Beluchi

*Population estimates for 1994

The Beluchi (or Balug/Baloch as they call themselves) are a people living in Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and some other countries. The total Beluchi population is about two million, but a smaller part of them lives in the CIS.

For the first time, the Beluchi are mentioned in Arabic chronicles of the ninth to tenth centuries. By that time, they lived in Kerman and east of it in Sistan (the territory of the present Iran).

Being under constant pressure of aggressors, the Beluchi gradually moved southward and then eastward occupying a vast territory that was later called Beluchistan. The Beluchi penetrated the Turkmenistan territories on the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, migrating from Afghanistan and Iranian Sistan.

The main occupations of the Beluchi are cattle-breeding and agriculture.

The Beluchi have rich folklore, such as epic and fairy tales.

According to their religion, the Beluchi are Muslims-Sunnites.