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Introduction. Oirat-language (Clear Script) sources have been cataloguized by A. G. Sazykin, V. L. Uspensky, N. S. Yakhontova, K. V. Orlova, D. N. Muzraeva, and others. The Mongolian Collection of the Gorky Scientific Library at St. Petersburg University is a most significant set of Clear Script books and manuscripts. Oirat manuscripts were delivered mainly from Kalmyk-inhabited steppes through the efforts of A. V. Popov, K. F. Golstunsky, A. M. Pozdneev, G. S. Lytkin who would repeatedly arrive in pursuit of scholarly research — to record folklore narratives and collect manuscripts. Goals. The article aims to introduce into scientific circulation a catalog of Oirat manuscripts compiled by G. S. Lytkin (1859–1860) and stored at the Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg University, and attempts to trace correlations between the mentioned list and V. L. Uspensky’s catalogue of Mongolian manuscripts and woodcuts. Materials. The study deals with a total of nineteen Oirat-language sources supplemented with explanations and notes of the compiler. Results. The catalogue of G. S. Lytkin presents both canonical works, including ones translated by Ven. Zaya Pandita, and didactic, narrative, and ritual texts. The study reveals that V. L. Uspensky identifies no collection affiliation for some manuscripts included in G. S. Lytkin’s catalogue, while others are attributed by the former to collections of K. F. Golstunsky, A.V. Popov, A. M. Pozdneev, and Stepanov.

Introduction. Investigations of sources written in Old Kalmyk Clear Script (todo biciq) (17th–20th centuries) as part of academic Mongolian studies have been continuous for more than 150 years. However, in modern Kalmyk studies there can hardly be found any generalizing works on Kalmyk historical grammar. Besides, there is still a problem of digitizing all Clear Script texts (including lexicographical works) to form a corresponding database. Meanwhile, the study of such sources shall make it possible to describe the process of development — in a diachronic aspect — of the Kalmyk (Oirat) language which has been isolated from other Mongolic languages in differing ethnic and cultural environments of European Russia. Goals. The paper aims to describe some preliminary results dealing with the system of Old Kalmyk vowels and received through the analysis of Old Kalmyk bilingual dictionaries conducted on the Lingvodoc linguistic platform. Materials. The study examines five dictionaries of Old Kalmyk, namely: an anonymous 18th-century Russian-Kalmyk dictionary, dictionaries by V. Diligensky, P. Smirnov, N. Lvovsky, and A. Pozdneev. Results. The Lingvodoc-based insight into the Old Kalmyk vowel system throughout the five examined dictionaries has revealed some vowel concordances, such as u (ü) / o (ö), e / i — and analogues of the latter have also been found in Turkic languages. The u > o transition is traced in N. Lvovsky’s dictionary which suggests the registered (source) dialect involved can be associated with the modern Dorbet one characterized by the same process. The linguistic platform and its tools have been instrumental in identifying transitions similar to the ones observed in the examined dictionaries — in Kazakh, Bashkir, and Tatar languages together referred to as Kipchak Turkic ones. Moreover, our analysis of techniques once employed in the dictionaries to transcribe long vowels of Old Kalmyk has actualized and clarified some conclusions of D. Pavlov who had also investigated the issue.

Introduction. In 1802–1803, Benjamin Bergmann made a trip to the Kalmyk steppes to collect historical, literary, and folklore material on the Kalmyks and the Kalmyk culture. The result of this journey was the 1804–1805 publication of “Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken in den Jahren 1802 und 1803” (Nomadic wanderings among Kalmyks in 1802–1803) in Riga, which up to the present day has not lost its importance as a source of information on the culture and life of the Kalmyks in the 18th and 19th centuries. The four-volume work contains translations of various texts from Kalmyk into German, including the two songs of the “Geser” epos. This is in fact the earliest translation of “Geser” songs into a European language. Data. The German translation of the two “Geser” songs published by Bergmann in his work has been used as the material for the present research. The aim of the article. Bergmann’s translation of the songs is often mentioned in scholarly publications, but so far, no Russian translation of the songs in full has been made. To facilitate the research of the Oirat-Kalmyk “Geser” and especially of the songs in question, this article presents their scientific translation into Russian made by the present author. Also, the article discusses the character of the Kalmyk originals of the epic songs. So far it has been believed that an oral retelling was the source for the German translation of the songs. However, there is sufficient evidence for a new hypothesis because the analysis of the data undertaken in this study indicates that apparently there was a written Oirat source for the translation. Conclusions. Besides the complete Russian translation of the “Geser” sagas offered here, the article puts forward the hypothesis of the written nature of the original source, which served as the basis for Bergmann’s German translation.

