Palestinians to western Mediterranean populations reflects the continuous circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow that have occurred in prehistoric and historic times. This flow overtly contradicts the demic diffusion model of western Mediterranean populations substitution by agriculturalists coming from the Middle East in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish people and the religion of Judaism are strongly interrelated, and converts to Judaism have been absorbed into the Jewish community throughout the millennia.

In Jewish tradition, Jewish ancestry is traced to the Biblical patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the second millennium BC. The Jews enjoyed two periods of political autonomy in their national homeland, the Land of Israel, during ancient history. The first era spanned from 1350 to 586 BC, and encompassed the periods of the Judges, the United Monarchy, and the Divided Monarchy of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with the destruction of the First Temple. The second era was the period of the Hasmonean Kingdom spanning from 140 to 37 BC. Since the destruction of the First Temple, the diaspora has been the home of most of the world's Jews. Except in the modern State of Israel, established in 1948, Jews are a minority in every country in which they live and they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.

Map of Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked alpine country in Western Europe. Switzerland is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.

The genetic composition of the Swiss population is similar to that of Central Europe in general. Switzerland is on one hand at the crossroads of several prehistoric migrations, while on the other hand the Alps acted as a refuge in some cases. Genetic studies found the following haplogroups to be prevalent:

mtDNA: H 28% (HV 33%), U4+U5 (14%), K (7%), J (5%)
Y-DNA: R1b, E3b, I1b2, R1a, J

Swiss Mercenaries: Swiss mercenaries were soldiers notable for their service in foreign armies, especially the armies of the Kings of France, throughout the Early Modern period of European history, from the Later Middle Ages into the Age of the European Enlightenment. Their service as mercenaries was at its apogee during the Renaissance, when their proven battlefield capabilities made them the most sought-after mercenary troops in the world.

Another prime employer of Swiss mercenaries from the later 16th century on was Spain. After the Protestant Reformation, Switzerland was split along religious lines between Protestant and Catholic cantons. Swiss mercenaries from the Catholic cantons were thereafter increasingly likely to be hired for service in the armies of the Spanish Habsburg superpower in the later sixteenth century. The first regularly embodied Swiss regiment in the Spanish army was that of Walter Roll of Uri (a Catholic canton) in 1574, for service in the Spanish Netherlands, and by the middle of the seventeenth century there were a dozen Swiss regiments fighting for the Spanish army. From the latter part of the seventeenth century these could be found serving in Spain itself or in its possessions.

Spanish Occupation of Taiwan: The Spanish and allies established a settlement at Santissima Trinidad, building Fort San Salvador on the northwest coast of Taiwan near Keelung in 1626 which they occupied until 1642 when they were driven out by a joint Dutch-Aborigine invasion force. They also built a fort in Tamsui (1628) but had already abandoned it by 1638. The Dutch later erected Fort Anthonio on the site in 1642, which still stands (now part of the Fort San Domingo museum complex).

* The "Justification" of the Spanish Intrusion in Taiwan in 1626 by Jose Eugenio Borao

Map of the Mediterranean Basin

Tuscany

Map of Tuscany

Tuscany (Italian: Toscana) is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22,990 square kilometres (8,880 sq mi) and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes and its artistic legacy. Tuscany is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

Etruscan couple

The Etruscans were the first major civilization in this region; large enough to lay down a transport infrastructure, implement agriculture and mining, and produce vivid art. The Etruscans lived in Etruria well into prehistory. The civilisation grew to fill the area between the Arno River and Tiber River from the eighth century, reaching their peak during the seventh century BC and sixth century BC, finally succumbing to the Romans by the first century. Throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia, Carthage and Gaul.

The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a non-Indo-European language; the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which in itself is an isolate family, that is, unrelated directly to other known language groups.

* Mitochondrial DNA Variation of Modern Tuscans Supports the Near Eastern Origin of Etruscans by Alessandro Achilli, et al.

Abstract: The origin of the Etruscan people has been a source of major controversy for the past 2,500 years, and several hypotheses have been proposed to explain their language and sophisticated culture, including an Aegean/Anatolian origin. To address this issue, we analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 322 subjects from three well-defined areas of Tuscany and compared their sequence variation with that of 55 western Eurasian populations. Interpopulation comparisons reveal that the modern population of Murlo, a small town of Etruscan origin, is characterized by an unusually high frequency (17.5%) of Near Eastern mtDNA haplogroups. Each of these haplogroups is represented by different haplotypes, thus dismissing the possibility that the genetic allocation of the Murlo people is due to drift. Other Tuscan populations do not show the same striking feature; however, overall, ~5% of mtDNA haplotypes in Tuscany are shared exclusively between Tuscans and Near Easterners and occupy terminal positions in the phylogeny. These findings support a direct and rather recent genetic input from the Near East—a scenario in agreement with the Lydian origin of Etruscans. Such a genetic contribution has been extensively diluted by admixture, but it appears that there are still locations in Tuscany, such as Murlo, where traces of its arrival are easily detectable.

Near East: The term as used by Western archaeologists, geographers, and historians refers to the region encompassing Anatolia (the Asian portion of modern Turkey), the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories), Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

Sicily

Map of Sicily

Sicily (Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area. It is also the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. The area was highly regarded as part of Magna Graecia, with Cicero describing Siracusa as the greatest and most beautiful city of all Ancient Greece.

Sicily has its own unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, cuisine, architecture and language.

The people of Sicily are often portrayed as very proud of their island, identity and culture and it is not uncommon for people to describe themselves as Sicilian, before the more national description of Italian.

Throughout history Sicily has rulers from a variety of different cultures, each of whom has contributed island's culture, particularly in the areas of cuisine and architecture. Sicilian people tend to most closely associate themselves with other southern Italians, with whom they share a common history. Of the ethnicities outside of Italy itself, Sicilians and other southern Italians tend to associate most closely with the Greeks, especially due to the Magna Græcia and Greco-Roman cultures. This is exemplified in the saying "una faccia, una razza", meaning "one face, one race", a phrase sometimes use in reference to each other.

Y-Dna haplogroups were found at the following frequencies in Sicily : R1 (30.09%), J (29.65%), E1b1b (18.21%), I (7.62%), G (5.93%), K2 (5.51%), Q (2.54%). R1 and I haplogroups are typical in West European populations while J and E1b1b consist of lineages with differential distribution within Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Tunisian

Tunisia: According to one genetic study while the vast majority of modern Tunisians identify themselves as Arabs, they are mainly the descendants of Berbers, the first peoples known to inhabit what is now Tunisia. Tunisians are also descended, to a lesser extent, from Semitic peoples (Carthaginians and Arabs) with a little less than 20% of the genetic material (Y-chromosome analysis) coming from the Middle East. Another study, which does not compare Tunisian genetics with those of the Middle East, states that what it calls the Arab subhaplotype Va was found at a relatively high frequency in Tunisia at 50.6%, but also states that this group in fact "probably correspond to a heterogeneous group representing various ethnicities", rather than just Arabs. Other genetic studies found that "Tunisians did not show a significant level of differentiation with northern population". This suggests a fairly significant European input to Tunisian genetics compared to other neighbouring populations. about 30% of Tunisians are mixed with Turks.

* Early History of Tunisia

Berber woman from Tunisia

Berbers are defined as Mediterraneans with moderate Alpinid and Nordic admixture closer to Europeans than to Africans. This is supported by a scientific study done on Rif Berbers showing that 38.6% of the Rif Berbers have blue or green eyes, a percentage higher than that found in Sicilians or Spaniards.

The genetic proximity observed between the Berbers and southern Europeans is because both these groups shared a common ancestor either in the Upper Paleolithic, in the Neolithic or alternatively during history with invasion and occupation during nearly seven centuries of the Iberian Peninsula by Moorish troops

Cavalli-Sforza includes the Berbers in a much larger genetic group, one which includes S.W. Asians, Iranians, Europeans, Sardinians, Indians, S.E. Indians, and Lapps (Sami). Cavalli-Sforza also makes two related observations. The Berbers and those S.W. Asians who speak Semitic idioms, in addition, together belong to an large and ancient language family (the Afroasiatic). This large language family incorporates in its ranks members from two different genetic groups, i.e., the one listed by Cavalli-Sforza immediately above, and one called by him the Ethiopian group, who inhabit lands from the Horn to the Sahel region of Africa. In confirmation of Cavalli-Sforza's genetic conclusions, recent demographic study indicates a common Neolithic origin for both the Berber and Semitic populations.

* Genetic Evidence in Support of a Shared Eurasian-North African Dairying Origin by Sean Myles et al.

Abstract : The process by which pastoralism and agriculture spread from the Fertile Crescent over the past 10,000 years has been the subject of intense investigation by geneticists, linguists and archaeologists. However, no consensus has been reached as to whether this Neolithic transition is best characterized by a demic diffusion (with a significant genetic input from migrating farmers) or a cultural diffusion (without substantial migration of farmers). Milk consumption and thus lactose tolerance are assumed to have spread with pastoralism and we propose that by looking at the relevant mutations in and around the lactase gene in human populations, we can gain insight into the origin(s) and spread of dairying. We genotyped the putatively causal allele for lactose tolerance (–13910T) and constructed haplotypes from several polymorphisms in and around the lactase gene (LCT) in three North African Berber populations and compared our results with previously published data. We found that the frequency of the –13910T allele predicts the frequency of lactose tolerance in several Eurasian and North African Berber populations but not in most sub-Saharan African populations. Our analyses suggest that contemporary Berber populations possess the genetic signature of a past migration of pastoralists from the Middle East and that they share a dairying origin with Europeans and Asians, but not with sub-Saharan Africans.

Lactose intolerance has been studied as an aid in understanding ancient diets and population movement in prehistoric societies.

Roman authors recorded that the people of northern Europe, particularly Britain and Germany drank unprocessed milk (as opposed to the Romans who made cheese). This corresponds very closely with modern European distributions of lactose intolerance, where the people of Britain, Germany and Scandinavia have a good tolerance, and those of southern Europe, especially Italy, have a poorer tolerance.

In east Asia, historical sources also attest that the Chinese did not consume milk, whereas the nomads that lived on the borders did. Again, this reflects modern distributions of intolerance. China is particularly notable as a place of poor tolerance, whereas in Mongolia and the Asian steppes horse milk is drunk regularly.

There is some debate on exactly where and when genetic mutation(s) occurred. Some argue for separate mutation events in Sweden (which has one of the lowest levels of lactose intolerance in the world) and the Arabian Peninsula around 4000 BC. However, others argue for a single mutation event in the Middle East at about 4500 BC which then subsequently radiated. Some sources suggest a third and more recent mutation in the East African Tutsi. Whatever the precise origin in time and place, most modern Northern Europeans and people of European ancestry show the effects of this mutation (that is, they are able to safely consume milk products all their lives) while most modern East Asians, sub-Saharan Africans and native peoples of the Americas and Pacific Islands do not (making them lactose intolerant as adults).

Carthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian. The city of Carthage is located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis across from the center of Tunis. According to Roman legend it was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician colonists under the leadership of Elissa (Queen Dido). It became a large and rich city and thus a major power in the Mediterranean. The resulting rivalry with Syracuse and Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other's homeland. Hannibal's invasion of Italy in the Second Punic War culminated in the Carthaginian victory at Cannae and led to a serious threat to the continuation of Roman rule over Italy, however Carthage emerged from the conflict at its historical weakest. After the Third Punic War, the city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. However, the Romans refounded Carthage, which became one of the three most important cities of the Empire and the capital of the short-lived Vandal kingdom. It remained one of the most important Roman cities until the Muslim conquest when it was destroyed a second time in AD 698.

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean during the period 1550 BC to 300 BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta (modern day Sarafand) between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland. The Phoenicians often traded by means of a galley, a man-powered sailing vessel and are credited with the invention of the bireme. Tyre and Sidon were the most powerful of the Phoenician states in the Levant, but were not as powerful as the North African ones.

* Identifying Genetic Traces of Historical Expansions: Phoenician Footprints in the Mediterranean by Pierre A. Zalloua, et al.

Turkish People

Map of Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey

Istanbul (historically Byzantium and Constantinople) is the largest city in Turkey, as well as the cultural and financial center of Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents.

In its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922).

Turkish People: It is difficult to understand the complex cultural and demographic dynamics of the Turkic speaking groups that have shaped the Anatolian landscape for the last millennium. During the Bronze Age the population of Anatolia expanded, reaching an estimated level of 12 million during the late Byzantine Empire period. Such a large pre-existing Anatolian population would have reduced the impact by the subsequent arrival of Turkic speaking groups from Central Asia. The Oghuz Turks were the main Turkic people that moved into Anatolia. Around 1,000,000 Turkic migrants settled in Anatolia in 12th and 13th centuries.

The question of to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and the role of the 11th century invasion by Oghuz Turks, has been the subject of several studies. Research confirms the studies indicating that the Turkic peoples originated from Central Asia and therefore are possibly related with Xiongnu. However it is concluded that aboriginal Anatolian groups may have given rise to the present-day Turkish population. DNA results suggests the lack of a strong genetic relationship between the Mongols and the Turks despite the close relationship of their languages and shared historical neighborhood. Anatolians do not significantly differ from other Mediterraneans, indicating that while the ancient Asian Turks carried out an invasion with cultural significance, it is barely genetically detectable.

Csango People

The Csango people are a Hungarian ethnic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County. Their traditional language, Csango, an old Hungarian dialect is still in use, though the larger part of them speak Romanian.

Hungarians and Their Ancestors from Probable Ancestors of Hungarian Ethnic Groups: An Admixture Analysis by C. R. Guglielmino, et al.

(Hungarian ethnic groups: Kiskun, Csango, Szekely, Matyo, Paloc, Nagykun, Orseg, Jasz)

* The Distribution and Most Recent Common Ancestor of the 17q21 Inversion in Humans by Michael P. Donnelly, et al.

Abstract: The polymorphic inversion on 17q21, sometimes called the microtubular associated protein tau (MAPT) inversion, is an approximately 900 kb inversion found primarily in Europeans and Southwest Asians. We have identified 21 SNPs that act as markers of the inverted, i.e., H2, haplotype. The inversion is found at the highest frequencies in Southwest Asia and Southern Europe (frequencies of approximately 30%); elsewhere in Europe, frequencies vary from < 5%, in Finns, to 28%, in Orcadians. The H2 inversion haplotype also occurs at low frequencies in Africa, Central Asia, East Asia, and the Americas, though the East Asian and Amerindian alleles may be due to recent gene flow from Europe. Molecular evolution analyses indicate that the H2 haplotype originally arose in Africa or Southwest Asia. Though the H2 inversion has many fixed differences across the approximately 900 kb, short tandem repeat polymorphism data indicate a very recent date for the most recent common ancestor, with dates ranging from 13,600 to 108,400 years, depending on assumptions and estimation methods. This estimate range is much more recent than the 3 million year age estimated by Stefansson et al. in 2005.

MAPT Inversion Frequencies in East Asia

(MLY-Malaysians, LAO-Laos, CBD-Cambodian, CHS-Chinese San Francisco, CHT-Chinese Taiwan, HAK-Hakka, MNG-Mongol, MNC-Manchu, LOL-Lolo, HMG-Hmong, KOR-Korean, JPN-Japanese, AMI-Ami, ATL-Atayal)

* Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Taiwan: A Model for Strain Evolution Linked to PopulationMigration by Horng-Yunn Dou, et al.

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Mitochondrial DNA, Y-DNA and HLA Tests

母系血緣 (mtDNA, 粒線體DNA): G1a1

解釋 :

HVSI (16037-16569): 五個突變 ; 16223,16274,16325,16362, 16519 該血緣來自北亞洲, 相近的血緣見於內蒙古 (Inner Mongolian), 日本 (Japanese) 及鄒族 (Tsou people).

父系血緣 (Y-DNA, Y 染色體): O3a3; O3c (M214, M175, M122, M324, M159)

解釋 :

為漢人少見的血緣 , 在馬偕醫院約 1000人資料中 (包括閩南人 , 客家人 , 原住民 , 東南亞族群) , 不見於高山原住民 . 屬這血緣的有福建人(Fujian) 3.6% , 閩南人(Minnan) 客家人(Hakka) 3.1 %, 平埔族 1.7% (Plain Tribes), 印尼人(Indonesia) 1.1% 及菲律賓 (Philippines)0.8% . 中國的研究 (988人) , 只在廣東梅縣 (Meixian) 發現 1 例 (Genetics, Vol. 172, 2431-2439) . 這血緣應屬於非漢人 , 很可能是東南亞的血緣 .

