The article examines various interpretations of the category “karma” in order to propose a classification of karmas (they can be cosmic, social, national, patrimonial, domestic, personal). The concept “fate” is studied to show the role it plays in the traditional culture of Kalmyks. The author compares the Buddhist understanding of karma with the secular treatment of fate and concludes that the category “fate” is a mythologem which expresses the idea of determinism (all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to his will) whereas the notion “karma” has the opposite meaning implying that people determine their life themselves as they are responsible for their actions. A scent of determinism that can be found in the Buddhist conception of causality is rather ambiguous since it admits some variability of cause-and-effect relations and allows man to make his karma better. Nowadays those Kalmyks who believe in karma interpret it in a wider, or secular, context as they are influenced by the European understanding of fate. At any rate, the categories “karma” and “fate” are the result of the attempts made to express the contradictoriness of man’s existence, to facilitate his tense being, and to clarify the nature of social life., В статье анализируются различные трактовки понятия «карма», дается классификация карм: космическая, общественная, национальная, родовая, семейная, индивидуальная. Исследуется категория «судьба», как она представлена в традиционной культуре калмыков. Сопоставляя буддийское понимание кармы с трактовкой судьбы, автор приходит к выводу, что категория «судьба» – это мифологема, выражающая идею детерминации несвободы в жизни человека, в то время как понятие «карма» имеет противоположное содержание и указывает на то, что человек сам определяет свою жизнь как на сознательном, так и бессознательном уровнях, будучи ответственным за свои поступки. Категории «карма» и «судьба» – это результат попыток выразить противоречивость существования человека, в какой-то степени снять напряженность его бытия, прояснить природу и характер социальной жизни.Ключевые слова: буддизм, карма, судьба, детерминизм, свобода, калмыцкая культура.The Buddhist concept “karma” and the category “fate” in the culture of KalmyksThe article examines various interpretations of the category “karma” in order to propose a classification of karmas (they can be cosmic, social, national, patrimonial, domestic, personal). The concept “fate” is studied to show the role it plays in the traditional culture of Kalmyks. The author compares the Buddhist understanding of karma with the secular treatment of fate and concludes that the category “fate” is a mythologem which expresses the idea of determinism (all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to his will) whereas the notion “karma” has the opposite meaning implying that people determine their life themselves as they are responsible for their actions. A scent of determinism that can be found in the Buddhist conception of causality is rather ambiguous since it admits some variability of cause-and-effect relations and allows man to make his karma better. Nowadays those Kalmyks who believe in karma interpret it in a wider, or secular, context as they are influenced by the European understanding of fate. At any rate, the categories “karma” and“fate” are the result of the attempts made to express the contradictoriness of man’s existence, to facilitate his tense being, and to clarify the nature of social life.Keywords: Buddhism, karma, fate, determinism, freedom, Kalmyk culture.