Rise
From MT
- The alliance comprised four major Western Mongol tribes: Khoshut, Choros, Torghut and Dörbet. Smaller tribes belonging to the confederation included the Khoits, Zakhchin, Bayids and Mangits.
- “After 1370 CE the power of the Qubilaid Mongols declined precipitously leaving Mongolia in chaos, with several contenders jostling for supremacy but none gaining any ground. As they were fighting each other, the Kirghiz lord Ugechi routed the Qubilaid Khan Elbek and killed him in a battle in 1399 CE. "
- “However, around the same time, (i.e. towards the end of the 1300s) a new Mongol confederation of tribes, the Oirat arose in Western Mongolia under their leader Mahamu. He formed an alliance with the chief of the Mongolized Arans (Alan; Airya>Ara), who were late-surviving steppe Iranians who had been close to the Qubilaids. Initially, they acted as though restoring Qubilaid power by overthrowing Ugechi and killing him. [Chingizid Puṇyaśrī briefly resurged but died in a dispute with Alans].”
- “Then Mahamu’s son Toghon Temür, who had succeeded his father, fell upon the Arans and routed them. They fled eastwards to Manchuria where they joined the horde of Adai the descendant of Qasar, the brother of Chingiz Khan, who made an attempt to establish himself as the lord of the Mongols. Adai defeated both the Chinese army sent against him and Toghon Temür to briefly establish himself as lord of Mongolia in 1425 CE, for the first time under a Qasarid emperor. But Toghon Temür patiently rebuilt his army and in 1428 CE and consolidated his power to the west by attacking Vais Khan, the Chagadaid ruler who wanted to wage a Jihad on the heathen Mongols. He routed Vais Khan in multiple battles and seized the Turfan basin from him. Having thus created strategic depth for himself in 1436CE he finally launched a major attack on Adai and slew him in a great battle for Mongolia.”
Trouncing Mohammedan kin
“On coming to power Esen started on an ambitious program of restoring unified heathen Mongol power. He began with a series of campaigns against the Mohammedan Chagadaids and brought them down in a battle fought on the shores of the Balkash. In the process he seized the Chagadaid princess Makhtum Khanim and made several renounce Mohammedanism. … He then turned his attention west to conquer the ulus of the Chagadaid Toqtoa-buga and slew him.”
Chinese action
" Esen Taiji then rapidly moved east to conquer the Hami oasis and in 1445 CE opened hostilities with the Ming and conquered Jehol from them. Esen then asked the Ming emperor to send his sister as his wife but was refused. He retaliated with a fierce attack on Tatung. The enraged young Ming emperor Zhu Qizhen (Zhengtong) marched against the Mongols with a large army directed by the castrato Wang Zhen. Encircled by the Mongols, the Ming emperor Zhu Qizhen was taken captive. Three months later Esen Taiji marched against Beijing but lacking the genius of the great Chingiz Khan failed to take the city and running out of fodder for this horses returned to his territory with his royal prisoner. Unable to take the Ming capital he released his prisoner in 1450 CE and concluded a peace agreement with the Chinese.”
Muslim insurrection
“Amasanji Taiji succeeded his father Esen in 1456 CE. His father, like other religiously liberal heathen Mongol rulers of the past, had allowed a few mullahs to settle in his territory. They were secretly instigated by the Mohammedan Chagadaid princesses whom they had captured to convert two royal Oirat Mongols to Mohammedanism as Ibrahim Ong and Ilyas Ong.” “These two established communication with the Chagadaid Khan Yunus and together started importing mullahs to conduct extensive missionary activity inside the Oirat Mongol empire. Together with the mullahs, Chagadaid backers and the new converts, Ibrahim and Ilyas initiated a Jihad against the heathen Mongols.” “Amasanji woke up to the threat as the rioters were approaching his camp. Realizing the great threat the Mongols faced he decisively retaliated by slaughtering the ghāzis in his kingdom. However, Ibrahim and Ilyas managed to escape to China with Ming assistance.” “Around 1460CE, Amasanji moved west to tackle the Mohammedan threat by invading the Chagadai ulus of Mogholistan and overthrowing Khan Yunus. He then moved against the Khan Abu’l Khair who sought to unify the Chagadais and the Jochids in an Islamic alliance against the heathen Mongols. … In battle that ensued the Army of Islam led by Abu’l Khair was smashed to bits upon encirclement by Amasanji. Khan Abu’l Khair barely escaped with his life. This was the highpoint of the Oirat Mongol empire which remained a great power till 1490CE. "
Fall
Chingizids Mandughai Khatun, Dayan Khan, Altan Khan drove them out and recouped Mongolia. As the Dzungars under Galdan Boshugtu Khan (with Rus assistance) later attacked the khAlkha Chingizid Zanbazar despite all attempts at appeasement, the latter subjected themselves to Qing.
Dzungaria
The Oirats would later regroup south of the Altai Mountains in Dzungaria. Even there they saw back and forth struggle with Chingizids and Qing. 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. The attempted unification of the Oirats caused dissension among the tribes and their Chief Tayishis who were independent minded but also highly regarded leaders themselves. This dissension reputedly caused Kho Orluk to move the Torghut tribe and elements of the Dörbet tribe westward to the Volga region where his descendants formed the Kalmyk Khanate.
