Nomadic people Facts for Kids

Pastoral nomads camping in Tibet

Starting fire by hand. San people in Botswana

Nomadic people (or nomads) are people who move from one place to another, instead of living in one place. The best known examples in Europe are gypsies, Roma, Sinti, and Irish travelers. Many other ethnic groups and communities are traditionally nomadic; such as Berbers, Kazakhs, and Bedouin.

People are nomads for many reasons. Most nomads are family men herding their livestock, such as cattle, or horses from pasture to pasture. These people have to change places because of the weather. Other nomads are traders and craftsmen (people who make things), traveling to exchange goods or to practice their craft where it is needed.

Nomads who follow their herds usually live in tents with few things inside, like the Mongols. Nomads who trade or practice crafts usually have wagons in which they travel, because wagons are better for carrying goods.

The Sami of Lapland are semi-nomadic tribe following a herd of reindeer. They are a migratory people who lead their own herd of reindeer to winter feeding grounds and then return them in the spring to their feeding ground close to a permanent home base, where their family lives. This cycle happens every year.

The skills of nomadic life can also be useful in mobile warfare, and have been used in attacking sedentary agricultural and urban people. Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, for example conquered vast areas in Asia by organizing themselves as cavalry.

Images for kids

A painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting a caravan of nomadic Romani
Romani mother and child
Nomads on the Changtang, Ladakh
Rider in Mongolia, 2012s. While nomadic life is less common in modern times, the horse remains a national symbol in Mongolia.
Cuman nomads, Radziwiłł Chronicle, 13th century.
An 1848 Lithograph showing nomads in Afghanistan.
A yurt in front of the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains. Approximately 30% of Mongolia's 3 million people are nomadic or semi-nomadic.
A Sámi family in Norway around 1900. Reindeer have been herded for centuries by several Arctic and Subarctic people including the Sámi and the Nenets.
Tents of Pashtun nomads in Badghis Province, Afghanistan. They migrate from region to region depending on the season.
A tent of Romani nomads in Hungary, 19th century.
Nomad camp near Tingri, Tibet. 1993
Snake charmer from Telungu community of Sri Lanka.
A Scythian horseman from the general area of the Ili river, Pazyryk, c. 300 BCE.
Yeniche people in the 15th century
A young Bedouin lighting a camp fire in Wadi Rum, Jordan.
Kyrgyz nomads in the steppes of the Russian Empire, now Uzbekistan, by pioneer color photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, c. 1910.
Tuareg in Mali, 1974.
Kyrgyz nomads, 1869–1870.
Nomads in the Desert (Giulio Rosati).
Gros Ventre (Atsina) American Indians moving camps with travois for transporting skin lodges and belongings.
House barge of the Sama-Bajau peoples, Indonesia. 1914–1921
Photograph of Bedouins (wandering Arabs) of Tunisia, 1899
Indian nomads painting by well-known artiste Raja Ravi Varma
Indian nomad Banjara

Nomadic people facts for kids

Images for kids

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