體染色體的組織抗原 (HLA) 基因型及可能的 HLA A-B-DRB1 單倍型 (即基因組合)

A*1101/02 B*4001 DRB1*0406

A*1101/02 B*5101 DRB1*1501

解釋 :

內外祖父母的八條染色體中 , 每個人可分別由父母各遺傳到一條 HLA 基因的單倍型. 可是由於國際上 HLA-A-B-DR 三個基因所組成的單倍型資料較少 , 一般族群多是 HLA-A-B 或 HLA-B-DR 的資料 , 個案的單倍型及其可能來源如下 :

台灣地區可能性較高的單倍型組成及其分布:

A*1101-B*4001-DRB1*1501

A*1101-B*4001 : 常見於東南亞及中國華南 , 中國華南地區及台灣閩南及客家人頻率範圍為 3.7-13.4% ; 常見於台灣原住民 (平均 2.7%) ; 東南亞島嶼及中南半島約 1-2%.

B*4001-DRB1*1501 : 常見於台灣原住民 (2.56%); 見於台灣閩南及客家族群及福建華人 (1.6-1.9%) ; 見於越南人 (1.2%) ; 可見於日本人 (0.6%).

A*1101-B*5101-DRB1:0406

A*1101-B*5101 : 見於東亞 , 東南亞 , 及南亞 ; 印度有較高的頻率 (4.3%); 中國華南及台灣閩南及客家族群約在 0.5-2.3% ; 東北亞韓國 1.75% , 日本人0.3%; 東南亞泰國約在 1.5%.

B*5101-DRB1*0406 : 可見於在韓國人 , 低於 0.5% .

DRB1*0406 在台灣為稀有基因 , 主要分佈在亞洲北部 , 其在世界分佈的情形如附表.

HLA 的結果請自行參考家族歷史及上述資料決定血緣的來源 .

結論: 母系血緣來自北亞洲 , 父系血緣來自東南亞.

DNA Tests by

馬偕紀念醫院
輸血醫學研究室

Populations	Allele		Alle Frequency
Colombia West Cauca	DRB1*0406		0.075
Mongolia Tsaatan	DRB1*0406		0.07
Israel Gaza Palestinians	DRB1*0406		0.061
China Harbin Korean	DRB1*0406		0.06
South Korea Pop 1	DRB1*0406		0.059
South Korea Pop 2	DRB1*0406	10.6	0.056
USA Colorado Univ Cord Blood Bank Asia	DRB1*0406		0.046
China Urumqi Han	DRB1*0406		0.042
South Korea Pop 3	DRB1*0406		0.041
Japan	DRB1*0406		0.04
Morocco Nador Metalsa	DRB1*0406		0.04
China Beijing and Xian	DRB1*0406		0.037
Japan Central	DRB1*0406		0.035
Japan Pop 3	DRB1*0406		0.035
Thailand	DRB1*0406		0.035
Japan Aichi	DRB1*0406	6.5	0.033
Israel Moroccan Jews	DRB1*0406		0.032
Japan Pop 2	DRB1*0406		0.032
Japan Hyogo	DRB1*0406	6.3	0.031
Morocco Souss	DRB1*0406		0.031

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mtDNA: G1a1

16223,16274,16325,16362, 16519

Figure from Traces of Archaic Mitochondrial Lineages Persist in Austronesian-Speaking Formosan Populations by Jean A Trejaut, et al.

Fig. 2 Tree Drawn from a Median-Joining Network of 96 mtDNA Haplotypes Observed in Nine Indigenous Taiwanese Populations

The tree is based on sequences of HVS-I (16024–16390) and a coding region segment covering 9,793 to 10,899 bps. Haplogroup defining HVS-II mutations were manually added after the generation of the network. Additional coding region mutations, ascertained through complete mtDNA sequencing of an individual of each subclade of the haplogroup defined by the mutation, were used to generate the network and are shown in blue. All nps are numbered according to reference sequence. Mutations in italic indicate back conversions. Nucleotide change is specified only for transversions. Node areas are proportional to haplotype frequencies of the pooled nine tribes. The population codes are as follows: A, Atayal; B, Bunun; M, Amis; P, Paiwan; R, Rukai; S, Saisiat; U, Puyuma; T, Tsou; and Y, Yami. CRS = Cambridge reference sequence.

Tsou People

The Tsou (鄒族) are an Indigenous people of central southern Taiwan. They are spread across three districts, Nantou County, Chiayi County and Kaohsiung County.

They are sometimes confused with the Thao people of Sun Moon Lake. In the year 2000 the Tsou numbered 6,169. This was approximately 1.6% of Taiwan's total Indigenous population, making them the seventh-largest tribal group.

Segawa's Illustrated Ethnography of Indigenous Formosan People: The Tsou by Yuasa Hiroshi

Tsou Elder in Traditional Hat and Clothing (Images from the Gerald Warner Taiwan Image Collection)

Man and Woman Playing Musical Instruments (Tsou Tribe)

(Musical Instruments: mouth bow, Jew's Harp)

The musical bow is a simple string musical instrument consisting of a string supported by a flexible string bearer, usually made out of wood. Often, it is a normal archery bow used for music rather than as a weapon.

Although the bow is now thought of as a weapon, it is not clear whether it was used in this way originally. Cave paintings in southern France dated to around 15,000 BC, show a bow being used as a musical instrument, so this use certainly has a long history. Musical bows are still used in a number of cultures today, almost all over the world.

The Jew's harp, jaw harp, mouth harp, or Ozark harp is thought to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 3rd century BC. Despite its common English name, and the sometimes used Jew's trump, it has no particular connection with Judaism. This instrument is native to Asia and used in all tribes of Turkish people in Asia. Mostly called as temir komuz, agiz komuzu or gubuz.

The Jew's harp is an integral element in the music of Tuva. Known as the khomuz, the instrument is used to play the same overtone melodies used in the khoomei, sygyt, and kargyraa styles of overtone singing. The instrument is also a traditional part of Alpine musical styles, from Hungary to France. The earliest trouve in Europe is a bronze-harp dating 5th to 7th century.

* The Prehistory of the Daic (Taikadai) Speaking Peoples and the Hypothesis of an Austronesian Connection by Roger Blench

Excerpt: The Jews’ harp is a plucked aerophone found across Eurasia from Korea to the British Isles. However, it takes a particular form in the East Asian region, which is quite exceptional. It has multiple tongues, which enable the player to produce a variety of fundamentals and thus to develop relatively complex melodies. It also has a highly restricted distribution, being known only on Taiwan and in South China. Speakers of Austronesian languages on Taiwan developed some unusual types with multiple tongues, which made possible various types of speech-imitation (Li Hwei 1956; Ling 1961; Lenherr 1967; Wu 1994; Hsu 2002). Such types are also widespread in South China (Yuan Bingchang & Mao Jizeng 1986: ill. following p. 240). There is additional common feature to Taiwan and the mainland, the use of these Jews’ harps in courtship rituals. The tonal nature of these languages makes possible ‘talking’, speech-imitation, where the changing pitches of a melody mimic those of speech-tones. The extreme organological specificity of this instrument and its restricted occurrence together with an extremely similar context of use, point strongly to a connection between the two regions.

Alishan

Dawn view from Alishan, photo by Michael Cannings

The Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山國家風景區) is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan. It is 415 km² in area. It includes, among other things, mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway and several hiking trails. The area is popular among tourists and mountain climbers, and Alishan or Mount Ali (阿里山) itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is also famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.

Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.

The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid 17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Rueili (瑞里), Rueifong (瑞峰), Siding (隙頂), and Fencihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.

Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into a new national park (新高阿里山國立公園).

With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area.

* Alishan's Pnguu--An Alternative Travel Destination by Chang Chiung-fang

Excerpt: In the Tsou language, "Tsou" means "humans." In addition to being blessed with beautiful natural surroundings, Pnguu (來吉村) is rich in another precious resource-her people.

If you want to see beautiful young women or strapping young men, Pnguu won't let you down. During the period of Dutch occupation, the Tsou people "mixed" with the Dutch. As a result, the Tsou are the most beautiful of Taiwan's indigenous peoples and according to many, the Tsou living in Pnguu are the most attractive.

After he arrived in Formosa, the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office representative to Taiwan, Menno Goedhart, discovered that Taiwan's Rukai and Tsou Tribes had descendents with Dutch blood, with the Tsou having the most. Members of the Tsou tribe told him that as many as half of their people had some Dutch blood.

From children playing along the road and youngsters of marriageable age to middle aged individuals already mothers and fathers themselves, all of the residents of Pnguu have breathtakingly large, deep eyes and high, straight noses.

Director Wei Te-sheng, who became a household name when his movie Cape No. 7 became a smash hit last year, visited a number of villages recently while on his quest to find a leading male for Seediq Bale, a film about indigenous people. Men of the Tsou Tribe were rejected as being "too beautiful and not meeting the director's ideals of a rough-looking hero."

* Tsou: Introduction to the Ethnic Group by Digital Museum of Taiwan Indigeneous Peoples

Excerpt: Under the Dutch occupation, the earliest record about the three “Tsou” groups was written, describing a local meeting under the command of the Dutch that was attended by ancestors of these three groups. This record provides evidence that, according to their oral history, there was contact

between the Tsou and the Dutch in the Tainan area. Elders also emphasized that their ancestors had lived on the Tainan Plain but moved to the Alishan Mountain area due to the oppression of the Dutch (another version is that they were chasing game into the mountain area).

* Affinities Between Nagas and Tribes of Southern Seas by Thoje Pou

Excerpts: The comparative study of the Nagas in India and Myanmar and some of the Indigenous People of Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan shows their similarities in their socio-cultural life. The Naga scholars believed that Nagas lived in the Chindwin and Irranwandy valley before they migrated to Naga Hills. They also believed that they lived near the Island or Southern seas coastal areas and retreated to north west of Myanmar and later migrated to the Naga Hills – while the other groups of Naga went further to the southern seas of Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Philippines.

Many authorities on Naga suggested that the custom and tradition of Naga is very resembled with those tribes in Southern Seas (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine etc). Some of the tribes living in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan are quite similar with the Naga people in many aspects. The custom and tradition practices by Nagas like Headhunting, Dormitory system, Tattooing, Platform burial, looms, terraces rice field etc are resemble to those tribes in the Southern Seas. Mc Govern writes that Nagas are very similar to the Dyaks and Kayans of Borneo, Bataks of Sumatra and certain groups of Formosa (Taiwan) and several other groups in Philippines. Some of the other writers like, W.C. Smith, Barrows, Shakespeare etc, described the affinities of Nagas with those tribes of Malaysia, Borneo, Philippines, Indonesia and Sumatra....

The TSOU tribe of Taiwan also have assembly hall. The young men lived in Assembly Hall and are trained in different skills before they are married. There are traditional taboos prohibiting the women from setting foot into the “Kuba” (the Assembly Halls) Like the Tsou tribe, the Naga tribe also have a kind of Assembly hall called “Morung”. The young man folk stay in Morung and were trained in different skills till they are married.

The Naga young woman folk have separate Morung, the man can go to female’s Morung but the females are prohibited to enter into man’s Morung, which is also similar with the Tsou tribe. The Nagas belief that if woman enter the men’s dormitory, it would bring misfortune in the village, thus woman was restricted to enter in men’s Morung. “Headhunting was a cultural practice of some of the indigenous tribe of Taiwan....

Dayak People

The Dayak or Dyak are a people indigenous to Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages are categorised as part of the Austronesian languages in Asia.

The main ethnic groups of Dayaks are the Bakumpai and Dayak Bukit of South Kalimantan, The Ngajus, Baritos, Benuaqs of East Kalimantan, the Kayan and Kenyah groups and their subtribes in Central Borneo and the Ibans, Embaloh (Maloh), Kayan, Kenyah, Penan, Kelabit, Lun Bawang and Taman populations in the Kapuas and Sarawak regions. Other populations include the Ahe, Jagoi, Selakau, Bidayuh, and Kutais.

* From Far Formosa by George Leslie Mackay

Excerpts: Head-hunting is the ruling passion among the savages in Formosa. This is the one crime of violence laid to their charge. To this, as to nothing else, they give themselves from earliest youth to decrepit age, following it with an ardor that never cools and a cruelty that never relents....

Like thier nearest of kin, the Hill Dyaks of Borneo, whom they resemble with significant closeness in most of their distinctive features of character and in their customs and habits of life, they are truthful and honest to a remarkable degree; and gross immorality, when found among them, is nearly always traceable to border-land association with the Chinese....

Naga People

Map of India: Nagaland (19), Manipur (16), Assam (3) and Arunachal Pradesh (2)

The Nagas are a group of tribal people inhabiting the Indian state of Nagaland, parts of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and the northwestern hill tracks of Myanmar such as the Sagaing Division. The numerous Naga languages (sometimes classified as dialects) belong to the Tibeto-Burman languages group of the Sino-Tibetan languages family. Nagas traditionally are tribally organized, with a strong warrior tradition. Their villages are sited on hilltops and till the later part of the 19th century, they make frequent armed raids on the plains below. Although the tribes do not form a homogeneous group considering the diversity in their language and traditions, they have many similarities in their culture which set them apart from the neighbouring occupants of the region. The Nagas today number around 4 million in population.

Early History: There is no scholarly consensus regarding the early origins of the Nagas and very little is known of the Mongoloid groups whose southwesterly migration brought them to the sub Himalayan region of north-eastern India and north-western Myanmar. These tribes speak Tibeto-Burman dialects and it is probable that their original homeland was in the region between the Huang Ho and Yangtze (Ch'ang) rivers in northwestern China and that they came in successive waves of migration spreading over centuries.
Although the presence of mongoloid groups in the region had been attested as early as 10 B.C. the Nagas had maintained little outside contact till the later part of the 13th century. Their existence was mentioned by Ptolemy in about 150 A.D. Oral traditions abound among the many tribes regarding how they came, dispersed etc. but such accounts are steeped in myth and superstition and hence no concrete facts about their arrival to the region can emerge.
Curious coincidences of culture and language through the Pacific led some scholars to suggest that the Nagas were an off-shoot of groups which had originally descended from the central Asian plateau. Their burial customs, ornamentation, agricultural practices and even games and crafts, linked them strongly to the tribal peoples of Borneo and the Philippines.

Northwestern China (西北) includes the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai.

* The Tsou People by The Council for Cultural Affairs

* Tsou Tribe by Taiwan Indigeneous Cultural Park

* Song: 高山青（阿里山姑娘) by 卓依婷

* Song: 鄒之春神南山之歌 on YouTube - Kids from Taiwan indigenous tribe 'Tsou' sing their folk songs. 高一生 (Uyongu Yatauyungana) 音樂會「鄒之春神」

* Videos: 1, 2 白色追憶錄 ~ 台灣光復初期殞落的原住民菁英

* Video: Acer Commercial filmed in the Alishan National Scenic Area - Acer Inc. (宏碁股份有限公司) is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer. Acer is the third largest computer manufacturer in the world (by sales) after HP and Dell.

Haplogroup G (mtDNA)

Haplogroup G is an East Asian haplogroup. Today G is found at its highest frequency in northeastern Siberia. Haplogroup G is also found at lower frequency among some populations of northern East Asia and Central Asia. However, unlike other mitochondrial DNA haplogroups typical of populations of northeastern Asia, such as haplogroup A, haplogroup C, and haplogroup D, haplogroup G has not been found among indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Haplogroup G is a descendant of haplogroup M.

Haplogroup G is divided into subclades G1 and G2a, which represent the Koryaks and Itelmen.

* mtDNA Haplogroup Specific Control Region Mutation Motifs by mtDNAmanager

Dancing in Kamchatka, photo from koryaks.net

* Mitochondrial DNA Variation in Koryaks and Itel'men: Population replacement in the Okhotsk Sea-Bering Sea region during the Neolithic by Schurr TG, et al.

In this study, we analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in 202 individuals representing one Itel'men and three Koryak populations from different parts of the Kamchatka peninsula. All mtDNAs were subjected to high resolution restriction (RFLP) analysis and control region (CR) sequencing, and the resulting data were combined with those available for other Siberian and east Asian populations and subjected to statistical and phylogenetic analysis. Together, the Koryaks and Itel'men were found to have mtDNAs belonging to three (A, C, and D) of the four major haplotype groups (haplogroups) observed in Siberian and Native American populations (A-D). In addition, they exhibited mtDNAs belonging to haplogroups G, Y, and Z, which were formerly called "Other" mtDNAs. While Kamchatka harbored the highest frequencies of haplogroup G mtDNAs, which were widely distributed in eastern Siberian and adjacent east Asian populations, the distribution of haplogroup Y was restricted within a relatively small area and pointed to the lower Amur River-Sakhalin Island region as its place of origin. In contrast, the pattern of distribution and the origin of haplogroup Z mtDNAs remained unclear. Furthermore, phylogenetic and statistical analyses showed that Koryaks and Itel'men had stronger genetic affinities with eastern Siberian/east Asian populations than to those of the north Pacific Rim. These results were consistent with colonization events associated with the relatively recent immigration to Kamchatka of new tribes from the Siberian mainland region, although remnants of ancient Beringian populations were still evident in the Koryak and Itel'men gene pools.

