The article analyzes burials of the Yamna (Pit Grave) and Catacomb cultures containing stone and metal tools of trade and weapons from the East Manych Mound Group. The survey revealed a number of facts connected with cultural, chronological, age and gender characteristics of the buried individuals. Their social status is also prompted by the quality of stone and bronze tools and weapons. The studied materials most vividly show the occupational specialization of the craftsmen.

The article considers ῾human – animal’ relations of contemporary Altaians. The ethnic culture of Altaians — livestock breeders of Southern Siberia — is experiencing rapid transformations nowadays. However, the community so far retain some ancient beliefs, concepts and practices. And ‘human – animal’ relations are still an understudied aspect of Altaian culture. Proceeding from works by classical ethnology scholars, the author’s field materials, ethnographic monographs dealing with livestock breeding practices of peoples traditionally and basically engaged in such activities, the paper attempts to examine human – animal relations inherent to present-day Altaians.

The article analyzes symbolic features inherent to the Kalmyk women’s traditional adornment — plait covers and their charms toqug that had been typical for the cultures of the Western Mongols (Oirats) and Kalmyks, as well as those of some Turco-Mongolic populations. 

The article deals with souvenir prodiction as a sphere of Kalmyk ethnic entrepreneurship which has developed due to the revival of folk crafts, the majority of the products being replicas of corresponding traditional implements. Most goods are supposed to satisfy wants of the local population, i.e. to make up for the deficit of ethnos-specific homemade tools (utensils) that can be used in everyday activities. Souvenirs produced by the craftsmen are characterized by vivid ethnic features and are quite popular among tourists.

The article deals with relations between the Kalmyk Buddhist clergy and governmental bodies of the Russian Empire in the early-to-mid 19th century. The religious policy of the Russian Government towards the Kalmyks was somewhat ambiguous and incomplete, since, on the one hand, Kalmyk Buddhist institutions were supposed to be controlled by local authorities and serve the interests of the Russian rule, but, on the other hand, missionary activities were conducted among the Kalmyk populations posing Orthodox Christianity as the main state religion. Such interference of the state in the spiritual affairs of Kalmyks — aggravated by incompetence of some state employees — adversely influenced the relations between the Buddhist clergy and the Russian officialdom in the long term. 

The article describes rites of worshipping the tree, the cult of which had anticipated the emergence of the main world religions. The Single Poplar is a sacred object of present-day Kalmyk culture believed to have the ability of bestowing good fortune, progeny, and sound health. The rituals performed near the old tree are essentially ancient and have intertwined with the Buddhist tradition.

The article examines borrowed vocabulary in Kalmyk as exemplified by a number of magic fairy tale plots. It reveals that fairy tale texts recorded in the 19th century contain loanwords borrowed from Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, and some Turkic languages. The fairy tales recorded later contain isolated culture-specific household terms borrowed directly from Russian. The analysis shows that fairy tale texts recorded in the 20th century had largely lost the obsolete common Mongolian vocabulary, and have a minimum of Turkic loanwords.

The article discusses some problems of studying the image of the hero in Kalmyk heroic tales. In such tales, the newborn hero comes into the world with evident signs of a magnificent hero. The miraculously born hero is a guardian of the hearth, protector of the tribe who multiplies his heritage through receiving dowry, eliminating hostile manguses (Kalm. ‘monster’) and other pretenders to the hand of his bride. The name-giving ceremony is an important event of the epic biography, since it predetermines the hero’s further path.

The article considers the essential aspects of plots inherent to legends that have the status of ‘transitional texts’ and are designated as patterns of Kalmyk heroic tales genetically related to the epics of Jangar and Gesar. The paper concludes that the living folklore tradition gave birth to transitional texts — heroic tale texts and epic legends that genetically developed from the epic tradition towards heroic tales. The genre of ‘latest heroic tales’ include compositions resulting from transformed epic tales that had lost their poetics and epic style of narration, including changes in contents, plots and motifs. The genre boundaries of such texts are conventional, since fairy tales may appear as a secondary — after the epic — form featured by fairy tale reinterpretation.

The article deals with the problem of dating some late Oirat texts (lists, copies) compiked by Kalmyk Buddhist clerics. In terms of dating, researchers first turn to the data contained in colophons (afterwords) of texts. In addition, one can resort to various indirect data relevant to the original text (field labels, notes on margins, indication of the time of recitation, lists of family members, etc.), as well as those related to the storage of copies in archival funds — the time of receipt, the name of the description compiler, inventory number, etc.
The time when Zaya Pandita and his closest disciples and followers created translations of well-known Buddhist works can be well determined to a certain extent, chronological frameworks can be identified. But when it comes to later texts — with the vague circumstances of their creation, conditions of their storage, absence of any related dates - those are very difficult to date. One more means to cope with the task can be analysis of their linguistic characteristics (lexical, graphic, orthographic ones, etc.).

The History of Uneker Torliqtu Khan is a popular literary composition of the Old Kalmyk written tradition that got widespread in its oral form. Proceeding from the analysis of some oral versions, the paper reveals the influence of the written tradition on depicting a demonic character.

A Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Jangar Epic is being currently compiled by research associates of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS. The paper examines the header words as follows: bal I ‘honey’, bal II ‘dark’, tamb ‘shiny’, maŋkhn ‘whitish’ — and provides corresponding dictionary entries.

The article analyzes the somatic vocabulary included in A Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Jangar Epic, and also examines cases of use of lexical units with the somatisms tolɣā ʻheadʼ and čīrǟ ʻfaceʼ, evaluating some dictionary entries with the specified header words.

Proceeding from the analysis of Mongolian and Oirat translations of The King of Aspiration Prayers (a popular Buddhist text of the devotional genre), the article examines the two Buddhist terms — kilinče and nisvanis and describes the history of the emergence and formation of these terms in Classical Mongolian and literary Oirat.

The article considers general issues of population ageing, particularly those typical for Russia, statistical aspects of population ageing in Russia’s regions, including the Republic of Kalmykia. The work emphasizes that it is migration which currently acts as the key demographic factor. 

Proceeding from the analysis of field data (interviews, observations) collected in the summer of 2017 in five districts of the region, the paper analyzes rural stratification (collective agricultural enterprises, individual farmsteads, and family farms), describes the current state of the two rural settlements — Barun and Iki Bukhus, including the capabilities of people to solve various social problems, such as lack of water, unemployment, low income, maintenance of households, poor social infrastructure.

The article discusses the results of a 2017 sociological survey of religious identity among the population of the Republic of Kalmykia. The work analytically emphasizes such aspects as religious self-identification and availability of religious attributes. The survey revealed the influence of age on religious self-identification of the informants and its interrelation with the use of religious attributes.