Mongols, or more properly, Mongolic peoples, are an Inner Asian ethno-linguistic group. Although the largest Mongolic group are those of Mongolia, they also live as minorities across Northern Asia, including Russia, China, and many of the former Soviet states. Mongolic peoples belonging to the Buryat ethnic group live predominantly in what is now the autonomous republic of Buryatia, Russia. In China, they live mainly either in Inner Mongolia or, less commonly, in Xinjiang. Mongolic peoples are bound together by a common culture and language, a group of related tongues known as Mongolic languages.