Chum (tent)

A chum (/tʃuːm/) is a temporary dwelling used by the nomadic Uralic (Nenets, Nganasans, Enets, Khanty, Mansi, Komi, Selkups) reindeer herders of northwestern Siberia, Russia.

[1] They are also used by the southernmost reindeer herders, of the Todzha region of the Republic of Tyva and their cross-border relatives in northern Mongolia.

The chum is still in use today as a year-round shelter for the Yamal-Nenets, Khanty and Todzha Tyvan people of Russia.

The word chum (Russian: чум) came from Komi-Zyrian: ćom [t͡ɕom] or Udmurt: ćum [t͡ɕum], both mean "tent, shelter".

[3] In different languages it has different names: Nenets: ḿāʔ [mʲaːʔ], Nganasan: maʔ, Khanty: (ńuki) χot.