Kalmyks

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Kalmyks

Хальмгуд / Xaľmgud
Kalmyks in the late 19th century. Picture taken in the Salsky Raion of the Don Host Oblast.
Total population
c. 195,000
Regions with significant populations
Kalmykia (Russia)
Russia	179,547[1]
Kyrgyzstan	12,000[2]
Ukraine	325[3]
United States	3,000[4]
Languages
Kalmyk Oirat, Russian
Religion
Predominantly Buddhism Minority Russian Orthodox Christianity, Tengrism, Mongolian shamanism, Islam[5]
Related ethnic groups
Mongols, especially Oirats, other Mongolic peoples

Kalmyks (Kalmyk: Хальмгуд, Xaľmgud; Mongolian: Халимагууд, romanized: Halimaguud; Russian: Калмыки, romanized: Kalmyki; archaically anglicised as Calmucks) are the only Mongolic-speaking people living in Europe, residing in the easternmost part of the European Plain.

This dry steppe area, west of the lower Volga River, known among the nomads as Itil/Idjil, basin on the Northwest shore of the Caspian Sea was the most suitable land for nomadic pastures. Itil or Idjil, the ancient name of the Volga River, written in the archaic Oirat script means exactly that, the "pastures" (Oirat-Kalmyk dictionary, 1977).

The ancestors of Kalmyks were nomadic groups of Oirat-speaking people, who migrated from Western Mongolia to Eastern Europe three times: in early medieval times, establishing in the 6th-8th century the Avar-Rouran Khanate; in medieval times, establishing the Ulus of Juchi and Il-Kanate as Khuda-in-laws of Chiggis Khan (Juvaini A-M. Genghis Khan: the history of the world conqueror. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press; 1997), and finally, in early modern times, establishing the Kalmyk Khanate in the 17th century.^[6][7]

The Oirat language belongs to the western branch of the Mongolic language family, whose speakers include numerous sub-ethnic groups (Derbet, Torgut, Khoshut, Olot, Dzungar (Zunghar), Bayad, Zakhchin, Khoton, Myangad, Buzava) across a wide geographical area of Uvs and Khovd provinces (aimags) of Western Mongolia (N = 209,412), and in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China (N = 194,891). Ethnic groups of Oirat speakers in the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia (N = 162,740^[8]) include Torguts, Derbets and Buzavas, together with a smaller group called Khoshuts, who live in just two villages of Kalmykia. Up until today the Kalmyks have retained their distinguished sub-ethnic groups, being quite separated from their geographical neighbours in Russia and northeast Caucasus.^[9]

They are the only traditionally Buddhist people who are located within Europe. Through emigration, small Kalmyk communities have been established in the United States, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic.^[10]