* Phylogeographic Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA in Northern Asian Populations by Miroslava Derenko, et al.

Excerpt: Haplogroup G and its subgroup G2 occur with the highest frequencies (>8%) in Mongolic-speaking populations, such as the Mongolians, Buryats, Khamnigans, and Kalmyks.

Haplogroup G Frequencies (%) in Siberia, Southwestern Asia, and Central Asia

Haplogroup	Persians	Tajiks	Koreans	Mongolians	Kalmyks	Buryats	Khamnigans	Tuvinians	East Evenks
G*					.9
G1			1.9	2.1	.9			1.9
G2a	1.2	2.3	2.9	8.5	6.4	11.0	9.1	3.8
G3		2.3	1.9			.3	1	1	2.2

Haplogroup	West Evenks	Yakuts	Altaians-Kizhi	Telenghits	Chukchi
G*
G1	1.4		4.4		6.7
G2a	2.7	2.8	1.1	2.8
G3

The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. Some linguists propose the grouping of Mongolic with Turkic and Tungusic as Altaic languages, but this hypothesis is not universally agreed upon.

The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia, and is spoken by around 5.7 million people in Mongolia, Russia, and China.

The Mongolic languages originated from the Proto-Mongolic language that was spoken at the time when Genghis Khan united a number of tribes speaking Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic languages. The Proto-Mongolic language is the origin of all subsequent Mongolic languages. Insofar as its elements are preserved in these languages, it is possible to speak of Common Mongolic. There are languages believed to be related to Proto-Mongolic, namely Tabghach (the language of the founders of the Northern Wei dynasty) and Khitan. In the case of Tabghach, the surviving evidence is very sparse, thus one can state that a generic relationship is possible. In the case of Khitan, there is rich evidence, but most of it is written in the two Khitan scripts that have as yet not been fully deciphered. However, from the available evidence it has to be concluded that a generic relationship to Mongolic is extremely likely. The common ancestor language of these two languages and Proto-Mongolic might be termed Pre-Proto-Mongolic.

Kalmyk people or Kalmyks is the name given to western Mongolian people and later adopted by those Oirats who migrated from Central Asia in the seventeenth century. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

The Kalmyks are the European branch of the Oirats whose ancient grazing lands are now located in Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and the People's Republic of China. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, the Oirats emerged as a formidable foe against the Eastern Mongols, the Ming Chinese and their successor, the Manchu, in a nearly 400 year military struggle for domination and control over both Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia. The struggle ended in 1757 with the extermination of the Oirats in Dzungaria, the last of the Mongolian groups to resist vassalage to China (Grousset, 1970: 502-541).

* Diversity of Mitochondrial DNA Lineages in South Siberia by M. V. Derenko, et al.

To investigate the origin and evolution of aboriginal populations of South Siberia, a comprehensive mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis (HVR1 sequencing combined with RFLP typing) of 480 individuals, representing seven Altaic-speaking populations (Altaians, Khakassians, Buryats, Sojots, Tuvinians, Todjins and Tofalars), was performed. Additionally, HVR2 sequence information was obtained for 110 Altaians, providing, in particular, some novel details of the East Asian mtDNA phylogeny. The total sample revealed 81% East Asian (M*, M7, M8, M9, M10, C, D, G, Z, A, B, F, N9a, Y) and 17% West Eurasian (H, U, J, T, I, N1a, X) matrilineal genetic contribution, but with regional differences within South Siberia. The highest influx of West Eurasian mtDNAs was observed in populations from the East Sayan and Altai regions (from 12.5% to 34.5%), whereas in populations from the Baikal region this contribution was markedly lower (less than 10%). The considerable substructure within South Siberian haplogroups B, F, and G, together with the high degree of haplogroup C and D diversity revealed there, allows us to conclude that South Siberians carry the genetic imprint of early-colonization phase of Eurasia. Statistical analyses revealed that South Siberian populations contain high levels of mtDNA diversity and high heterogeneity of mtDNA sequences among populations (Fst = 5.05%) that might be due to geography but not due to language and anthropological features.

* Natural Selection Shaped Regional mtDNA Variation in Humans by Dan Mishmara, et al.

Human mtDNA shows striking regional variation, traditionally attributed to genetic drift. However, it is not easy to account for the fact that only two mtDNA lineages (M and N) left Africa to colonize Eurasia and that lineages A, C, D, and G show a 5-fold enrichment from central Asia to Siberia. As an alternative to drift, natural selection might have enriched for certain mtDNA lineages as people migrated north into colder climates. To test this hypothesis we analyzed 104 complete mtDNA sequences from all global regions and lineages. African mtDNA variation did not significantly deviate from the standard neutral model, but European, Asian, and Siberian plus Native American variations did. Analysis of amino acid substitution mutations (nonsynonymous, Ka) versus neutral mutations (synonymous, Ks) (kaks) for all 13 mtDNA proteincoding genes revealed that the ATP6 gene had the highest amino acid sequence variation of any human mtDNA gene, even though ATP6 is one of the more conserved mtDNA proteins. Comparison of the kaks ratios for each mtDNA gene from the tropical, temperate, and arctic zones revealed that ATP6 was highly variable in the mtDNAs from the arctic zone, cytochrome b was particularly variable in the temperate zone, and cytochrome oxidase I was notably more variable in the tropics. Moreover, multiple amino acid changes found in ATP6, cytochrome b, and cytochrome oxidase I appeared to be functionally significant. From these analyses we conclude that selection may have played a role in shaping human regional mtDNA variation and that one of the selective influences was climate.

* Admixture, Migrations, and Dispersals in Central Asia: Evidence from maternal DNA lineages by David Comas, et al.

All G lineages found in the present samples belong to the G2a group; thus, no G1 or G3 lineages were found. In fact, the presence of G2a lineages seems to be also restricted to Central Asia. This haplogroup characterized by the motif 16 223T, 16 227G, 16 278T, and 16 362C, has been found in Kazaks (9.3%), Kyrgyz (7.0%), Karakalpak (5.0%), Tajik (5.0%), and Uzbek (5.0%) (present data and Comas et al3). It has also been found in neighboring populations at lower frequencies, such as Mongolians (1.3%), Mansi from Siberia (6.1%, only one sequence), southern Siberians (2.4%), Ainu (3.9%), Japanese (0.7%), Daur (4.4%, two sequences), Han Taiwanese (3.0%), Korean (1.9%), Han Chinese (2.2%), and the Caucasus (0.6%). The structure of the variation of haplogroup G2a is shown in Figure 4, from which an age of 29 500 (SE 7000) years can be estimated.

* Different Matrilineal Contributions to Genetic Structure of Ethnic Groups in the Silk Road Region in China by Yong-Gang Yao, et al.

The Haplogroup G Distribution Frequencies (%)

Haplogroup	Hui	Mg	Kaz	Uzb	Uyg	Hana	UIGb	KITb	KIRb	KAZb	IM-Mg c	Central Asian d

n	45	49	53	58	47	47	55	48	47	55	48	232
G*	2.2	4.1	1.9	1.7
G1a	2.2		1.9
G2*		6.1					1.8				4.2
G2a	4.4	6.1	1.9	3.4	10.6	2.1		14.6	2.1	5.5		3.4
G3				1.7	2.1

NOTE.—The populations Uygur, Uzbek, Kazak, Mongolian, and Hui are abbreviated as Uyg, Uzb, Kaz, Mg, and Hui, respectively.
a Data from Yao et al. (2002a).
b Data from Comas et al. (1998). Kazakh, Uighur, Kirghiz (Sary-Tash), and Kirghiz (Talas) are abbreviated as KAZ, UIG, KIR, KIT, respectively.
c Mongolian from Inner Mongolia, data from Kong et al. (2003a).
d Aggregated samples reported by Comas et al. (2004).

Schematic Profile of the mtDNA Haplogroup G in 252 Samples from Xinjiang, China

* Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Polymorphisms of Five Ethnic Populations from Northern China by Qing-Peng Kong, et al.

Geographic Locations of the Five Ethnic Populations in Northern China

Population	Haplogroup	HVS-I (16001–16497)b (16000+)
Oroqen	G	172 223 362
Oroqen	G	172 223 362
Oroqen	G	172 223 362
Oroqen	G	172 223 362
Oroqen	G	172 223 362
Ewenki	G	172 223 362
Ewenki	G	172 223 362
Ewenki	G	172 223 362
Ewenki	G	172 223 362
Daur	G1a	223 325 362
Daur	G1a	223 325 362
Korean	G1a	075 223 325 362
Mongolian	G2	189 223 278 362
Mongolian	G2	189 223 278 362
Korean	G2	189 223 278 362
Korean	G2	183C 189 223 269 278 362
Korean	G2	183C 189 223 269 278 362
Daur	G2a	223 227 234 278 362
Daur	G2a	223 227 243G 278 293C 362
Korean	G2a	093 223 227 278 362
Korean	G2a	223 227 265C 278 362
Korean	G2a	223 227 265C 278 362
Korean	G3	092 223 274 362

Daur

The Daur people (達斡爾族; the former name "Dahur" is considered derogatory) are an Mongolian speaking group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 132,394 according to the latest census (2000), and most of them live in the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner (莫力達瓦達斡爾族自治旗) in Hulun Buir, Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China. There are also some near Tacheng in Xinjiang, where their ancestors were moved during the Qing Dynasty

Khitans using eagles to hunt, painted during the Chinese Song Dynasty (History of Falconry)

Genetically, the Daurs are descendants of the Khitan, as recent DNA analyses have proven.

In the 1600s, some or all of the Daurs lived along the Shilka, upper Amur, and on the Zeya River. They thus gave their name to the region of Dauria, also called Transbaikal, now the area of Russia east of Lake Baikal.

When the Russian explorers and raiders arrived to the region in the early 1650 (notably, during Yerofei Khabarov's 1651 raid), they would often see the Daur farmers burn their smaller villages and taking refuge in larger towns. When told by the Russians to submit to the rule of the Czar and to pay yasak (tribute), the Daurs would often refuse, saying that they already pay tribute to the Shunzhi Emperor (whose name the Russians recorded from the Daurs as Shamshakan). The Cossacks would then attack, usually being able to take Daur towns with only small losses. For example, Khabarov reported that in 1651 he had only 4 of his Cossacks killed while storming the town of the Daur prince Guigudar (other 45 Cossacks were wounded, but all were able to recover). Meanwhile the Cossacks reported killing 661 "Daurs big and small" at that town (of which, 427 during the storm itself), and taking 243 women and 118 children prisoners, as well as capturing 237 horse and 113 cattle. The captured Daur town of Yaxa became the Russian town Albazin.

Facing the Russian expansion in the Amur region, between 1654 and 1656, during the reign of Shunzhi Emperor, the Daurs were forced to move southward and settle on the banks of the Nonni River, from where they were constantly conscripted to serve in the banner system of the Qing emperors.

A customary sport of the Daur is Beikou, a game similar to field hockey or street hockey, which has been played by the Daur for about 1,000 years.

Daur Field Hockey (Photo from Chinaexpat)

Beikou: The game involves teams of men playing a ball-like knob of apricot root (in lieu of a ball) with long wooden branches (in lieu of sticks). At night, the game is played with a felt-covered ball that is set alight. A game is reported to last for two periods of roughly 15 minutes.

When Western field hockey was introduced to China, it was taken up enthusiastically by the Daurs, whose affinity for the game has helped China to improve its global standing in field hockey. At the 2008 Summer Olympics , a third of the Chinese men's field hockey team was from Morin Dawa, a city in the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia (History of Field Hockey).

* Identification of Native American Founder mtDNAs Through the Analysis of Complete mtDNA Sequences:
Some Caveats by H.J. Bandelt, et al.

Polymorphisms in Asian Haplogroup G1 mtDNA

Samples with prefix DW and Kor are from the Daur and Korean populations of Inner Mongolia (China). The sequence information about sample SD10298 is derived from table 1 of Yao et al. (2003a).

* Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of China: A Caveat About Inferences Drawn from Ancient DNA by Yong-Gang Yao, et al.

mtDNA sequence variation in the 2,500-year-old, 2,000-year-old, and modern mtDNAs from Shandong Province, China

Sample Population Haplogroup HVS-I (minus 16000)

SD10312 Modern Taian, Shangdong
G2a
223 227 278 362

SD10318 Modern Taian, Shangdong
G2
223 278 293C 362

SD10298 Modern Taian, Shangdong
G
223 325 362 519

SD10368 Modern Taian, Shangdong
G
157 220 223 362 519

Sample	Population	Haplogroup	HVS-I (minus 16000)
SD10312	Modern Taian, Shangdong	G2a	223 227 278 362
SD10318	Modern Taian, Shangdong	G2	223 278 293C 362
SD10298	Modern Taian, Shangdong	G	223 325 362 519
SD10368	Modern Taian, Shangdong	G	157 220 223 362 519

Map of Shandong (Qingdao)

Shandong's name ( 山東) is literally translated as: east of the mountain, which refers to the province's location east of the Taihang Mountains.

Shandong is located on the eastern edge of the North China Plain, and felt the influence of Chinese civilization since remote antiquity. The earliest dynasties (the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty) exerted varying degrees of control over western Shandong, while eastern Shandong was inhabited by the Laiyi (Dongyi; 東夷) peoples who were considered as the "barbarians". Over subsequent centuries, the Laiyi were eventually sinicized.

* The Peopling of Korea Revealed by Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosomal Markers by Han-Jun Jin, et al.

Distribution of mtDNA Haplogroup Frequencies in 7 East Asian Populations

Haplogroup	Korean-Chinese	Mongolian	Manchurian	Han (Beijing)	Vietnamese	Thais	Korean
G		2		1			1
G1a			3		1		1
G2	1			1			7
G2a	1	5	1	2	6
G3		1			1		4
n	51	47	40	40	42	40	185

Excerpt: The highest (23.8%) frequency in the Korean mtDNA pool was observed for haplogroup D4, which is widespread in northern East Asia and especially in the Korean-Chinese (21.6%), and Manchurians (20.0%). In total, haplogroup D lineages including the subhaplogroups (D4, D4a, D4b, D5, and D5a) accounted for 32.4% of the Korean mtDNA pool. In addition, the Koreans present moderate frequencies of (sub)haplogroup A (8.1%) and (sub)haplogroup G (10.3%) lineages, mostly prevalent in northeast Asia and southeast Siberia. Other Siberian and Mongolian-prevalent haplogroups from the C, Y and Z lineages make up less than 4% of the Korean mtDNA pool. Haplogroups A5a and Y2 are found almost exclusively in Korea but were present at extremely low frequencies. In total, these northern haplogroups account for ~60% of the mtDNA gene pool of the Koreans. In addition, southeast Asian-prevalent mtDNA lineages of (sub)haplogroups B (14.6%), M7 (10.3%), and F (9.7) are also found at moderate frequencies in the Korean population). These findings suggest that more than 30% of the Korean mtDNA pool is attributable to maternal lineages with a more southern origin. We also found the haplogroup M7a1 exclusively in the Korean population. This result is consistent with previous reports that haplogroup M7a is restricted to Japan and south Korea. Thus, the distribution pattern of mtDNA haplogroups leads us to consider that the peopling of Korea is likely to have involved multiple sources.

* Mitochondrial DNA Control Region Sequences in Koreans: Identification of useful variable sites and phylogenetic analysis for mtDNA data quality control by Hwan Young Lee, et al.

Excerpt: In addition, the sequence 16093C–16188.1C–16193.1C–16362C–16390A–146C–150T–152C

–182T–217C, which was reported to be found in some Japanese individuals in haplogroup D5, was observed in one Korean individual, and was assigned to haplogroup D5, as described by Maruyama et al. . Also, in reference to Kong et al., G4a in Maruyama et al. corresponds to G1a in the present study. The distribution pattern of Korean mtDNA haplogroup frequencies generally parallels to that of the Japanese, but showed slight differences versus that of the Chinese. The D4* haplogroup occurred at highest frequency in Koreans (15.7% in this study, 16.5% according to Allard et al., and 31.9% by Maruyama et al.) and in Japanese (19.6% Allard et al. and 35.5% Maruyama et al.), and was also common in Chinese (6.2% Allard et al. and 14.2% Maruyama et al.). However, the G haplogroup and its sub-haplogroups were observed in relatively high frequencies in Koreans (8.6% in the present study and 5.2% by Maruyama et al.) and Japanese populations (10.4% Maruyama et al.), but occurred sparsely in the Chinese (4% Allard et al. and 3.4% Maruyama et al.).

