Kalmyk

Kalmyk, also spelled Kalmuck, Mongol people residing chiefly in Kalmykiya republic, in southwestern Russia. Their language belongs to the Oirat, or western, branch of the Mongolian language group. The Oirat dialects are also spoken in western Mongolia, and in Xinjiang and neighbouring provinces of China. The home of the Kalmyk lies west of the Volga River in its lower courses, in an arc along the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. A small number of Kalmyk of the Buzawa tribe live along the Don River. Another small group, called the Sart Kalmyk, live in Kyrgyzstan near the Chinese border. A few emigrated after World War II to the United States.

The western Mongols were enemies of the eastern Mongols at the time of their imperial apogee in the 13th century ce. During the following centuries they maintained a separate existence under a confederation known as the Dörben Oirat (“Four Allies,” from which the name Oirat is derived); at times they were allies, at times enemies, of the eastern Mongols. Part of the western Mongols remained in their homeland, northern Xinjiang, or Dzungaria, and western Mongolia. Part of the Oirat confederation, including all or part of the Torgut, Khoshut, Dorbet (or Derbet), and other groups, moved across southern Siberia to the southern Urals at the beginning of the 17th century. From there they moved to the lower Volga, and for a century and a half, until 1771, they roamed both to the east and west of this region. During the course of the 18th century, they were absorbed by the Russian Empire, which was then expanding to the south and east. In 1771 those of the left bank, to the east of the Volga, returned to China. The right-bank Kalmyk, comprising the contemporary Torgut, Dorbet, and Buzawa, remained in Russia.

The Kalmyk are by long tradition nomadic pastoralists. They raise horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and a few camels. Their nomadism is of a classical pattern: an annual round of movement from winter camp to spring, summer, and fall pasture, and return. The Kalmyk home is a tent (called a ger, or yurt) made of felt on a lattice frame, readily assembled and disassembled. Where they have taken to agriculture, they have introduced fixed dwellings.

Family life, descent lines, marriage relations, and inheritance of property are all principally regulated by the paternal connection. The family is traditionally an extended one composed of parents, married sons and their families, and unmarried sons and daughters. Several families are grouped into nomadic kin villages. The kin villages are grouped into lineages and clans, and these in turn were formerly grouped into clan confederations. Traditionally the Kalmyk were divided into a princely estate, which ruled the various confederations; a noble estate, which ruled the lower social hierarchies, clans, and lineages; and a common estate. There was also a clerical order forming an estate of its own. All but the common estate have disappeared.

Like other Mongols, the Kalmyk are Tibetan Buddhists, but their Buddhism has a strong admixture of indigenous beliefs and shamanistic practices. The Sart Kalmyk are Muslims.

At the end of World War II the Kalmyk were accused of anti-Soviet activity and exiled to Soviet Central Asia. In 1957 they were restored to their home territories. According to the censuses of 1939 and 1959, they decreased in number from 134,000 to 106,000 in 20 years. They numbered about 137,000 in 1970 and 147,000 in 1979. In the early 21st century there were some 155,000 in Russia, an approximately equivalent number in China, and more than 200,000 in Mongolia.