This article is about the Oirat ethnic group. For the obsolete term for the Turkic Altays, see Altay people.
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Oirats
The location of the Four Oirat
Total population
655,372
Regions with significant populations
China (mainly in Xinjiang)
250,000 (2013 estimate)
Mongolia
205,000 (2010 census)
Russia
183,372 (2010 census)
Kyrgyzstan
12,000 (2018)
Other
5,000 (2020)
Languages
Mainly: Oirat, Russian, other Mongolian languages Regional: Chinese
Religion
Tibetan Buddhism, Mongolian shamanism, Islam[1]
Related ethnic groups
Kalmyks and other Mongol peoples, Tuvans
Oirats (Mongolian: Ойрад, Oirad, Mongolian pronunciation:[ɔiˈrɑt]) or Oirds (Ойрд, Oird; Kalmyk: Өөрд; Chinese: 瓦剌, Wǎlà/Wǎlā), also formerly Eluts and Eleuths (Chinese: 厄魯特, Èlǔtè),[2][3] are the westernmost group of the Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia.
The first documented reference to Elut and Yelut (Chinese: 厄魯特, Èlǔtè) was in the Onginsk "rune" inscriptions dated in the sixth century.[4] Historically, the Oirats were composed of four major tribes: Dzungar (Choros or Olots/Elut/Yelut/Èlǔtè), Torghut, Dörbet and Khoshut.
The political elite in the Rouran and Tobgach empires were the YELÜ-T Mongolic speakers. Although these two empires encompassed multilingual populations, the language of diplomacy, trade, and culture was a ÖLÜ (YELÜ) dialect of ancient Mongolic descent.[4] When the Tobgach destroyed the Rouran Empire, the Mongolic speaking Avar people escaped into the Caspian steppes.[4]
This displacement triggered a series of events. Settling in the Caucasus around 558, the Mongolic Avars intervened in Germanic tribal conflicts, forming alliances such as with the Lombards to overthrow the Gepidae, who were Byzantine allies.[5] Between 550 and 575, they solidified their presence by establishing the Khanate of the Mongolic Avars (6th to 8th century) in the Caspian and Hungarian steppes.[5]
The modern Kalmyks of Kalmykia on the Caspian Sea in southeastern Europe are Oirats.
^Minahan, James B. (10 February 2014). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 209. ISBN 9781610690188.
^Robert de Vaugondy〈亞洲圖〉 國立臺灣歷史博物館典藏網
^Owen Lattimore, The Desert Road to Turkestan. (For Lattimore, Euleuths are "the great western group of tribes which marks in all probability a primitive racial cleavage" (p. 101 in the ca. 1929 edition). Lattimore further (p. 139 refers to Samuel Couling of The Encyclopaedia Sinica (1917), according to whom the spelling "Eleuth" was due to French missionaries, representing the sound of something like Ölöt. Into Chinese, the same name was transcribed as (Pinyin: Elute; Mongolian: Olot).))
^ abcBougdaeva, Saglar (2024). "The Yelu Language of War and Peace: A Revised Oirad Translation of the Altai Runic Inscriptions (6th–9th centuries)". Central Asiatic Journal. 66 (1–2): 27–46.
^ abCite error: The named reference ref02 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
the Yuan dynasty, Oirat and Eastern Mongols had developed separate identities to the point where Oirats called themselves "Four Oirats" while they used...
and the Oirats. Mutual raiding by the Oirats of Russian settlements and by the Cossacks and the Bashkirs, Muslim vassals of the Russians, of Oirat encampments...
believed that the term Four Oirats refers to the Choros, Torghut, Dorbet and Khoid tribes, there is a theory that the Oirats were not consanguineous units...
Oirat or Elut (Chinese: 厄魯特, Èlǔtè) may refer to: Oirats, the westernmost group of the Mongols Oirat language This disambiguation page lists articles associated...
Western Oirats are mainly concentrated in Western Mongolia: 184,000 Kalmyks (2010) — Kalmykia, Russia 205,000 Mongolian Oirats (2010) 140,000 Oirats (2010)...
syllabification. In Mongolia, Central Mongolian minority varieties have no status, so Oirats are supposed to use Mongolian Cyrillic which de facto only represents Khalkha...
which reflects its origin from the common language of the Oirats, a union of four Oirat tribes that absorbed some Ugric and Turkic tribes during their...
name "Oirats" by French missionaries. This was sometimes vaguely extended to cover wide areas of Central Asia, including Afghanistan. The Oirats were originally...
the Oirats under their leader Bahamu (Mahmud) (d. 1417) enthroned an Ariq Bökid Delbeg Khan in 1412. Originally the Ming had supported the Oirats in their...
to write Mongolian, specifically of the Western Mongolian groups of the Oirats and Kalmyks.: 548 It resolved ambiguities in the written language by assigning...
position to prevent the Oirats from encamping in the region, but it had a direct political interest in ensuring that the Oirats would not become allied...
This is a list of notable Oirats: Khutuga bekhi, leader of the Oirats (late 12th century – early 13th century) Al-Adil Kitbugha 10th Mamluk Sultan of...
Torgut, also spelled Torghud, is a dialect of the Oirat language spoken in Xinjiang, in western Mongolia and in eastern Kalmykia (where it was the basis...
tribute to the emperor before Esen convinced its ruler to pay tribute to the Oirats instead. Throughout the 1440s, Esen increased both the frequency of tribute...
dynasty's collapse, the Oirats supported the Ariq Bökid Jorightu Khan Yesüder in seizing the Northern Yuan throne. The Oirats held sway over the Northern...
struggles among various factions, notably the Genghisids and the non-Genghisid Oirats, as well as by several Ming invasions (such as the five expeditions led...
Zand Qajar Pahlavi Japanese Korean Maratha Mexican First Second Mongol Oirat Khoshut Dzungar Kalmyk Bogd Moroccan Saadi 'Alawi Ottoman Russian Tsarist...
fall at 600,000 people, or 200,000 households. Oirat officer Saaral betrayed and battled against the Oirats. In a widely cited account of the war, Wei Yuan...
Zand Qajar Pahlavi Japanese Korean Maratha Mexican First Second Mongol Oirat Khoshut Dzungar Kalmyk Bogd Moroccan Saadi 'Alawi Ottoman Russian Tsarist...
not officially recognized as a distinct group and listed under the name "Oirats" as a part of the Mongols, as well as in Kazakhstan where they number around...
Zand Qajar Pahlavi Japanese Korean Maratha Mexican First Second Mongol Oirat Khoshut Dzungar Kalmyk Bogd Moroccan Saadi 'Alawi Ottoman Russian Tsarist...
their anti-Kublai struggle. By the 15th century the Oirats occupied the Altai Mountains region. The Oirats were ruled by a Taishi who was a vassal of the Khan...
1207, Genghis Khan sent his son Jochi to subdue the northern tribes, the Oirats were the first to offer an alliance to Genghis Khan. As part of this alliance...
Global Information
China
Mongolia
Russia
Kyrgyzstan