List of important nucleotide positions that identify East Asian mtDNA haplogroups and haplogroup frequencies in Koreans (sample total: 592 Korean mtDNAs )

Haplogroup	HV1a	HV2a	HV3, etc.a	Sample

G1a	16223–16325–16362	150	16519–489	14
G1b	16184–16214–16223–16362		489	2
G2a1	16189–16223–16278–16362		489	4
G2a1a	16223–16227–16278–(16362)		489	15
G2a2	16051–16150–16223–16278–16362		489	6
G3a	16223–16274–16362	143–152	489	10

* Genetic Characterization and Assessment of Authenticity of Ancient Korean Skeletal Remains by Hwan Young Lee, et al.

Excerpt: Two major hypotheses regarding early migration routes into East Asia have been proposed. The first hypothesis postulates a Southeast Asian origin followed by a northward migration (Turner 1990), and the second hypothesis suggests a bi- or multidirectional route (Nei and Roychoudhury 1993; Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994; Karafet et al. 2001). Because of its geographic location, the Korean population group will be able to give valuable information about the migration routes and population expansion in East Asia. Based on archeological, anthropological, and linguistic evidence, the early Korean population is assumed to have a common origin in the northern regions of the Altai Mountains and Lake Baikal of southeastern Siberia (Han 1995; Choi and Rhee 2001). Some evidence also points to recent migration and range expansion through northern China to Korea (Chard 1974; Hammer and Horai 1995; Yun 1998; Choi and Rhee 2001). As a result of the northeastward migration from China beginning in the 3rd century b.c., the ancient Chosun, which was the first state-level society of Korea established in southern Manchuria around 2333 b.c., moved into the northwestern area of the Korean peninsula. Archeological evidence also suggests migration from China, showing that rice cultivation, which had been introduced from the Yangtze River basin in southern China, had spread to all parts of the Korean peninsula by about 1000 b.c. (Choi and Rhee 2001). In addition, recent analyses of mtDNA (Kivisild et al. 2002) and the Y chromosome (Karafet et al. 2001; Jin et al. 2003) of modern Koreans demonstrate that the Korean population possesses lineages from both southern and northern haplogroups, thereby implying a complex process with an initial northern Asian settlement followed by several migrations from southern to northern China (Jin et al. 2003)....

Following the methods of previous reports (Kong et al. 2006; Lee et al. 2006) and by using mtDNAmanager, we could successfully assign 11 mtDNA haplotypes to 11 relevant East Asian mtDNA haplogroups or subhaplogroups: D4, D4c, D4c1b, D4e1a, D6, G3a, Fl al, B4b1a1, B4f1, A5c, and N9al (see Table 2). Although the number of analyzed samples was too small to compare the population organization in each era with other populations, the haplogroup determination results demonstrate the genetic similarity observed between ancient and modern Koreans by showing that the most prevalent haplogroups in modern Koreans, D4 and B, are also most frequently observed in the present study (Lee et al. 2006).

According to a previous report on modern East Asians (Kivisild et al. 2002), haplogroups A, D, and G are mostly found in Northeast Asians, whereas haplogroup F1a is predominant in Southeast Asians. Haplogroup B is common throughout central and southern Asia and is prominent in coastal Asian and in certain Pacific island populations (Wallace 1995). In addition, haplogroup N9a is widespread among most East Asian populations, and haplogroup A5 is specific to Koreans and Japanese (Kivisild et al. 2002). Haplogroup G3 is also seen in modern Koreans, Mongolians, and Central Asians (Kivisild et al. 2002).

On the other hand, according to reports on Native Americans and Asian mtDNAs (Torroni et al. 1993, 1994; Wallace 1995), haplogroups A, B, C, and D crossed from Siberia into the Americas to found the Paleo-Indians of the Amerind linguistic group through two migrations. In the first migration (26,000-34,000 years b.p.), haplogroups A, C, and D are postulated to have gone to the Americas by means of a trans-Siberian migration crossing the Bering land bridge, and haplogroup B is suggested to have gone to the Americas by means of the second migration (12,000-15,000 years b.p.), which bypassed Siberia, possibly moving along the Siberian and Alaskan coasts (Wallace 1995). Accordingly, the presence of haplogroups B, D, and G on the Korean peninsula in the prehistoric age seems to be consistent with the hypothesis that the early Korean population has a common origin in the northern regions of the Altai Mountains and Lake Baikal of southeastern Siberia (Han 1995; Choi and Rhee 2001). In addition, the presence of haplogroup B in the Neolithic Age implies gene flow into the Korean peninsula, which is near the Siberian coast, during the second migration from Asia to the Americas of mtDNA bearing the founder haplotype of the Native American haplogroup B. The estimated age of the second migration (12,000-15,000 years b.p.) is also likely to be consistent with this hypothesis. After all, it is probable that the early Korean population has a northern origin and that the modern Korean population, which possesses lineages from both southern and northern haplogroups, might be the result of several gene flows from southern haplogroups in recent times. However, the analysis of many more ancient samples will be needed to ensure that there was regional continuity or replacement of early lineages in ancient Korea.

* Updating the East Asian mtDNA Phylogeny: A prerequisite for the identification of pathogenic mutations by Qing-Peng Kong, et al.

Haplogroup G mtDNA Phylogenetic Tree

Excerpt

To give another example, the 4833 transition was seen in connection with abnormal glucose tolerance, but it was not realized that this transition actually defines the entire haplogroup G and does not appear in any other part of the mtDNA phylogeny (among more than 2500 complete or coding mtDNA genomes scrutinized). Indeed, the 4833 change, recognizable by the gain of a HaeII site at 4830, originally defined the East Asian haplogroup G within the high-resolution system of restriction fragment length polymorphisms and has therefore been known for a long time.

The 15497 transition was claimed to be associated with obesity-related variables and lipid metabolism, but this mutation, in fact, defines haplogroup G1, which is mainly represented by sub-haplogroup G1a1 in Japan [with frequency 3.3%, according to Tanaka et al.]. Another subhaplogroup, G1b, is even the predominant haplogroup in Koryaks and Itel’men.

* Mitochondrial Genome Variation in Eastern Asia and the Peopling of Japan by Masashi Tanaka, et al.

Excerpt

Haplogroup G: This haplogroup was first detected by Ballinger et al. (1992) and later named G by Torroni et al. (1994). It was defined by the presence of the combined RFLP polymorphism +4830 HaeII/ +4831 HhaI. In addition, the basal branch has mutations 709, 5108, and 14569 (Kivisild et al. 2002). Subhaplogroup G1 was defined by transition 16017 (Schurr et al. 1999) and G2 by mutations 7600 and 16278 (Yao et al. 2002a). Recently, mutations 8200, 15323, and 15497 have been used for G1 status (Kong et al. 2003). This is confirmed with our Japanese sequences; consequently, we have defined G1a by 7867. To avoid repetitions, the G1 group of Schurr et al. (1999) has been provisionally renamed as G5. At least two mutations (5601 and 13563) characterize G2; and five more, G2a (Fig. 1A; Kong et al. 2003). We have defined subclade G2a1 by the presence of 16189 and the derivative G2a1a by the addition of 16227, whereas 16051 and 16150 identify G2a2 lineages. Furthermore, two new subclades, G3 and G4, are also apparent in Japanese (Fig. 1A). Subgroup G5 is dominant in northeastern Siberia, but we have not detected it in our set of Japanese complete sequences. However, G1a1 has its highest frequencies in a cluster embracing Japanese, Ainu, Ryukyuan, and Koreans. On the contrary, G2 is relatively abundant in northern China and central Asia, reaching notable frequencies in the Mansi and in Tuvinians at the respective west and east ends of South Siberia.

Ainu

Ryukyuan

The Jōmon Period

The Jōmon Period (縄文時代) is the time in Japanese prehistory from about 14,000 BC to 400 BC. The term "Jōmon" means "cord-patterned" in Japanese. This refers to the markings made on clay vessels and figures using sticks with cords wrapped around them as well as to the pottery techniques of the Jōmon people.

Incipient and Initial Jōmon (14,000 – 4000 BC): More stable living patterns gave rise by around 14,000 BC to a Mesolithic or, as some scholars argue, Neolithic culture, but with some characteristics of both. Possibly distant ancestors of the Ainu aboriginal people of modern Japan, members of the heterogeneous Jōmon culture (c. 14,000-300 BC) left the clearest archaeological record. They were related to the nearby Jeulmun culture of Korea.

According to archaeological evidence, the Jōmon people created amongst the first known pottery vessels in the world, known as Jōmon Pottery, dated to the 14th millennium BC, as well as the earliest ground stone tools. The antiquity of this pottery was first identified after the Second World War, through radiocarbon dating methods.

Archaeologist Junko Habu claims that "The majority of Japanese scholars believed, and still believe, that pottery production was first invented in mainland Asia and subsequently introduced into the Japanese archipelago." and explains that "A series of excavations in the Amur River Basin in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that pottery in this region may be as old as, if not older than, Fukui Cave pottery".

The Jomon era pottery was called Jomon doki. Jomon means patterns of rope, and most earthware resembled designs made by rope. First they wet the soil and made a rope out of it (wring it into a rope). Then they gave it the desired shape with their hands. Mostly they ate or stored their food in the pots they made.The Jōmon people were also making clay figures and vessels decorated with patterns of a growing sophistication made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks.

Neolithic Traits: The manufacturing of pottery typically implies some form of sedentary life due to the fact that pottery is highly breakable and thus generally useless to hunter-gatherers who are constantly on the move. Therefore, the Jōmon people were probably some of the earliest sedentary or at least semi-sedentary people in the world. They used chipped stone tools, ground stone tools, traps, and bows, and were probably semi-sedentary hunters-gatherers and skillful coastal and deep-water fishermen. They practiced a rudimentary form of agriculture and lived in caves and later in groups of either shallow pit dwellings or above-ground houses, leaving rich middens for modern archaeological study.

Population Expansion: This semi-sedentary culture led to important population increases, so that the Jōmon exhibit some of the highest densities known for foraging populations. Genetic mapping studies by Cavalli-Sforza have shown a pattern of genetic expansion from the area of the Sea of Japan towards the rest of eastern Asia. This appears as the third most important genetic movement in Eastern Asia (after the "Great expansion" from the African continent, and a second expansion from the area of Northern Siberia), which suggests geographical expansion during the early Jōmon period. These studies also suggest that the Jōmon demographic expansion may have reached America along a path following the Pacific coast.

Phylogenetic Tree of MtDNA Clusters Found in Eurasian )opulations from Diversity of Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups in Ethnic Populations of the Volga–Ural Region by M. A. Bermisheva, et al.

* The Origins of Southern and Western Eurasian Populations: An mtDNA study by Toomas Kivisild

Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups in Asian Populations

mtDNA Haplogroup Frequencies in Asian and Amerindian Populations

Excerpt: Haplogroup G (+4830 HaeII) is frequent in northeastern Siberian populations (Table 1), reaching the frequency of 40-60% in Koryaks and Itel’men (Schurr et al. 1999). It has been found also in Tibetans and Koreans but has not been sampled as yet among most other southeastern Asian populations (Ballinger et al. 1992; Starikovskaya et al. 1998; Torroni et al. 1994b).

* Mitochondrial DNA Analysis in Tibet: Implications for the origin of the Tibetan population and its adaptation to high altitude by Torroni A, et al.

Abstract: Mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) of 54 Tibetans residing at altitudes ranging from 3,000-4,500 m were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), examined by high-resolution restriction endonuclease analysis, and compared with those previously described in 10 other Asian and Siberian populations. This comparison revealed that more than 50% of Asian mtDNAs belong to a unique mtDNA lineage which is found only among Mongoloids, suggesting that this lineage most likely originated in Asia at an early stage of the human colonization of that continent. Within the Tibetan mtDNAs, sets of additional linked polymorphic sites defined seven minor lineages of related mtDNA haplotypes (haplogroups). The frequency and distribution of these haplogroups in modern Asian populations are supportive of previous genetic evidence that Tibetans, although located in southern Asia, share common ancestral origins with northern Mongoloid populations. This analysis of Tibetan mtDNAs also suggests that mtDNA mutations are unlikely to play a major role in the adaptation of Tibetans to high altitudes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Y-DNA: O3a3; O3c (M214, M175, M122, M324, M159)

The subclades of Haplogroup O with their defining mutation, according to the 2006 ISOGG tree:

O (M175)
- O*
- O1 (MSY2.2) Typical of Austronesians, southern Han Chinese, and Tai-Kadai peoples
  - O1*
  - O1a (M119)
    - O1a*
    - O1a1 (M101)
    - O1a2 (M50, M103, M110)
- O2 (P31, M268)
  - O2*
  - O2a (M95) Typical of Austro-Asiatic peoples, Tai-Kadai peoples, Malays, Indonesians, and Malagasy, with a moderate distribution throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Central Asia
    - O2a*
    - O2a1 (M88, M111)
    - O2a2 (M297)
  - O2b (SRY465 (M176)) Typical of Koreans, Japanese, and Ryukyuans, with a moderate distribution in Indonesia, Manchuria, Micronesia, Thailand, and Vietnam
    - O2b*
    - O2b1 (P49)
- O3 (M122) Typical of populations of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Austronesian populations of Oceania, with a moderate distribution in Central Asia
  - O3*
  - O3a (M324, P93, P197, P198, P199, P200)
    - O3a*
    - O3a1 (DYS257/P27.2, M121)
    - O3a2 (M164)
    - O3a3 (P201/021354)
      - O3a3*
      - O3a3a (M159) (formerly O3a3, O3c)
      - O3a3b (M7) Typical of Hmong-Mien peoples, with a moderate distribution among Han Chinese, Buyei, Qiang, and Oroqen
      - O3a3c (M134) Typical of Sino-Tibetan peoples, with a moderate distribution throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia
    - O3a4 (002611)
      - O3a4*
      - O3a4a (P103)
    - O3a5 (M300)
    - O3a6 (M333)

Haplogroup O3 (Y-DNA)

Origins: Haplogroup O3 is a descendant haplogroup of haplogroup O. Some researchers believe that it first appeared in China approximately 10,000 years ago. However, others believe that the high internal diversity of Haplogroup O3 indicates a Late Pleistocene (Upper Paleolithic) origin in South China or Southeast Asia of the M122 mutation that defines the entire O3 clade, while the common presence among a wide variety of modern East and Southeast Asian nations of closely related haplotypes belonging to certain subclades of Haplogroup O3 is considered to point to a recent (e.g., Holocene) geographic dispersion of a certain subset of the ancient variation within Haplogroup O3. The spread of these particular subsets of Haplogroup O3 is conjectured to be closely associated with the sudden agricultural boom associated with rice farming.

The prehistoric peopling of East Asia by modern humans remains controversial with respect to early population migrations. In a systematic sampling and genetic screening of an East Asian–specific Y-chromosome haplogroup (O3-M122) in 2,332 individuals from diverse East Asian populations. Results indicate that the O3-M122 lineage is dominant in East Asian populations, with an average frequency of 44.3%. The microsatellite data show that the O3-M122 haplotypes in southern East Asia are more diverse than those in northern East Asia, suggesting a southern origin of the O3-M122 mutation. It was estimated that the early northward migration of the O3-M122 lineages in East Asia occurred ~25,000–30,000 years ago, consistent with the fossil records of modern humans in East Asia.

Distribution: Although Haplogroup O3 appears to be primarily associated with Chinese populations, it also forms a significant component of the Y-chromosome diversity of most modern populations of the East Asian region. Haplogroup O3 is found in over 50% of all modern Chinese males (ranging up to over 80% in certain regional subgroups of the Han ethnicity), about 40% of Manchurian, Korean, and Vietnamese males, about 35% of Filipino and Malaysian males, about 25% of Zhuang and Indonesian males, and about 15% to 20% of Japanese males. The distribution of Haplogroup O3 stretches far into Central Asia (approx. 30% of Salar, 24% of Dongxiang, 18% to 22.8% of Mongolians, 12% of Uyghurs, 9% of Kazakhs, 6.2% of Altayans, and 4.1% of Uzbeks) and Oceania (approx. 25% of Polynesians, 18% of Micronesians, and 5% of Melanesians), albeit with reduced frequencies of most subclades. It should be noted that Haplogroup O3* Y-chromosomes, which are not defined by any identified downstream markers, are actually more common among certain non-Han Chinese populations than among Han Chinese ones, and the presence of these O3* Y-chromosomes among various populations of Central Asia, East Asia, and Oceania is more likely to reflect a very ancient shared ancestry of these populations rather than the result of any historical events. It remains to be seen whether Haplogroup O3* Y-chromosomes can be parsed into distinct subclades that display significant geographical or ethnic correlations.

