Boluohe

Boluohe is named among the places where Sakhalin Ainu brought tribute to the Yuan dynasty after Mongol campaigns on the island. Sakhalin's indigenous peoples included Ainu communities in the south, Orok in the centre and Nivkh in the north. Across the water, the lower Amur connected the island to mainland networks of exchange and tribute.

In the fifteenth century Ming authorities appointed Sakhalin headmen to offices and received tribute from the island. Later, Qing officials collected furs and offered silk and other goods in return. Japanese expeditions reached Sakhalin in the seventeenth century, and contacts with merchants linked southern Ainu communities to Hokkaido.