The Qing army (1755–1758) carried out the Dzungar genocide, killing every Oirat they met on their way in the territory of the Dzungar Khanate. Of the 600,000 Dzungar population, only 30 thousand survived.
Kalmykia
“In 1618, the Torghut and a small contingent of Dörbet Oirats (200,000–250,000 people) chose to migrate from the upper Irtysh River region to the grazing pastures of the lower Volga region south of Saratov and north of the Caspian Sea on both banks of the Volga River. The Torghut were led by their taishi, Kho Orluk. They were the largest Oirat tribe to migrate, bringing along nearly the entire tribe. The second-largest group was the Dörbet Oirats under their taishi, Dalai Batur. Together they moved west through southern Siberia and the southern Ural Mountains, avoiding the more direct route that would have taken them through the heart of the territory of their enemy, the Kazakhs. En route, they raided Russian settlements and Kazakh and Bashkir encampments.”
“After encamping, the Oirats began to identify themselves as “Kalmyk.” This named was supposedly given to them by their Muslim neighbors and later used by the Russians to describe them. The Oirats used this name in their dealings with outsiders, viz., their Russian and Muslim neighbors. But, they continued to refer to themselves by their tribal, clan, or other internal affiliations.”
“But in the west, in Kalmykia, the Oirat Mongols still held sway and relentlessly fought of the Army of Islam inspired by the example of their great leader Amasanji Taiji. Thus, in 1555CE they retaliated against the entry of Mohammedan marauders and missionaries into their territory by comprehensively crushing an triple Islamic alliance of Shaybanids, Kirghiz and Khazak hordes led by khans like Tawakkul and Nauruz Ahmed. Thus, to this date their territory remains the only island of the bauddha-dharma in Russia.”
“In securing their position, the Oirats became a borderland power, often allying themselves with the Russian Empire against the neighboring Muslim population. During the era of Ayuka Khan, the Oirats rose to political and military prominence as the Russian Empire sought the increased use of Oirat cavalry in support of its military campaigns against the Muslim powers in the south, such as Safavid Iran, the Ottoman Empire, the Nogais, the Tatars of Kuban and the Crimean Khanate.”
Loss of autonomy
By the early 18th century, there were approximately 300–350,000 Kalmyks and 15,000,000 Russians. The Russian Orthodox Church, by contrast, pressured many Kalmyks to adopt Eastern Orthodoxy. By the mid-18th century, Kalmyks were increasingly disillusioned with settler encroachment and interference in its internal affairs.
Partial return
In January 1771 the oppression of Tsarist administration forced the larger part of Kalmyks (33 thousand households, or approximately 170,000–200,000 people) to migrate to Dzungaria. The 8th Dalai Lama was contacted to request his blessing and to set the date of departure. After consulting the astrological chart, he set a return date, but at the moment of departure, the weakening of the ice on the Volga River permitted only those Kalmykson the eastern bank to leave. Catherine the Great ordered the Russian army, Bashkirs, and Kazakhs to exterminate all migrants. After seven months of travel, only one-third (66,073) of the original group reached Balkhash Lake, the western border of Qing China. The Qing shifted the Kalmyks to five different areas to prevent their revolt and influential leaders of the Kalmyks soon died. The migrant Kalmyks became known as Torghut in Qing China. The Torghut were coerced by the Qing into giving up their nomadic lifestyle and to take up sedentary agriculture instead as part of a deliberate policy by the Qing to enfeeble them.
Soviet times
Red army vs white army civil war saw Kalmyks mostly on the loosing side. On 22 January 1922 Mongolia proposed to migrate the Kalmyks during famine in Kalmykia but Russia refused. 71–72,000 Kalmyks died during the famine.
The Kalmyks revolted against Russia in 1926, 1930 and 1942–1943. In March 1927, Soviet deported 20,000 Kalmyks to Siberia, tundra and Karelia. On 28 December 1943, the Soviet government accused the Kalmyks of collaborating with the Germans and deported the entire population, including Kalmyk Red Army soldiers, to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia. 4.9% of the Kalmuk population died during the first three months of 1944. The Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly dissolved. Its territory was divided and transferred to the adjacent regions, viz., the Astrakhan and Stalingrad Oblasts and Stavropol Krai. Since no Kalmuks lived there any longer the Soviet authorities changed the names of towns and villages from Kalmyk names to Russian names. For example, Elista became Stepnoi.
Around half of (97–98,000) Kalmyk people deported to Siberia died before being allowed to return home in 1957. The government of the Soviet Union forbade teaching Kalmyk Oirat during the deportation.
Now
162k people - ~60% of Kalmyk republic.
Jangar epic
“The full complexity of this epic is hardly known outside of greater Mongolia and there might be less than 100 people in these lands alive today who might know the recitation of even parts. The epic is usually recited to the accompaniment of the morin huur, tob-shur and pipa (stringed instruments). The general belief is that Jangar is mythological. A similar claim has been made for the other Tibeto-Mongol epic, the gigantic Geser Khan. … Likewise the demons or ogres of the Geser Khan epic might have some inspiration from the Arabs, like the Meccan demons in Indian tradition. In the same vein, it is possible that the crystallization of the Jangar epic might have been influenced by the heroic deeds of Esen Taiji and Amasanji Taiji. In this regard it might be noted that the Kirghiz epic Manas was also probably developed upon a historical foundation of the heathen Kirghiz Khan who conquered the Uighurs to take over the empire of Mongolia.”