Among all the populations of East and Southeast Asia, Haplogroup O3 is most closely associated with those that speak a Sinitic, Tibeto-Burman, or Hmong-Mien language. Haplogroup O3 comprises about 50% or more of the total Y-chromosome variation among the populations of each of these language families. The Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman language families are generally believed to be derived from a common Sino-Tibetan protolanguage, and most linguists place the homeland of the Sino-Tibetan language family somewhere in northern China. The Hmong-Mien languages and cultures, for various archaeological and ethnohistorical reasons, are also generally believed to have derived from a source somewhere north of their current distribution, perhaps in northern or central China. The Tibetans, however, despite the fact that they speak a language of the Tibeto-Burman language family, have a very high percentage of the otherwise rare Haplogroup D1 and D3, which is also found at much lower frequencies throughout Central and Northeast Asia.

Haplogroup O3 has been implicated as a diagnostic genetic marker of the Austronesian expansion when it is found in populations of Oceania. Its distribution in Oceania is mostly limited to the traditionally Austronesian culture zones, including moderately high frequencies in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Polynesia, with generally lower frequencies found in coastal and island Melanesia, Micronesia, and Taiwanese aboriginal tribes.

The subgroup O3a5-M134 is particularly closely associated with Sino-Tibetan populations, and it is generally not found outside of areas where a Sino-Tibetan language is currently spoken or that are historically supposed to have undergone Chinese colonization or immigration, such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. However, its presence among non-Sino-Tibetan populations is always very limited and never amounts to more than 10% of the total Y-chromosome diversity. There are also reports that Y-chromosomes belonging to Haplogroup O3a5 have been sampled from populations of such far-flung places as Western Samoa. Surprisingly, Haplogroup O3a5-M134 Y-chromosomes have also been found in about 1% to 3% of indigenous Australian men in the northwest of that continent, which might indicate that a certain degree of contact has occurred between the Austronesian expansion from Asia and some indigenous Australian populations. The fact that Haplogroup O3a5 is so strongly associated with Chinese populations, however, and the fact that no Y-chromosome haplogroups characteristic of Austronesian populations have been found among these indigenous Australian populations may be taken to suggest the possibility of some direct Chinese-Australian contact in the precolonial era. Within Japan, the subgroup O3a5-M134 forms the majority of the haplogroup O3 Y-chromosomes detected.

Haplogroup O3's brother clade, Haplogroup O1, displays a similar geographical distribution, being found among nearly all the populations of East and Southeast Asia, but generally at a frequency much lower than that of Haplogroup O3. Another brother clade, Haplogroup O2, has an impressive extent of dispersal, as it is found among the males of populations as widely separated as the Kolarians of India and the Japanese of Japan; however, Haplogroup O2's distribution is much more patchy, and the Haplogroup O2 Y-chromosomes found among the Mundas and the Japanese belong to distinct subclades.

Proposed Migration Path of Haplogroup O Ancestors from Y-chromosomal Adam in Africa

Map from the Genographic Project

* Learn about Y-DNA Haplogroup O by Wendy Tymchuk, Genebase.com

Worldwide frequency distribution of Haplogroup O (The red area within each pie chart indicates the frequency of Haplogroup O within that location)

Relative Frequency Distribution of the Four Main Subclades of Haplogroup O

A Summary of the Frequency Distribution of Deeper Clades Within Haplogroup O

O Subclades from The Power of Language Over the Past: Tai settlement and Tai Linguistics in Southern China and Northern Vietnam by Jerold A. Edmondson

* ISOGG 2007 Y-DNA Haplogroup O

O3a3 LINE1, M159 (formerly O3c)
O3a4 M7 (formerly O3d)

* ISOGG 2009 Y-DNA Haplogroup O

O3a3 P201/021354
- O3a3* -
- O3a3a M159
- O3a3b M7
- O3a3c M134
O3a4 002611

NOTES:

The L1 insertion (also known as LINE1) which appeared in previous versions of the tree is associated with haplogroups O3a3 and O3a4 suggesting a shared ancestry for these two branches. However, L1 has been observed to be absent in these groups due to multiple deletions and so is not included in the current version of the tree.

* New Binary Polymorphisms Reshape and Increase Resolution of the Human Y Chromosomal Haplogroup Tree by Tatiana M. Karafet, et al.

Excerpt: Major rearrangements: The MSY2.2 marker is now a predecessor of the M119 mutation. Two mutations (M122 and P198) now define the large O3 clade, which is subsequently divided into a major subclade (O3a) that is defined by five mutations (M324, P93, P197, P199, and P200) and an underived lineage (O3*), which is found at low frequencies in China, Taiwan, and Indonesia. The L1 retroposon insertion (LINE 1) polymorphism was removed from this tree because of contradictory results with N7 (Xue et al. 2006) and the newly discovered polymorphisms, P201 (=IMS-JST021354) and IMSJST002611 (Nonaka et al. 2007). This likely reflects multiple deletions of this element and homoplasy on the binary haplogroup tree (Supplemental Fig. 14). P201 joins the O-M159 (O3a3a), O-M7 (O3a3b), and O-M134 (O3a3c) subclades.

* A Genetic Landscape Reshaped by Recent Events: Y-Chromosomal Insights into Central Asia by Tatiana Zerjal, et al.

Rooted Maximum-parsimony Tree (partial) of Haplogroups Defined by Binary Markers

(O3c -- LY1)

Marker names are indicated above the lines, and lineage names recommended by the YCC are shown below the lines. Branch lengths are arbitrary. Haplogroups are represented by circles, with an area proportional to frequency. Haplogroup names according to the YCC and former nomenclatures are compared in the right-hand columns. J/T-S = Jobling/Tyler-Smith; S = Semino; H = Hammer.

Haplogroup Frequencies and Y-Chromosomal Diversity

Population	Mongolians	Kyrgyz	Dungans	Uyghurs	Kazaks	Uzbeks	Tajiks
n	65	41	22	33	38	28	22
h26	8	1	6	5	5	1
%	12.3	2.4	27.3	15.2	13.2	3.6

Population	Turkmen	Kurds	Georgians	Ossetians	Lezgi	Svans	Azeri	Armenians
n	21	20	26	15	12	25	19	21
h26	1	2					1	1
%	4.8	10					5.3	4.8

* Hierarchical Patterns of Global Human Y-Chromosome Diversity by Michael F. Hammer, et al.

NRY Haplotype Frequencies in 10 Regional Groups

Mutation No./Name	HT	CAS	NAS	EAS
n		263	495	461
LINE-1	h26	2	8	55
%		0.8	1.6	11.9

* Dual Origins of the Japanese: Common ground for hunter-gatherer and farmer Y chromosomes by Michael F. Hammer, et al.

Population	Japan	NEA	SEA	CAS	SAS	OCE
O-LINE1	3.1	5.2	19.8	1.9	0.2	0.5

Abstract: Our data also support the hypothesis that other Y haplogroups, such as lineages within haplogroup
O-M122 (i.e., O-M134 and O-LINE), as well as the O-M95 lineage within O-P31, entered Japan with the Yayoi expansion (Fig. 5). High frequencies of these lineages in southwestern Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asian populations likely explain the affinity of these populations in the MDS plot (Fig. 3). The entire O haplogroup has been proposed to have a Southeast Asian origin (Su et al. 1999; Kayser et al. 2000; Capelli et al. 2001; Karafet et al. 2001). In fact, nearly all lineages within the O-M175 clade in Fig. 2, except O-SRY465 and O-47z, are present at their highest frequencies (e.g., O-M95, O-P31*, M122*, O-LINE, O-M119) in southeastern Asia/Oceania (Fig. 2), and have been proposed to have southern Chinese origins (Santos et al. 2000; Su et al. 2000; Karafet et al. 2005). Their expansion into surrounding regions likely accompanied the proliferation of Neolithic culture and rice cultivation. We hypothesize that the dispersals of Neolithic farmers from Southeast Asia also brought haplogroup O lineages to Korea and eventually to Japan.

* Y-chromosomal DNA Haplogroups and Their Implications for the Dual Origins of the Koreans by H.J. Jin, et al.

Abstract: We have analyzed eight Y-chromosomal binary markers (YAP, RPS4Y(711), M9, M175, LINE1, SRY(+465), 47z, and M95) and three Y-STR markers (DYS390, DYS391, and DYS393) in 738 males from 11 ethnic groups in east Asia in order to study the male lineage history of Korea. Haplogroup DE-YAP was found at a high frequency only in Japan but was also present at low frequencies in northeast Asia, including 2.5% in Korea, suggesting a northern origin for these chromosomes. Haplogroup C-RPS4Y(711) was present in Korea and Manchuria at moderate frequencies: higher than in populations from southeast Asia, but lower than those in the northeast, which may imply a northern Asian expansion of these lineages, perhaps from Mongolia or Siberia. The major Y-chromosomal expansions in east Asia were those of haplogroup O-M175 (and its sublineages). This haplogroup is likely to have originated in southern east Asia and subsequently expanded to all of east Asia. The moderate frequency of one sublineage in the Koreans, haplogroup O-LINE1 (12.5%), could be a result of interaction with Chinese populations. The age of another sublineage, haplogroup O-SRY(+465), and Y-STR haplotype diversity provide evidence for relatively recent male migration, originally from China, through Korea into Japan. In conclusion, the distribution pattern of Y-chromosomal haplogroups reveals the complex origin of the Koreans, resulting from genetic contributions involving the northern Asian settlement and range expansions mostly from southern-to-northern China.

* The Peopling of Korea Revealed by Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosomal Markers by Han-Jun Jin, et al.

Y-haplogroup Distribution in East Asian Populations

Populations	Han (Beijing)	Manchurians	Japanese	Korean	Buryat	Khalkh	Han (Yunnan)	Indonesians	Philippines
n	65	48	107	154	50	48	41	36	69
O3c	10	4	2	20	3	3	5	4	9
%	15.4	8.3	1.9	13	6	6.3	12.2	11.1	8.7

Populations	Thais	Vietnamese	Daur	Ewenki	Hezhe	Hui	Manchu	Inner Mongolia	Oroqen	Uygur (Urumqhi)	Uygur (Yili)
n	50	41	39	26	45	35	35	45	31	31	39
O3c	3	2	6	1	4	3	3	2	4
%	6		15.4	3.9	8.9	8.6	5.6	4.4	12.9

Populations	Xibe	Han (Harbin)	Han (Yili)	Korean Chinese	Buyi	Hani	Li	Qiang	She	Tibetans	Yao (Bama)	Yao (Liannan)	Han (Chengdu)
n	41	35	32	25	35	34	34	33	34	35	35	35	34
O3c	2	3	5		7			3	15			21	7
%	4.9	8.6	15.6		20			9.1	44.1			60	20.6

Populations	Han (Lanzhou)	Han (Meixian)	Japanese	Korean	Outer Mongolia	Total
n	30	35	47	43	65	1697
O3c	3	12			1	167
%	10	34.3			1.5	9.8

* High Levels of Y-Chromosome Differentiation among Native Siberian Populations and the Genetic Signature of a Boreal Hunter-Gatherer Way of Life by Tatiana M. Karafet, et al.

Evolutionary Tree for 56 NRY Haplogroups/Paragroups (partial tree)

* Balinese Y-Chromosome Perspective on the Peopling of Indonesia: Genetic Contributions from Pre-Neolithic Hunter-Gatherers, Austronesian Farmers, and Indian Traders by Tatiana M. Karafet, et al.

Frequencies of Y-Chromosome LINE Lineage in Bali and 19 Additional Population Samples

Southeast Asians

Population	Balinese	West Indonesians	East Indonesians	Taiwanese Aboriginals	Philippinos	Vietnamese	Malaysians
n	551	21	55	48	48	70	32
LINE	4	4			3	10	3
%	0.7	19.1			6.3	14.3	9.4

Southern Chinese

Population	Han	Miao	She	Tujians	Yao
n	166	58	51	49	60
LINE	31	22	29	9	29
%	18.7	37.9	56.9	18.4	48.3

Oceanians

Population	Melanesians	Papua New Guineans	Micronesians	Polynesians
n	53	46	16	60
LINE				1
%				1.7

South Asians

Population	Indians	Sri Lankans
n	405	91
LINE	1
%	0.3

Near Easterners

Population	Saudi Arabians	Syrians
n	22	87
LINE
%

* Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in Pakistan by Raheel Qamar, et al.

Diversity, Sample Size (n), and Number of Individuals Belonging to Y Haplogroup 13 (LY1 insertion) in 12 Pakistani Ethnic Groups

Population Baluch Balti Brahui Burusho Hazara Kalash Kashmiri Makrani Baluch Makrani Negroid

n
59

13

110

94

23

44

12

25

33

LY1 insertion
1

%
0.9

Population Parsi Pathan Sindhi Overall

n
90

93

122

718

LY1 insertion

%

Markers in Tyler-Smith & Jobling's (2000) Nomenclature System from A Nomenclature System for the Tree of Human Y-Chromosomal Binary Haplogroups by The Y Chromosome Consortium

Name Derived state at Ancestral state at Name by lineage

10 RPS4Y711 C

12 LLY22g Tat N*(xN3)

13 LINE-1 O3c

Name	Derived state at	Ancestral state at	Name by lineage
10	RPS4Y711		C
12	LLY22g	Tat	N*(xN3)
13	LINE-1		O3c

* Y-chromosomal Binary Haplogroups in the Japanese Population and their Relationship to 16 Y-STR Polymorphisms by I. . Nonaka, et al.

Haplogroup O (M175) Evolutionary Tree Based on YCC NRY Tree 2003

Excerpt: Therefore, we believe that the LINE1 insertion occurred as the earliest event (producing LINE1+/002611- = O3c*), followed by the 002611 mutation (producing LINE1+/002611+ = O3/-002611*), with LINE1 finally being deleted (producing LINE1-/002611+ = 03/LINE1 del). Because all of these samples were M159-, the position where M159 split could not be determined in our samples. The M122+/021354+ samples contained the M134+ samples, but 021354+/M134- samples were also found, which showed that the 021354 mutation occurred before the M134 mutation. Therefore, the haplogroup of the 021354+/M134- samples was designated O3/ -021354*.

Freqencies of Binary Haplogroups (%) Estimated from Y-STR Haplotypes

Haplogroup Asahikawa Kanto Nagoya Western Japan Okinawa Korea Taiwan

O3c* 0.6 0.7 0.5 0 0 0.3 1.9

O3/-002611* 3.1 0.7 3.4 2.1 6.3 0.6 8.5

O3/-LINE1 del 0.5 1.5 5.1 5.2 4 6.2 11.7

Total sample no
201

137

207

97

87

317

183

Haplogroup	Asahikawa	Kanto	Nagoya	Western Japan	Okinawa	Korea	Taiwan
O3c*	0.6	0.7	0.5	0	0	0.3	1.9
O3/-002611*	3.1	0.7	3.4	2.1	6.3	0.6	8.5
O3/-LINE1 del	0.5	1.5	5.1	5.2	4	6.2	11.7
Total sample no	201	137	207	97	87	317	183

* Genetic Polymorphism of 23 Y Chromosome Biallelic Markers in Wuhan Han Population [Article in Chinese] by DX Huang, et al.

Abstract: To search polymorphic Y chromosome biallelic markers in Chinese Han population, and obtain their population genetic data. Genotyping of 23 biallelic markers on human Y chromosome (M7, M9, M50, M88, M89, M95, M111, M117, M119, M121, M122, M134, M159, M164, M175, M214, LINE1, MSY2, RPS4Y711, SRY465, IMS-JST164520, IMS-JST021354 and IMS-JST003305) were carried out in a sample of 160 unrelated Chinese male individuals living in Wuhan using fragment length discrepant allele specific PCR (FLDAS-PCR) and PAGE technique. In all 23 biallelic markers, genetic polymorphism were identified for 20 loci in Wuhan Han population except for M50, M159 and M164, and the ranges of gene diversity (GD) were 0.0126-0.4855. A total of 35 different haplogroups (Hg1-35) were observed and the haplogroup diversity (HD) was 0.9471. The haplogroups formed by 20 biallelic markers are highly polymorphic, and can be used in forensic science and population evolution studies.

* The Impact of the Austronesian Expansion: Evidence from mtDNA and Y-chromosome diversity in the Admiralty Islands of Melanesia by Manfred Kayser, et al.

Excerpts: A total of 147 samples from the Admiralty Islands of the Manus Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) were collected....

