The self-name of the Shors is tadar kizhi. Their population according to the All-Russian Population Census of 2010 is 12,888 people.
The Kemerovo region – Kuzbass is one of the largest coal mining and coal processing centers in the country. Metallurgy, mining, and mechanical engineering are also active in the region. These industries determine the budget structure, development of the infrastructure, export system, and, to a large extent, the settlement pattern.
Despite the apparent abundance of ethnographic data, there has been no serious research into the spiritual culture of the Shors. By the time the data was acquired by ethnographers, most of the Shors’ perceptions about the universe had already been significantly altered due to the active process of Christianization from the second quarter of the 19th century. What makes matters more complicated is significant local differences (possibly the result of the ethnic history of the clans) and the variability of the local worldviews.