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Kalmyks

Kalmyks
Хальмгуд Khalm'gud
Total population
196,000
Regions with significant populations
 Kalmykia (Russia)
 Russia 183,372
 Ukraine 325
 Kyrgyzstan 12,000
Languages
Kalmyk Oirat, Russian
Religion

Predominantly Tibetan Buddhism
Minority Orthodox Christianity in Russia

Majority Sunni Islam in Kyrgyzstan
Related ethnic groups
Mongols, especially Oirats

Predominantly Tibetan Buddhism
Minority Orthodox Christianity in Russia

The Kalmyks (Kalmyk: Хальмгуд, Khal’mgud, Mongolian: Халимаг, Khalimag) are the Oirats in Russia, whose ancestors migrated from Dzungaria in 1607. They created the Kalmyk Khanate in 1630–1724 in Russia's North Caucasus territory. Today they form a majority in the autonomous republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

Through emigration, small Kalmyk communities have been established in the United States, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

The Kalmyk are a branch of the Oirats, Mongols whose ancient grazing-lands spanned present-day parts of Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and China. After the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty of China in 1368, the Oirats emerged as a formidable foe against the Khalkha Mongols, the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Manchus who founded the Qing dynasty in China in 1644. For 400 years the Oirats conducted a military struggle for domination and control over both Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia. The struggle ended in 1757 with the defeat of the Oirats in Dzungaria; they were the last of the Mongol groups to resist vassalage to Qing (Grousset, 1970: 502–541).


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