Haplogroup O-M324* is another NRY haplogroup of Asian origin in the Admiralties but was only found in a single Nyindrou man from Manus (table 1, fig. 1). O-M324 can be associated with the Austronesian expansion because it represents the major subgroup of O-M122 (Shi et al. 2005), previously identified as the major Asian NRY haplogroup in Polynesia (Kayser et al. 2000, 2006; Su et al. 2000). In fact, all O-M122 Y chromosomes from Polynesia, Fiji, and Melanesia described in our previous studies were identified as haplogroup O-M324* in the present study (except 2 Samoans with O-M7, a subgroup of O-M324, see below) (supplementary table S2, Supplementary Material online). Y-STR haplotype diversity associated with haplogroup O-M324* was higher in East Asia (Nei's diversity: 0.991 ± 0.018, MPD: 3.90 ± 2.04, N = 21) than in Southeast Asia (0.915 ± 0.038, 2.62 ± 1.44, N = 33), Melanesia (0.921 ± 0.042, 2.18 ± 1.26, N = 20), and Fiji (0.714 ± 0.181, 1.86 ± 1.20, N = 7) but was lowest in Polynesia (0.694 ± 0.038, 1.02 ± 0.69, N = 96) keeping with the assumption of an East Asian origin of haplogroup M-324* and a subsequent spread by the Austronesian expansion as far as Polynesia. In contrast to the Admiralties, O-M324* was more frequent and widespread among other Austronesian-speaking groups of Island Melanesia and coastal New Guinea (fig. 1; supplementary table S2, Supplementary Material online). In East and Southeast Asians described in our previous study as belonging to haplogroup O-M122 (Kayser et al. 2006), we now observed slightly more NRY haplogroup variation with O-M122* and O-M7, in addition to O-M324* (supplementary table S2, Supplementary Material online). Haplogroup O-M324* has previously been found to be widespread across East Asia, both in northern as well as southern regions (Shi et al. 2005), whereas O-M7 seems to be more restricted to southern parts of East Asia and was also found in Malaysia and Sumatra (Su et al. 1999; Shi et al. 2005; Xue et al. 2006). The additionally typed subgroups of O-M324 (namely O-M121, O-M164, and O-M159) were not observed in any of our samples and were previously found only in single men from China and Cambodia (Shi et al. 2005; Xue et al. 2006).

* Y-chromosome Evidence Suggests a Common Paternal Heritage of Austro-Asiatic Populations by Vikrant Kumar, et al.

Excerpt: The virtual absence of O-M95 in the Tibeto-Burman populations of India suggests that the migrations of these populations into India were not accompanied by the O-M95 haplogroup. Therefore, the presence of this haplogroup in the Garo tribe of Meghalaya is due to high degree of gene flow from the neighboring Khasi, which has been facilitated by the matrilocal system of marriage among these two tribes . Similarly, the presence of haplogroup O-M122 in the Austro-Asiatic Khasi with relatively high frequency (29%) could be suspected to be due to gene flow from the neighboring Garo, which is substantiated by a similar frequency and composition of subclades of O-M122 between them (χ2 = 1.597; p = 0.45). Concurrently, no separate Y-STR lineages could be identified in the M-J network within the subclades (Fig. S2 [see Additional file]). The comparative data suggests that Southeast Asian Austro-Asiatics near the Northeast border of India have either O-M133* or O-M134* subclades (63%), whereas majority of the Austro-Asiatic populations from geographically distant Southeast China and Cambodia [24,33] have O-M159 subclade (65%), suggesting that the Austro-Asiatic populations of different regions have different subclades of O-M122, which are characteristic of the neighboring non-Austro-Asiatic groups, possibly due to extensive admixture.

24: Paternal Population History of East Asia: Sources, Patterns, and Microevolutionary Processes by Tatiana Karafet, et al.

Haplogroup 31 (O3c) Frequencies and Population Diversities for 25 Asian Populations, Grouped by Geography and Language

Northern East Asia (NEAS)

Population Northern Han Hui Tibetans Manchu Chinese Evenks Oroqen Uygurs Mongolians Siberian Evenks

Language Family
Sino-Tibetan

Sino-Tibetan

Sino-Tibetan

Altaic

Altaic

Altaic

Altaic

Altaic

Altaic

n
44

54

75

52

41

23

68

147

95

O3c
4

1

5

4

2

6

%
9.1

1.9

9.6

9.8

2.9

4.1

0

Population Buryats Koreans

Language Family
Altaic

Isolate/Altaic

n
81

74

O3c
2

7

%
2.5

9.5

Southern East Asia (SEAS)

Population	Northern Han	Hui	Tibetans	Manchu	Chinese Evenks	Oroqen	Uygurs	Mongolians	Siberian Evenks
Language Family	Sino-Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	Altaic	Altaic	Altaic	Altaic	Altaic	Altaic
n	44	54	75	52	41	23	68	147	95
O3c	4	1		5	4		2	6
%	9.1	1.9		9.6	9.8		2.9	4.1	0

Population	Buryats	Koreans
Language Family	Altaic	Isolate/Altaic
n	81	74
O3c	2	7
%	2.5	9.5

Population	Yizu	Tujians	Southern Han	Taiwanese Han	Zhuang	She	Miao	Yao	Vietnamese	Malaysian
Language Family	Sino-Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	Austro-Asiatic	Austro-Asiatic	Austro-Asiatic	Austro-Asiatic	Austro-Asiatic	Austronesian
n	43	49	40	82	19	51	57	60	70	32
O3c	1	9	3	22		29	22	29	11	3
%	2.3	18.4	7.5	26.8		56.9	38.6	48.3	15.7	9.4

Cental Asia

Population	Kazakhs	Altai	Uzbeks	Kirghiz
Language Family	Altaic	Altaic	Altaic	Altaic
n	30	29	54	13
O3c
%

Population	NEAS	SEAS	CAS
Language Family
n	754	503	126
O3c	31	129
%	4.1	25.7

Markers in Karafet's Nomenclature System from A Nomenclature System for the Tree of Human
Y-Chromosomal Binary Haplogroups by The Y Chromosome Consortium

Name	Derived state at	Ancestral state at	Name by lineage
28	M175	M119, P31, M122	O*
29	M122	LINE-1, M134	O3*(xO3c,O3e)
30	M134		O3e
31	LINE-1		O3c
32	M119, MSY2b		O1
33	P31	M95, SRY+465	O2*
34	M95		O2a
35	SRY+465	47z	O2b*
36	47z		O2b1

33: Y-Chromosome Evidence of Southern Origin of the East Asian–Specific Haplogroup O3-M122 by Hong Shi, et al.

The phylogenetic relationships of the O3-M122 SNPs and haplotypes

Abstract: The prehistoric peopling of East Asia by modern humans remains controversial with respect to early population migrations. Here, we present a systematic sampling and genetic screening of an East Asian–specific Y-chromosome haplogroup (O3-M122) in 2,332 individuals from diverse East Asian populations. Our results indicate that the O3-M122 lineage is dominant in East Asian populations, with an average frequency of 44.3%. The microsatellite data show that the O3-M122 haplotypes in southern East Asia are more diverse than those in northern East Asia, suggesting a southern origin of the O3-M122 mutation. It was estimated that the early northward migration of the O3-M122 lineages in East Asia occurred ~25,000–30,000 years ago, consistent with the fossil records of modern humans in East Asia.

Samples: In the present study, 2,332 unrelated male samples were collected from the sites shown in figure 3, including 40 populations in East Asia. The criteria for population selection were based on the distribution of the O3-M122 haplogroups. Most of the populations sampled were from southern and southwestern China, where ~80% of the Chinese ethnic populations live; most of them have inhabitation histories longer than 3,000 years (Wang 1994). Most of the northern ethnic populations in China, (e.g., Hui, Uygur, and Mongolian) were recently established (<1,000 years ago), with extensive admixture with Caucasian and Central Asian populations (CAS) (Wang 1994); therefore, those populations were not included in this study....

Result: ... We did not observe O3a3 (M159), O3a4a (M113), O3a5a1 (M162), O3a6 (M300), or O3a7 (M333), which were originally identified in SEAS samples in the initial screening panel of both SEAS and NEAS (Shen et al. 2000; Underhill et al. 2000; P. Shen, A. E. Hirsh, T. Kivisild, B. Do, S. Song, R. Sung, V. Chou, H. Tang, L. Zhivotovsky, P. A. Underhill, L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, M. W. Feldman, P. J. Oefner, unpublished data)....

East Asian Populations Studied:

NEAS: Han Inner Mongolian, Han Gansu, Han Laizhou, Han Zibo

SEAS: Han Sichuan, Han Guangxi, Han Yunnan, Achang, Bai, Bai Hunan, Tujia, Nu, Hani, Lahuo, Lisu, Yi, Jingpo, Pumi, Naxi, Tibetan Yunnan, Dulong, Zhuang Yunnan, Zhuang Guangxi, Buyi, Shui, Dai, Thais, Miao Yunnan, Miao Hunan, Yao Yunnan, Yao Guangxi, Yao Hunan, Yao Guangdong, Wa, Bulang, Deang, Cambodian, Manchurian Yunnan, Monngolian Yunnan, Hui Yunnan

* An Updated Tree of Y-chromosome Haplogroup O and Revised Phylogenetic Positions of Mutations P164 and PK4 by Yan S, et al.

Population Sample: To revise the phylogeny of Haplogroup O, we collected whole blood samples from 361 unrelated Han Chinese male volunteers at Fudan University in Shanghai, with informed consent. The origins of volunteers can be traced back from all over China, althoughthe majority are from East China, that is , Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui.

Southern East Asia (SEAS)

Population	Old	Updated	East	North	South	Sum
M159	O3a3a	O3a2a	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%	0.3%

* O3 Y-DNA Haplogroup Project by Family Tree DNA

Country Haplogroup Y-STR

Kyrgyzstan
O3a3

12

23

17

10

12-17

11

12

12

12

12

29

China
O3a3a

13

24

15

10

13-20

11

12

13

13

13

27

Indonesia
O3a3

12

24

15

10

13-17

11

10

13

12

15

26

Country	Haplogroup	Y-STR
Kyrgyzstan	O3a3	12	23	17	10	12-17	11	12	12	12	12	29
China	O3a3a	13	24	15	10	13-20	11	12	13	13	13	27
Indonesia	O3a3	12	24	15	10	13-17	11	10	13	12	15	26

* Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times by Yali Xue, et al.

Phylogeny of Y-chromosomal Haplogroups (M175) Detected in This Study

Haplogroup Frequencies in East Asian Populations

Haplogroup	Daur	Ewenki	Hezhe	Hui	Manchu	Inner Mongolian	Oroqen	Uygur (Yili)	Xibe
O3/-cd*	6	1	4	3	3	2	2		2
O3/-c (LY1, M159)
O3/-d							1
O3/-d1							1	1

Haplogroup	Han (Harbin)	Han (Yili)	Buyi	Qiang	She	Yao (Bama)	Yao (Liannan)
O3/-cd*	3	3	1	1	5		3
O3/-c (LY1, M159)
O3/-d		1	6		10	12	18
O3/-d1				2

Haplogroup	Han (Chengdu)	Han (Lanzhou)	Han (Meixian)	Outer Mongolian	Total
O3/-cd*	7	3	9	1	59
O3/-c (LY1, M159)			1		1
O3/-d			2		50
O3/-d1					4

Mei County (梅县) is a county in the municipal region of Meizhou, in northeastern Guangdong province, the People's Republic of China.

With a majority Hakka population, Mei County is known as the home of standard Hakka, along with Dabu County.

* Partial Duplication at AZFc on the Y Chromosome Is a Risk Factor for Impaired Spermatogenesis in Han Chinese in Taiwan by Yi-Wen Lin, et al.

The Y Chromosome Haplogroups of Han Taiwanese

(M159 -- O3c: 5.2%)

* 永恆的西拉雅族－遺傳基因的研究 by 林媽利

Excerpt: 分析173人男性的西拉雅族人 (Siraya) 的父系血緣，發現父系血緣約全部由O群構成，有O*，O1*，O1b，O2*，O2a*，O3a*(O3*)，O3c(O3a3)，O3a4b(O3d*)，O3a5a1(O3e1a)，O3a5a(O3e1*)，O3a5b(O3e*)及O3b血緣，除此外尚有少數C及N*的血緣。

* Paternal Genetic Structure of Hainan Aborigines Isolated at the Entrance to East Asia by Dongna Li, et al.

Population	Ha	Moifau	Gei	Zwn	Jiamao	Cun
Linguistics	Hlai	Hlai	Hlai	Hlai	Hlai	Kadai
O3a3				1.33	2.00

Excerpt: Fifteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Y chromosome non-recombining portion were typed in the collected samples by PCR-RFLP (M130, M89, M9, M45, M120, M119, M110, M101, P31, M95, M88, M122, M164, M159, and M7). Six SNPs (M210, M208, M48, M8, M217, and M356) were typed by Taqman (Applied Biosystems Co.). Seven SNPs (Yap, M15, M175, M111, M134, M117, M121) and seven short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393) were typed by using fluorescently labeled primers for PCR amplification. Denatured products were separated by acrylamide gel electrophoresis through the use of an ABI 3100 genetic analyzer to distinguish the alleles. These SNP and STR markers are all highly informative for studies of East Asian populations. Y chromosome haplogroups were determined according to the classification of the Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree 2007 provided by International Society of Genetic Genealogy developed from the nomenclature of Y Chromosome Consortium.

ISOGG 2007

Hlai is one of two languages of the Hlai or Li people, the other being the Jiamao "dialect". It is spoken by 600,000 people (not counting Jiamao), a quarter of them monolingual, in the mountains of central and south-central Hainan Island. It forms one of the primary branches of the Kradai family.

Jiamao is one of two languages of the Hlai or Li people, the other being the Hlai "dialect". It is spoken by 52,300 people in central and south-central Hainan Island, mostly in Jiamao Township, Baoting County. It forms one of the primary branches of the Kradai family. However, However, Graham Thurgood has suggested that Jiamao was originally a non-Hlai (possibly Austro-Asiatic) language. Also, Jiamao shares less than half of its lexicon with Hlai and has tones that are different from those of Hlai's.

The Li (黎) or Hlai are a minority Chinese ethnic group, the vast majority of whom live off the southern coast of mainland China on Hainan Island, where they are the largest minority ethnic group. Divided into the five branches of the Qi, Ha, Run, Sai and Meifu, the Li have their own distinctive culture and customs.

The Li are believed to be descendants of the ancient Yue tribes of China, who settled on the island between 7 and 27 thousand years ago. DNA analysis carried out amongst the modern Li population indicate a close relationship with populations in mainland southern China and in particular Guangxi Province.

The Tai-Kadai languages, also known as Daic, Kadai, Kradai, or Kra-Dai, are a language family of highly tonal languages found in southern China and Southeast Asia. They include Thai and Lao, the national languages of Thailand and Laos respectively. There are nearly 100 million speakers of these languages in the world. Ethnologue lists 92 languages in this family, with 76 of these languages being in the Kam-Tai branch.

The diversity of the Tai-Kadai languages in southeastern China, especially in Guizhou and Hainan, suggests that this is close to their homeland. The Tai branch moved south into Southeast Asia only about a thousand years ago, founding the nations that later became Thailand and Laos in what had been Austroasiatic territory.

The name "Tai-Kadai" comes from an obsolete bifurcation of the family into two branches, Tai and Kadai (all else). Since this Kadai can only be a valid group if it includes Tai, it is sometimes used to refer to the entire family; on the other hand, some references narrow its usage to the Kra branch of the family.

The Tai-Kadai languages were formerly considered to be part of the Sino-Tibetan family, but outside of China they are now classified as an independent family. They contain large numbers of words that are similar in Sino-Tibetan languages. However, these are seldom found in all branches of the family, and do not include basic vocabulary, indicating that they are old loan words (Ostapirat 2005).

Several Western scholars have presented suggestive evidence that Tai-Kadai is related to or a branch of the Austronesian language family. There are a number of possible cognates in the core vocabulary. Among proponents, there is yet no agreement as to whether they are a sister group to Austronesian in a family called Austro-Tai, a backmigration from Taiwan to the mainland, or a later migration from the Philippines to Hainan during the Austronesian expansion.

* HLA Genetic Diversity and Linguistic Variation in East Asia by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, et al.

The “Least Controversial “Phylogeny of the 40 East Asian Languages (bold)

This tree has been reconstructed on the basis of linguistic and archaeological information. Absolute divergence dates are given in years before present (BP)

* Y-Chromosome Evidence of Southern Origin of the East Asian–Specific Haplogroup O3-M122 by Hong Shi, et al.