Introduction. The manuscript of The Sutra of the White Old Man — call no. B 228(1) — in the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (RAS) is written in the Oirat Clear Script. The manuscript was compiled during the period when the traditional rules of graphics and spelling were strongly influenced by the spoken language. Goals. The article aims at eliciting special features of the handwriting and spelling of this particular text of the Sutra. Results. If compared to the classical rules, the changes traced in the text affected both the graphics (letters and diacritic signs) and spelling of words. The spelling patterns in the manuscript reflect (although inconsistently and irregularly) some phonetic processes that took place in the spoken language, such as the development of diphthongs into long vowels, assimilation, insertion and reduction of vowels. The sign ‘udan’ denoting long vowels is used in the text only occasionally, and reduplication of labial vowels in the same function is only preserved in monosyllabic words and final syllables. The author speculates that the ‘udan’ sign could have lost its meaning to become a decorative element of the handwriting in certain positions. The paper transliterates the text and publishes a facsimile of the manuscript.

Introduction. The article discusses the Oirat and Tibetan texts of Avalokiteshvara divination. Goals. The paper aims to introduce the Oirat fortune-telling text (which was in use in Western Mongolia) and its Tibetan version into scientific circulation. The divination is instrumental in studying religious practices and beliefs of the Oirats of Western Mongolia. Materials. Materials for the article were obtained from two sources. The Oirat text was borrowed from the collection titled The Light of Clear Script Texts (Mong. Tod Nomin Gerel) which is stored on the website of the Digital Library for International Research. The Tod Nomin Gerel Collection comprises digital copies of various Oirat-language texts written in ‘Clear Script’ and those of Tibetan-language ones. The Tibetan divination text was obtained by the author during language training in Ulaanbaatar in 2012-2013 from Amarbayasgalan Ulzibat, resident of Ulaanbaatar. Methods. The article employs the comparative method and that of contextual analysis. Results. A comparison of the Oirat and Tibetan texts makes it possible to assume that the Tibetan text is a translation from Mongolian/Oirat. This practice was inherent to Mongolian society. Thus, the study is of interest due to an opportunity to get comparative insights into fortune-telling traditions of Tibet and Mongolia, as well as the process of generating such texts and translation practices in traditional society.

