The Kyrgyz people (also spelled Kyrghyz, Kirgiz, and Kirghiz) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, primarily Kyrgyzstan.
The early Kyrgyz people, known as Yenisei Kyrgyz, have their origins in the western parts of modern-day Mongolia and first appear in written records in the Chinese annals of the Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (compiled 109 BC to 91 BC), as Gekun or Jiankun. The Middle Age Chinese composition Tanghuiyao of the 8–10th century transcribed the name "Kyrgyz" as Jiegu (Kirgut).
According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. In Late Antiquity the Yenisei Kyrgyz were a part of the Tiele people. Later, in the Early Middle Ages, the Yenisei Kyrgyz were a part of the confederations of the Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganates.
In 840 a revolt led by the Yenisei Kyrgyz brought down the Uyghur Khaganate, and brought the Yenisei Kyrgyz to a dominating position in the former Second Turkic Khaganate. With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Khaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Xinjiang, bringing them into contact with the existing peoples of western China, especially Tibet.
(For more information about the history of the Kyrgyz people, you can continue reading here, here and here),
Today, most Kyrgyz people have dark hair and dark eyes.
However, it seems in the past they were a bit different. According to the Tang Huiyao, (961 AD), which very likely comes from the Xu Huiyao that Yang Shaofu and others completed in 852, citing Protector General of Anxi Ge Jiayun, the Kirghiz were described as having primarily Caucasian features, with some having East Asian features.
During the reign period of Kaiyuan of [emperor] Xuanzong, Ge Jiayun, composed A Record of the Western Regions, in which he said "the people of the Jiankun state all have red hair and green eyes. The ones with dark eyes were descendants of [the Chinese general] Li Ling [who was captured by the Xiongnu]... of Tiele tribe and called themselves Hegu. The change to Xiajiasi is probably because barbarian sounds are sometimes quick and sometimes slow so that the transcriptions of the words are not the same. When it is sometimes pronounced Xiajiasi, it is just that the word is quick. when I enquired from the translation clerk, he said that Xiajiasi had the meaning of 'yellow head and red face' and that this was what the Uighurs called them. Now the envoys say that they themselves have this name. I don't know which is right.
— Tang Huiyao, Chapter 100:1785; translated by Edwin G. Pulleyblank
9th-century author Duan Chengshi described the Kyrgyz tribe as "yellow-haired, green-eyed, red-mustached [and red-]bearded". New Book of Tang (finished in 1060) describes Alats, a medieval Turkic people, as resembling Kyrgyzes who were "all tall, red-haired, pale-faced, green-irised"; New Book of Tang also states that Kyrgyzes regarded black hair as "infelicitous" and insisted that black-eyed individuals were descendants of Han general Li Ling. source
Sometimes, these physical features still come up among Kyrgyz people.
According to a 2002 DNA analysis, haplogroup R1a1a is found in 64% of a sample of the Tajiks of Tajikistan and 63% of a sample of the Kyrgyz of Kyrgyzstan. Haplogroup R1a is common in Eurasia, extending from Scandinavia and Central Europe to Central Asia, Siberia and South Asia and the question of the origins of R1a1a is relevant to the ongoing debate concerning the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-European people, and may also be relevant to the origins of the Indus Valley civilization.
The high frequency of R1a1a among the modern-day Kyrgyz may prove that they are descended from the Yenisei Kyrgyz and may also explain why medieval Chinese histories depicted the Kyrgyz as possessing West Eurasian features.
Interestingly, the aforementioned Xinjiang is where the red-haired Tarim mummies have been found (we talked about them here and here) and maybe there is a connection with the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The earliest case of R* haplogroup was found among the Ancient North Eurasians of the Upper Paleolitic, and according to the 2021 DNA analysis by Zhang and colleagues, at least the most ancient among the Tarim mummies have high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry (72%). For this reason, the Tarim mummies are considered the best representatives of the Ancient North Eurasians. So, it is possible that these ancient red-haired tribes we see in central Asia descended from the Ancient North Eurasians.
The Yenisei River is famous for one more reason. On the left bank of it there is the archaeological site of Afontova Gora (Afont Mountain), which dates back to the Late Upper Paloelithic and Mesolithic. Here, the remains of two individuals have been found, a male and a female. The female (a teenage girl), called Afontova Gora 3, is dated to around 16,090 BC and is the earliest individual known to carry the derived allele for blond hair. The Tarim mummies probably descended from a population represented by this individual.
Here's an article about the possible connection between the Yenisei Kyrgyz and the Wusun.
Further readings:
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