The Geographic Distribution of Language Families/Subfamilies in East Asia

Map of Hainan, Guangzhou (Guangdong), and Taiwan

* Paternal Genetic Structure of Hainan Aborigines Isolated at the Entrance to East Asia by Dongna Li, et al.

The Hainan Island was at one of the entrances to East Asia during the earliest migration times of modern human. During this time, which coincides with the last Ice Age, the island was still connected with the mainland. The arrows on the map represent the possible routes for southern migrants into East Asia, though not precise.

Excerpt: Haplogroup O3, which is common in Sino-Tibetan speaking populations such as the Han (50.51%) and Tibeto-Burman (54.70%), is rare in Hainan aborigines (6.91%) while it is present in Taiwanese aborigines at a frequency of 11.36% (0%–37.6%), and in the mainland southern (Daic 19.60%) and central (Hmong-Mien 54.02%) indigenous populations at a higher frequency....

Our recent study revealed that Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan may have a most recent common ancestor in southwestern China, and the O3 haplogroup was dominant in their common ancestral population (Unpublished data of Li Jin)....

As these two haplogroups (O1a* and O2a*) are nearly absent in North China, the ages in South China are most probably the time for these two haplogroup to enter East Asia. The ages of O1a* and O2a* are close, however, falling between 18 to 26 thousand years. This time frame corresponds to the peak time of the last Ice Age (around 20 thousand years ago), when the continental shelves in the China Seas were above sea level and provided a short cut for modern humans to enter East Asia.

There might have been more than one route for early migrants of modern human into East Asia. Another possible route of entering East Asia might be on the west side of the Southeast Asia-East Asia border (from Myanmar to Yunnan and inland China). We assumed that O3 haplogroups were carried by the Sino-Tibetan and Hmong-Mien ancestors through this western route, though there have not been enough evidence (Our recent investigations on Hmong-Mien and Mon-Khmer populations gave a clue to the possible western route). However, O3 could also have emerged in the same and possibly single eastern route but later after the time of emergence of O1a* and O2a*. The O3 haplogroups subsequently influenced most of the other populations through relocations. According to absence of O3 in the isolated populations of Hainan Island, O3 was not carried through the entrance around Hainan when ancestors of Daic people first arrived in East Asia, however, establishing O2a* to be one of the oldest haplogroups (more than 40 thousand years, unpublished data of Li Jin) carried by the earliest migrants into East Asia along this eastern route. The haplogroup O2a* might also be the first one that arrived in Hainan. The age of the Hainan clade of O2a* was determined to be around 26 thousand years, and is much older than the dating results of the Luobidong Cave site, the oldest archaeological finding in Hainan. We propose this age to be that of the Hainan aborigines, who have been essentially isolated since. Earlier archaeological sites may be found in Hainan Island in the future.

Qiang People

The Qiang people (羌族) are an ethnic group of China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 200,000, living mainly in northwestern part of Sichuan province. Nowadays, the Qiang are only a small segment of the Chinese population, but they are commonly believed to be an old, once strong and populous people whose history can be traced at least to the Shang Dynasty and whose offsprings are thought to include some portion of the modern Tibetans, some portion of the modern Han Chinese and many minority ethnic groups in Western China.

In ancient China literature, Qiang was usually used as a generic term for the non-Huaxia peoples in the west part of mordern China. These peoples were frequently at war with the inhabitants of the Yellow River valley, the ancestors of many mordern ethnic Hans. Not until the rise of the state of Qin under Duke Mu was the Qiang expansion effectively checked. A Qiang leader, Yao Chang founded the Later Qin kingdom (384-417) during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of Chinese history.

The structure of the graph 羌 also reflects this view. It was composed of two elements: 人 (man) and 羊 (sheep), suggesting a sheep-herding people. During the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) and Wei-Jin periods (221-419), Qiang were widely distributed along the mountainous fringes of the northern and eastern Tibetan Plateau, from the Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山) in Xinjiang province, and eastern Qinghai area, to southern Gansu, western Sichuan, and northern Yunnan. It was during this era that Qiang revolts along China's frontier borders led to a full scale invasion of China's interior by Qiang people. This was a significant factor in the eventual disintegration of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Later imperial Chinese government restricted the term Qiang min 羌民 (Qiang people registered with the Chinese government) to refer to sinicized non-Han people living in the Min River valley in Sichuan and used the term Fan Qiang 番羌 (raw Qiang) to refer to less sinicized non-Han tribes living in the vicinity.

Similarities to Judaism: Rev. Thomas Torrance claimed in 1937 that Qiang religion resembled the customs, rituals, modes of thought, domestic and religious practices of the Israelite contemporaries of Amos, Hosea (8th century BC.) and Elijah (9th century BC).

Torrance was essentially very impressed with the simple monotheism of this people in China in an area where the term God was supposedly unknown.

Tension and co-operation existed between the Han Chinese and this tribe for a long time and, until the mid-18th century, they lived somewhat independently. Some researchers say according to the tradition of the tribe, they are the descendants of Abraham and their forefather had 12 sons. Some of them still look Semitic. They call their single omnipotent God Abachi, meaning the father of heaven, or Mabichu, the spirit of heaven, or also Tian, heaven. They believe He watches over the entire world, judges the world fairly, rewards the righteous, and punishes the wicked, and gives them the opportunity to do repentance and gain atonement. In times of trouble, they call God in the name of "Yawei", the same as Yahweh. Idol worship is forbidden and anyone who offers a sacrifice to another god faces the death penalty. Their priests wear clean white clothes and perform the sacrifices in a state of purity, like the priests in ancient Israel (1 Samuel 15:27).

The priests of the Chiang tribe wears a special head turban and is ordained in a special ceremony in which sacrifices are also offered. Unmarried men may not be a priest, which was the same in ancient Israel (Leviticus 21:7, 13). Like the ancient altar of the Torah, which could not be made of cut stones (Exodus 20:25), since the sword or whatever tool to be used to cut the stone was also an instrument of war and harm, the Chiang Min altars are built of earth which is molded into stones which are then laid one on top of the other without being cut of fashioned by any tool of metal. The main part of the Chiang Min service is performed at night, as is done in ancient Israeli tradition. After the 7th day or at the eve of the 40th day of the child's life, a white rooster is slaughtered in the child's honor and he is given a name.

* Analyses of Genetic Structure of Tibeto-Burman Populations Reveals Sex-Biased Admixture in Southern Tibeto-Burmans by Bo Wen, et al.

Excerpt: Tibeto-Burman (TB) is one of the two subfamilies of the Sino-Tibetan language family. There are 351 living languages in this subfamily, whose speakers are primarily distributed in nine countries in East, South, and Southeast Asia: China, Nepal, Bhutan, northeastern India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos (Ethnologue Web site). Currently, in China, TB-speaking populations mainly reside in Qinghai in northern China, as well as in Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hunan in southwestern China. According to historical records, the TB populations were derived from the ancient Di-Qiang tribes, which originally lived in northwestern China. In the Spring and Autumn Period (~2,600 years before present [BP]), the TB populations embarked on a large-scale southward migration, along the Tibetan-Burman Corridor, into an area probably densely populated by the Austro-Asiatic and possibly the Diac and Hmong-Mien populations, three groups that were native in south (Wang 1994). This is consistent with the genetic evidence, based on Y-chromosome markers, that almost all TB populations share a high frequency of M122-C and an extremely high frequency of M134-deletion, which was derived from M122-C (Su et al. 2000)....

Hmong People

The Hmong-Mien or Miao-Yao languages are a small language family of southern China and Southeast Asia. They are spoken in mountainous areas of southern China, including Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and Hubei provinces, where they have been relegated to being 'hill people', while the Han Chinese have settled the more fertile river valleys. Within the last 300–400 years, Hmong and some Mien people migrated to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.

Earlier linguistic classifications placed the Hmong-Mien languages into the Sino-Tibetan language family, where they remain in many Chinese classifications, but the current consensus among Western linguists is that they constitute a family of their own. The family has its origins in southern or perhaps even central China. The current area of greatest agreement is that the languages appeared in the region between the Yangtze and Mekong rivers, but there is reason to believe that speakers migrated there from further north with the expansion of the Han Chinese.

The early history of the Hmong has proven difficult to trace, but theories that place the origin of the Hmong/Mong people in Mesopotamia, Siberia, or Mongolia have been disputed by recent studies. According to Ratliff, there is linguistic evidence to suggest that they have occupied the same areas of southern China for at least the past 2,000 years. Evidence from mitochondrial DNA in Hmong-Mien/Miao-Yao language speaking populations supports the southern origins of maternal lineages even further back in time, although Hmong/Miao speaking populations show more contact with northeast Asians (i.e. northern Han) than Mien/Yao populations. Historical Chinese documents describe that area being inhabited by 'Miao' people, a group with whom Hmong people are often identified.

Hmong in Thailand: Originally, the Hmong people were immigrants from Tibet, Siberia and Mongolia, before migrating to China 3,000 years ago where they settled down in areas around the Yellow River (Huang Ho), Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi and Yunnan. During the 17th century, the Manchu Dynasty wielded power in China. The king changed policy to suppress Hmong people who refused to practice and believe in the Chinese culture and tradition, because Hmong men have a similar character to Russians which led the Chinese to believe that they were Russian. Another reason was that the Hmong was a barbarian race, and constantly fought each other.

Eventually, the Hmong people were defeated and moved to the south of China, separating into small groups. Most of these groups lived on the hills in Sibsongpanna, while another set of immigrants lived on the northeast of the Laos republic around Haihin Dianbianfu. The Leader, named ‘General Wungpor’, collected Hmong immigrants, and moved to Thailand around 2400 in Buddhism era (c. 1857).

* Diaspora and the Predicament of Origins: Interrogating Hmong Postcolonial History and Identity by Gary Yia Lee

Excerpts

Biblical/Caucasian Origin: Savina (op.cit.: X-XI, 103-104 and 246-247) states that the Miao inform him they originally moved to a region called “To Sia” (which he translated as a big plateau but should have correctly been “highlands” or “Toj Siab”) to the north of their current abode in China (Hunan). The move took place, following these Biblical events:
• the confusion of the tongues (which he describes in Hmong as: phay lu), and
• the dispersion of people (phay du phay te) after the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Nthay Ndu – heavenly stairs).
He also claims that the Hmong have folk stories that are similar to those in the Bible such as tales about the creation of the world, the first woman being made after the first man, the original sin caused by the woman eating the forbidden strawberry (but not an apple as in the Bible), their banishment from their original home, and the Great Flood. This claim is made, despite the fact that the Hmong stories are quite different from those of the Bible with their omission of God as the creator of the world in seven days, or the first woman being made from one of the first man’s ribs. Regardless, Savina (op.cit.: 103) links the Hmong to an origin in Mesopotamia where Biblical mankind was believed to have first started, for only the Hmong, the Armenians and the Chaldeans still “keep memories of the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, the confusion of languages and the scattering of peoples” - with Hmong traditions “possessing stories that closely parallel to the first chapters of Genesis.”
These interpretations are very common in older books about the Hmong, particularly with early missionaries who were looking for Christian converts and who might have an interest in linking the Miao/Hmong with a Biblical origin in order to render them more susceptible to a new set of religious beliefs from Europe. Savina also likens the Hmong to Caucasian people, and therefore with a Caucasian origin. This is despite the lack of any supporting evidence, except he noticed that some Hmong children were fair-skinned and had blue eyes, even though albino children were also found in other non-European groups.
This Mesopotamian Biblical origin has been repeated by many writers up to the present day, including Quincy (1988), the latest Hmong history book that has been so popular that it went into a second edition (1995). This is despite his many fanciful speculations that are completely devoid of supporting evidence or references.

Genetic Origin: Although Savina believes that the Hmong may have been Caucasian in the very distant past due to some of them having fair skin and blue eyes, there was no genetic evidence to support this since no one tried to obtain such evidence in the early 1920’s when Savina wrote his book. As with the Chinese, for example, claims that they are related genetically to Caucasian people, have been refuted on the ground that genetic analysis shows most Han Chinese not to have 'Caucasoid' genetic markers. Past mixing with other races may have caused one out of 10,000 Han Chinese to have a Caucasoid genetic marker, but DNA samples from at least 50,000 Han Chinese spread all over China would need to be collected to obtain representative samples. They would have to be analyzed very carefully and even then the results may not be generalized to the larger Chinese population (Bobo Huang, 2004).
The Genographic project, under the National Geographic Magazine, has tried to explore the “Human Journey” by tracing the origins of different races through the analysis of their genes. It examines the presence of specific types of Y-chromosome DNA markers among people in different parts of the world, and finds that the Haplogroup 0 with the genetic marker M175 “appears in 80-90% of all human males in East and Southeast Asia…[but it] is almost nonexistent in Western and Northern Asia and is completely absent from Europe, Africa, and the Americas…”
The on-line Wikipedia states that Haplogroup O has 3 subclades: Haplogroup O1, Haplogroup O2, and Haplogroup O3. These subclades with their defining mutation further consist of:
• O1 (MSY2.2) branching to O1a (M119) found among Austronesians, southern Han Chinese, and Daic peoples.
• O2 (P31, M268) branching to O2a (M95) represented in Austro-Asiatic peoples; O2b (SRY465 and M176) with O2b1 (P49) found in Koreans and O2b1a (47z) in Japanese and Ryūkyūans.
• O3 (M122) distributed throughout Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Austronesian regions of Oceania, with O3a3 (LINE1, M159) represented in Hmong-Mien people; and O3a5 (M134) in Sino-Tibetan peoples.
On the basis of this classification of Haplogroup O genetic markers, the National Geographic project has completed tracing for a number of racial groups, although no analysis has been done on the subgroup Hmong-Mien who carries genetic marker M159. Among the groups so far studied, two with genetic markers in the subclades closest to the Hmong are:
• Haplogroup 03 with marker M122, believed to have existed within the last 10,000 years probably beginning in China with a widespread distribution of descendants (more than half of Chinese men). This suggests that its members could have been the descendants of the first rice cultivators in China, based on archaeological evidence found in northern China with millet (a wheat-like grain) grown about 7,000 years ago.
• Haplogroup 0 with marker M175, first appeared 35,000 years ago in Central and East Asia. The carriers of this marker are part of the M9 Eurasian clan whose early members, probably Siberian hunters, traveled east along the great steppes and gradually crossed southern Siberia. Today, 80-90 per cent of people living east of Central Asia belong to this group, with marker M175 almost absent in inhabitants of Western Asia and Europe.
In a separate research project that focused specifically on Hmong-Mien “mt DNA genetic/molecular variance”, Bo Wien (2005: 725-734) and 17 other university scientists in China (Shanghai and Yunnan) and the United States (Cincinnati, Ohio), took blood samples from 537 individuals in 17 sites in Hunan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces, China. After some complicated analysis and much tabulation, they observed the following:
• A close “relatedness” between the Hmong-Mien (H-M) people and other southern East Asians (SEAs), with the Miao in Hunan (believed to be the site of their original home) “closer to” northeast Asians than other H-M populations (p. 730).
• A significant correlation between genetic and geographic distances across H-M and SEAs: gene flow between adjacent populations is more evident than with distant ones.
• “a general southern origin of maternal lineages” with “more contact” between Hmong-Mien and northern East Asians than other people, due to “the higher frequency of north-dominating lineages observed in the Hmong people” (p.725).
These findings are said to be “consistent with” archaeological and historical evidence linking proto-H-M with the Neolithic culture in the Middle Reach of the Yangtze River in southern China (Fei, 1999), including the Daxi Culture (5,300-6,400 Years Before Present) and the Qujialing Culture (4,600-5,000 YBP) – accounted for by the presence of Haplogroup B5a which is “very homogenous” in 11% of H-M mtDNAs and exists in most of the H-M populations (p.732).
It is worthy of note that the Bo Wien study finds the Miao populations to be relatively distant from the Yao/Mien populations. The researchers also state that their findings (for a general southern Miao origin with more northern contacts) “might provide some clues for tracing” the history of the San-Miao from their establishment in the Lake Tungting area and expansion northward to the Yellow River basin, led by Chiyou before their defeat by the Yan-Huang tribe (under Huangti) and push-back to the south. They conclude that “our systematic study of H-M mtDNA diversity provides genetic evidence for the origin and migration of the H-M populations and the data for further investigation of the genetic structure of East Asians.” (p.733).

* Videos: The Hmong Journey - China, Hmong History, Hmong

* Genetic Structure of Hmong-Mien Speaking Populations in East Asia as Revealed by mtDNA Lineages by Bo Wen, et al.

* Hmong History and Early Studies of the Hmong by Mark E. Pfeifer

Hmong: History of a People by Keith Quincy

Hmong / Miao in Asia by Nicholas Tapp (Editor)

* Pinghua Population as an Exception of Han Chinese’s Coherent Genetic Structure by Rui-Jing Gan, et al.