Introduction. The Oirats are Western Mongols, today living between the Altai mountains, the river Volga, the Kukunor Area, the Ili River and Kyrgyzstan. In 1648, Zaya Pandita from the Hoshut (Hoshud) tribe of the Oirats created the ‘Clear Script’ (Oir. Todo Bičig), nowadays also known as Oirat Script. This script was originally meant to be used as a reformed script by all Mongols, but it caught on with the Western Mongols, the Dzungars (Oirats, Kalmyks), only. The 20th century witnessed the introduction of new writing standards for individual groups of Oirats/Kalmyks in the Soviet Union (Russia), China and Mongolia, which led to a weakening of the West Mongolian identity. Three of the most influential Kalmyk scholars, who worked on the reform of the written language and who were active as teachers and researchers in Tashkent, Sinkiang and Western Mongolia in the 1920s and 1930s, were Aksen Suseev, Iǰil Čürüm and Ceren Dorži Nominhanov. Goals. The study aims to investigate the connection between ethnic identity and (written) language against the background of global political upheavals. The work focuses on the change of the Oirat written language in Sinkiang (Xinjiang) in a multi-ethnic region compared to the Kalmyk written language in Russia, as well as the Oirat language in Mongolia over the past 100 years. Materials. The research project, given as an outline in the following article, analyzes schoolbooks, dictionaries, grammars and other printed materials of the 20th and 21st centuries in the West Mongolian Oirat script collected in Sinkiang Kalmykia since 1986. Results. Since the 1940s, the Oirats in Sinkiang have been taking up a development in their reformed written language that was originally initiated in Kalmykia by Kalmyk scholars during the period of 1915–1938, but was not carried on there due to the political conditions which resulted in the deportation of the Kalmyks to Siberia in 1943. After the return of the Kalmyks to Kalmykia since 1957/58 the old traditions were broken, and the development of the written language focused solely on the use of a modified Cyrillic alphabet. The community based on a common script of the Kalmyks and Oirats – in China, Russia (Kalmykia) and Western Mongolia – broke up, and the three or four groups went their separate ways. For example, the orthography and grammar of the Oirat written language in reformed Todo Bičig in Sinkiang is not standardized until today. The Oirats in Mongolia, like the Oirats in Kyrgyzstan, no longer have their own written language in which they can express themselves in writing. Another desideratum is a textbook of modern Kalmyk and modern Sinkiang Oirat for Western students and scholars. Although some institutions and scholars have some Oirat language archives, like the State and University Library Goettingen has good collection of Kalmyk-Oirat and Mongolian literature, there are a lot of aspects to deal with.

Introduction. Concerns for the health of community members are universally widespread and most essential at all times. The significance attached by the Kalmyks and their ethnic ancestors Oirats to the nation’s physical health can be traced in various sources, including medical essays (Gyuzhi and related comments, lhantabs, etc.), dhāraṇī texts and astrological collections. Materials and Methods. The paper introduces a textual analysis of the mentioned Clear Script (Oirat-language) collection containing minor Tibetan-language fragments, and employs research methods of auxiliary historical disciplines. Results. While purely medical texts prescribed specific diagnostic and healing methods, astrological works tended to focus on preventive measures and recommendations for maintaining health and social well-being. Available Kalmykia-based collections of Buddhist written monuments once owned by priests with differing Buddhist expertise (medicine, astrology, and philosophy proper) — also differ structurally, thematically, and functionally. One such collection used to belong to the astrologer Borlga Utnasna Serksh (Chkalovsky village, Ketchenerovsky District, Kalmykia), and includes separate independent works, thematic clusters of texts, and graphic images. Kalmyk astrologers considered periods of human life in accordance with Buddhist knowledge and ideas of life components that emphasized — when it came to a certain individual and his/her birth circumstances — respective new year (Oriental) dates, place of a year in the 12-year animal cycle, actual period of the five (or primary) elements, menge (congenital marks), etc. In astrological practices, special attention was (and still is) paid to the removal of ‘obstacles’ resulting from the ‘disharmony’ (Oir. xarši) between bride and groom’s birth years (and what should be done thereto); the latter also received recommendations explaining which deity was supposed to bless the marriage. Conclusions. The examined texts are a valuable historical source providing insights into actual practices of Kalmyk astrologers (Kalm. zurхači) and ethnic standards of behavior prescribed by astrology, and how the latter accumulated worldview attitudes and orientation patterns developed by Buddhist dogma at large.

Goals. The article introduces into scientific circulation an Oirat-language text dealing with astrological practices and housed by the Aldan Maadyr National Museum of the Tyva Republic. M aterials. The text is a fragment of the manuscript included in the Museum’s collection of Buddhist monuments under inventory number M-884. This is a Clear Script (Kalm. todo bichig) text, and is one of the two astrological monuments in the Museum’s collection. Results. The paper describes, briefly characterizes, transliterates and translates (from Oirat into Russian) the manuscript.

The article examines one rare manuscript book which is a school primer for children of emigrant Kalmyks that resided in Pfaffenhofen DP Camp (Germany) in the late 1940s. The paper analyzes and describes the book in detail, special attention being paid to its design and contents. The surviving copy of the primer reveals an important aspect of educational practices in the history of emigration of different peoples within DP camps and during the early years of their permanent residence in respective countries that hosted multi-ethnic expatriate groups in the aftermath of World War II.