Excerpt: Thirteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Y chromosome non-recombining portion were typed in the 195 male samples by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) (M130, M89, M9, M119, M110, M101, M268, M95, M88, M122, M164, M159, and M7). Seven SNPs (Yap, M15, M175, M111, M134, M117, M121), and six short tandem repeat polymorphisms (STRPs, DYS19, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393) were typed by using fluorescently labeled primers for PCR amplification....

The distributions of some haplogroups are ethnically associated: O1a and O2a* are frequent in Daic populations (Li 2005); O3* and O2a* are frequent in Hmong-Mien populations (Feng 2007); O3, O3a5, and O3a5a are frequent in Han Chinese (Su et al. 2000; Wen et al. 2004a; Shi et al. 2005). The presence of O2a* as the most frequent haplogroup of the Pinghua population indicates that the population is closer to southern minorities than to the other Han Chinese populations.

Dendrogram Clustering of Han Chinese Branches and Other East Asian Phyla

* Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times by Yali Xue, et al.

Geographical Distributions of Y-chromosomal Haplogroups P*(xR1a), R1a, and J

Haplogroup J (Y-DNA) is believed to have arisen roughly 30,000 years ago in Southwest Asia (31,700±12,800 years ago according to Semino et al.. 2004).

Haplogroup J is found in greatest concentration in Southwest Asia. Outside of these regions, haplogroup J has a moderate presence in Southern Europe (especially in central and southern Italy, Greece, and Albania), Central Asia, and South Asia, particularly in the form of its subclade J2-M172. Haplogroup J is also found in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, particularly in the form of its subclade J1-M267. Subclades J2a and J2a1b1 are found mostly in Greece, Anatolia, and southern Italy.

J1: Haplogroup J1, defined by the 267 marker is most frequent in the Arabian Peninsula Yemen (76%), Saudi (64%), Qatar (58%), and Dagestan (56%). J1 is generally frequent amongst Arab Bedouins (62%). It is also very common among other Arabs such as those of the southern Levant, i.e. Palestinian Arabs (38.4%), in Algeria (35%), Iraq (68%), Tunisia (31%), Syria (30%), Lebanon (19%), Egypt (20%), and the Sinai Peninsula. The frequency of Haplogroup J1 collapses suddenly at the borders of Arabic speaking countries with mainly non-Arabic speaking countries, such as Turkey (9%) and Iran (9.5%).

J2: Haplogroup J2 is found in the highest concentrations in the Fertile Crescent and is found throughout the Mediterranean (including Southern Europe and North Africa), the Balkan peninsula, the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau and into Central Asia. More specifically it is found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Israel, Greece, Italy, the Balkans and the eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, and most frequently in Lebanese 30% (Wells et al. 2001), Iraqis 29.7% (Sanchez et al. 2005), Syrians 29%, Sephardic Jews 29%, Kurds 28.4%, Iranians 24%.

J*: Haplogroup J* includes all of J except for J1 and J2. J* is rarely found outside of the island of Socotra, where it is quite frequent at 71.4%. Haplogroup J* has also been found with lower frequency in Oman, Ashkenazi Jews, Pakistan, Greece, the Czech Republic, and several Turkic peoples.

Central and Northern Asia: R1a1a frequencies vary widely between populations within central and northern parts of Eurasia, but it is found in areas including Western China and Eastern Siberia. This big variation is possibly a consequence of population bottlenecks in isolated areas and the large movements of Turco-Mongols during the historic period. For example, exceptionally high frequencies of R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198; 50 to 70%) are found among the Ishkashimis, Khojant Tajiks, Kyrgyzs, and in several peoples of Russia's Altai Republic. Although levels are comparatively low amongst some Turkic-speaking groups (e.g. Turks, Azeris, Kazakhs, Yakuts), levels are very high in certain Turkic or Mongolic-speaking groups of Northwestern China, such as the Bonan, Dongxiang, Salar, and Uyghurs. R1a1a is also found among certain indigenous Eastern Siberians, including: Kamchatkans and Chukotkans, and peaking in Itel'man at 22%.

Europe: In Europe, R1a, again almost entirely in the R1a1a sub-clade, is found at highest levels among peoples of Eastern European descent (Sorbs, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians; 50 to 65%). Levels in Hungarians have been noted between 20 and 60% The Balkans shows lower frequencies, and significant variation between areas, for example >30% in Slovenia, Croatia and Greek Macedonia, but <10% in Albania, Kosovo and parts of Greece. In the Baltic countries R1a frequencies decrease from Lithuania (45%) to Estonia (around 30%).

R1a1 was present in Europe at least 4600 years ago, as demonstrated by Y-DNA with the Y-SNP marker SRY10831.2 extracted from the remains of three individuals near Eulau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, discovered in 2005. The discovery demonstrated the appearance of R1a1 with Corded Ware culture in Central Europe.

There is a significant presence in peoples of Scandinavian descent, with highest levels in Norway and Iceland, where between 20 and 30% of men are in R1a1a. Vikings and Normans may have also carried the R1a1a lineage westward; accounting for at least part of the small presence in the British Isles.

In Southern Europe R1a1a is not normally common but it is widespread and found in significant pockets. Scozzari et al. (2001) found significant levels in the Pas Valley in Northern Spain, and also the areas of Venice, and Calabria in Italy.

Origins and Hypothesized Migrations of R1a1a: Most discussions of R1a origins concern the dominant R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) sub-clade. There are two foci of high frequency of R1a1a, one in South Asia, near North India, and the other in Eastern Europe, in the area of the Ukraine. Until 2009 claims regarding the oldest R1a populations varied greatly between different articles, with Eastern Europe and South Asia being the main contenders. Such studies generally look at the STR haplotypes of each major population of R1a positive men. (These are the same markers mentioned above as being useful in trying to discover potential new branches within the R1a1a family tree.) Higher variation of STR haplotype in any particular region is normally seen as an rough indicator that a haplogroup has been present longer in that region. In order to gain more insight, the STR haplotypes are also often examined in detail, looking for clusters of more or less related male lines.

In 2009, several large studies of both old and new STR data, including Mirabal et al. (2009), Underhill et al. (2009), and Klyosov (2009) concluded that not only are there are two separate "poles of the expansion" with similar ages, but also that of these two poles, Asian R1a1a is apparently older than European R1a1a. The data is therefore said to be more consistent with Asian origins for R1a1a, as opposed to European origins, with a particular focus remaining upon South Asia

Central Eurasian Origin Proposals: Cordaux et al. (2004) argued, citing data from 3 earlier publications, that R-M17 (R1a1a) Y chromosomes most probably have a central Asian origin. Central Asia is still considered a possible place of origin by Mirabal et al. (2009) after their larger analysis of more recent data. However these authors do not clearly distinguish the case being made for Central Asia for the case being made for Asia, particularly South Asia, more generally.

Recently, looking at Chinese STR data not included in other studies Klyosov (2009) concluded that the common source of Indian and European R1a must be somewhere near the modern Chinese ethnic groups known as the Hui, Bolan, Dongxiang and Sala and approximately 20,000 years ago, possibly somewhere near southern Siberia.

Steppe Cultures: From the late Neolithic and into the Iron Age, archaeologists recognize a complex of inter-related and relatively mobile cultures living on the Eurasian steppe, part of which protrudes into Europe. Many of these are in turn associated with the dispersal of Indo-European languages, the most recent dispersal being the one which led to the Indo-Iranian family of languages becoming the dominant modern languages of regions from Kurdistan to Western China, including such civilizations as Persia and India. (With the Slavic and Baltic languages considered to represent a relatively closely related branch.)

Geneticists believing that they see evidence of R1a1a gene-flow from the Eurasian Steppe to India have frequently proposed the involvement of these Steppe cultures, Indo-European languages, and possibly with specific cultural traits such as Kurgan burials and horse domestication. All of these are generally felt to originate in the specifically European part of the steppes, which stretches as far west as the Ukraine.

Haplogroup P (M45) is contains the patrilineal ancestors of most Europeans and almost all of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It also contains approximately one third to two thirds of the males among various populations of Central Asia and Southern Asia.

Haplogroup P is a branch of Haplogroup K (M9). It is believed to have arisen north of the Hindu Kush, in Siberia, Kazakhstan, or Uzbekistan, approximately 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.

The descendant haplogroups of P include Q (M242) and R (M207).

Besides the typically European/South Asian Haplogroup R and South-Central Siberian/Native American Haplogroup Q, other patrilines derived from Haplogroup P-M45 are labeled for sake of convenience as Haplogroup P* and are reported to have been found at low to moderate frequency among modern populations of Central Asia, Siberia, East Asia, and the Russian Far East. There is a conspicuous presence of Haplogroup P* on the Isle of Hvar in the Adriatic Sea off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, which may be due to historical immigration of Avars (Rouran) from Central Asia. There have also been reports of Haplogroup P* from samples of Ashkenazi Jews, Native Americans, and some populations of South Asia and Oceania, but it is not entirely clear whether these were truly Haplogroup P* or rather instances of a haplogroups derived from Haplogroup P, such as Haplogroup R2 or Haplogroup Q.

* Recent Anthropological Genetic Study of Taiwan Indigenous Populations by Shu-Juo Chen, et al.

Y-chromosome Haplotype Frequency Distribution in Asian and Oceanic Populations

Populations	N	H5	H6	H7	H8	H9	H10	H11	H12	H14
Bunun	17	5.9				17.6	58.8		17.6
Atayal	22		4.5			95.5
Yami	7			14.3		71.4	14.3
Paiwan	22				9.1	63.6	27.3
Ami	19			31.6	5.3	36.8	26.3
Puyuma	11			9.1		72.7	9.1			9.1
Tsou	18			5.6		88.9	5.6
Rukai	11					81.8	18.2
Saisiat	11			27.3		45.5	9.1	9.1	9.1
Thao	11	9.1		9.1		72.7	9.1
Pazah	11	18.2		27.3		18.2	36.4

Markers in Su's Nomenclature System from A Nomenclature System for the Tree of Human
Y-Chromosomal Binary Haplogroups by The Y Chromosome Consortium

Name	Derived state at	Ancestral state at	Name by lineage
H5	M9	M122, M119, M95, M45, M5	K*(xO3,O1,O2a,P,M)
H6	M122	M7, M134	O3*(xO3d, O3e)
H7	M7		O3d
H8	M134		O3e
H9	M119	M50	O1*(xO1b)
H10	M50		O1b
H11	M95	M88	O2a*
H12	M88		O2a1
H14	M45	M120, M3, M17	P*(xQ1,Q3,R1a1)

DNA Profiles of "Han" Taiwanese

TaiwanDNA.com Homepage

Chinpao Huang

Autosomal STR Analysis by DNA Tribes

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Tibetan

Ethnic Tibetan autonomous entities set up by the People's Republic of China

* Y-chromosome Evidence for Common Ancestry of Three Chinese Populations with a High Risk of Esophageal Cancer by Huang H, et al.

The Two-dimensional Graphs of Y-STR Frequencies

(4. Fujian Han, 10. Dongbei Han, 13. Tibetan, 18, Naxi, 14, Uygur; 15, Krigiz )

* Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

Map of Putative Migration Routes of the Sino-Tibetan Populations

* Sequence Polymorphism of mtDNA Control Region in Chinese Qinghai Tibetan Ethnic Group and Han Population by HF Mu, et al.

PC analysis in 43 East Asian populations representing all the six language families spoken in this region from Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

Sino-Tibetan According to Matisoff, 2001 from Stratification in the Peopling of China: How Far does the Linguistic Evidence Match Genetics and Archaeology? by Roger Blench and Mallam Dendo

Map of the Himalayas

Languages of the Himalayas by George van Driem

Nepali

* Genetic Insights into the Origins of Tibeto-Burman Populations in the Himalayas by T. Gayden, et al.

Bhutanese People

Arunachal Pradesh

Map of Arunachal Pradesh (in red)

Adi People

Photo from pasighat.wordpress.com: The literal meaning of Adi is “hill” or “mountain top”.

* Mitogenomic Diversity in Tatars from the Volga-Ural Region of Russia by B. Malyarchuk, et al.

* Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in Siberian Tatars of the Tobol-Irtysh Basin by Naumova OIu, et al.

Hungarians and Their Ancestors from Probable Ancestors of Hungarian Ethnic Groups: An Admixture Analysis by C. R. Guglielmino, et al.

* The Northeast Indian Passageway: A barrier or corridor for human migrations? by Richard Cordaux, et al.

Y-chromosome Haplogroup Frequencies in Four Northeast Indian Tribal Populations

Haplogroup relationships are shown with haplogroup-defining markers along the relevant branches of the tree. Italicized values are given in percentages; other values are absolute numbers. Asterisks (*) indicate average value

* Y Chromosome Haplotypes Reveal Prehistorical Migrations to the Himalayas by Bing Su, et al.

PC analysis in 18 Sino-Tibetan populations based on the 13 haplotype frequency distribution

* A Microsatellite Guided Insight into the Genetic Status of Adi, an Isolated Hunting-Gathering Tribe of Northeast India by S. Krithika, et al.

* The Himalayas as a Directional Barrier to Gene Flow by Tenzin Gayden, et al.

Geographic Distributions of Major Y-chromosome Haplogroup Frequencies

* Genetic Structures of the Tibetans and the Deng People in the Himalayas Viewed from Autosomal STRs by Kang L, et al.

Salar

Neighbor-joining tree of 61 Eurasian populations, based on Y-chromosome biallelic haplotype frequencies from The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity by R. Spencer Wells, et al.

* The Origins and Genetic Structure of Three Co-resident Chinese Muslim Populations: the Salar, Bo'an and Dongxiang by Wei Wang, et al.

Korean

* The Peopling of Korea Revealed by Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosomal Markers by Han-Jun Jin, et al.

Thai People

Iban People

Map of Malaysian Borneo, Sarawak

Iban of Sarawak: Chronicle of a Vanishing World by Vinson H. Sutlive

Media and Nation Building: How the Iban Became Malaysian by John Postill

* HLA Polymorphism in Three Indigenous Populations of Sabah and Sarawak by J. S. Dhaliwal, et al.

* Phylogenetic Relationships of the Orang Asli and Iban of Malaysia Based on Maternal Markers by K.C. Ang, et al.

* Haplotype Diversity of 17 Y-Chromosomal STRs in Three Native Sarawak Populations (Iban, Bidayuh and Melanau) in East Malaysia by YM Chang YM

* Is Nasopharyngeal Cancer Really a "Cantonese Cancer"? by JT Wee, et al.

* Ancient Jades Map 3,000 Years of Prehistoric Exchange in Southeast Asia by Hsiao-Chun Hung, et al.

* Ancestry of the Iban Is Predominantly Southeast Asian: Genetic Evidence from Autosomal, Mitochondrial, and Y Chromosomes by Tatum S. Simonson, et al.

PCA Based on NRY Haplogroup Frequencies

* Y-chromosomal STRs Haplotypes in the Taiwanese Paiwan Population by Fang-Chin Wu, et al.

MDS Plot Based on Pairwise Φst Values Calculated for the Paiwan (filled circle) and Ten Reference Populations (open circles)

* Genetic Admixture History of Eastern Indonesia as Revealed by Y-chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis by S. Mona, et al.

Two-dimensional MDS Plot Based on a Fst Distance Matrix Computed from NRY Haplogroup Frequencies

Two-dimensional MDS Plot Based on a Fst Distance Matrix Computed from mtDNA Sequences

Malays in Singapore

Map of the Silk Road

Levant

Arab (Israel)

Map of Arab population, 2000

Map of Israel and the Mediterranean from The Origin of Palestinians and Their Genetic Relatedness With Other Mediterranean Populations by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, et al.

Map of Switzerland

Map of the Mediterranean Basin

Tuscany

Map of Tuscany

Etruscan couple

* Mitochondrial DNA Variation of Modern Tuscans Supports the Near Eastern Origin of Etruscans by Alessandro Achilli, et al.

Sicily

Map of Sicily

Tunisian

Berber woman from Tunisia

* Genetic Evidence in Support of a Shared Eurasian-North African Dairying Origin by Sean Myles et al.

Turkish People

Map of Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey

Csango People

Hungarians and Their Ancestors from Probable Ancestors of Hungarian Ethnic Groups: An Admixture Analysis by C. R. Guglielmino, et al.

* The Distribution and Most Recent Common Ancestor of the 17q21 Inversion in Humans by Michael P. Donnelly, et al.

A1101/02 B4001 DRB1*0406

A1101/02 B5101 DRB1*1501

* Identification of Native American Founder mtDNAs Through the Analysis of Complete mtDNA Sequences:
Some Caveats by H.J. Bandelt, et al.