To the Issue of Studying the Ethnic Group of Issyk-Kul Kalmyks

Abstract

This article reviews the history of the study of the ethnic group of the Issyk-Kul Kalmyks, considers some scientists’ opinions on the ethno-genesis of the Sart Kalmaks and assesses the material collected during the 2013 expedition. The Sart Kalmaks are a small group of Oirat origin living in Ak-Suu district of Issyk-Kul province in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan now. At present it is impossible to accurately determine their number as according to the 2009 Census data 3,800 people registered as Kalmyks, but ¾ of the Kalmyks were recorded as Kyrgyz for social reasons. The population of the four villages Chelpek, Burma-Suu, Tash-Kyya and Beryu-Bash, where 90% of the residents are Sart Kalmyks, is about 12,000 people. One of the markers of their Western Mongolian origin is the language which is very close to Kalmyk. At the moment, there are only a few speakers of this language remained, and they are basically elderly people. Their traditional ethno-cultural characteristics have gradually given way to the Kyrgyz and common Muslim traditions. The language, ethnography, history of the Karakol Kalmyks were studied by such scientists as A. V. Burdukov (1935), Sh. Dondukov (1973), E. R. Tenishev (1976), N. L. Zhukovskaya (1980), D. A. Pavlov (1984), A. N. Bitkeyeva (2006), B. Nanzatov and M. Sodnompilova (2012). The Sart Kalmyks rarely became the object of anthropological research, but were described in the works of D. O. Ashilova (1976) who made a number of conclusions based on the somatological data. Though the ethnic group of Sart Kalmaks which became an integral part of the Kyrgyz nation in the past has close relations with other Western Mongolian groups through their common ancestry, language and culture, now they differ from the nations belonging to the Central Asian anthropological type (Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats) in their physical type and reveal big anthropological affinity with the Kyrgyz. During the 2013 expedition, we conducted an integrated study of the Sart Kalmaks. Within this research the native speakers of the language were interviewed in the Linguistic Program of 100 Word List. The household registers of the four villages in which Sart Kalmaks reside were used to work out the nominalia. The ethnonyms, toponyms and their semantics have been collected in the interviews with the informants. The Anthropometric * Исследование проведено при финансовой поддержке РГНФ в рамках проекта № 12-01-00063а. Program involved body measurements of 84 women and 119 men. Some 830 photographs have been taken in order to create generalized portraits and fill out forms related to the Racial Program. We also gathered some genetic material: out of 197 blood samples collected for genetic analysis 101 were taken from women and 96 from men. With respect to the ethnic component, the following distribution is observed: 111 people stated that their both parents were Sart Kalmaks, about half of them know the tribal affiliation of the parents (51 persons). 40 people are mestizos with Sart Kalmak and Kyrgyz blood lines, both parents of 29 informants are of Kyrgyz origin, 8 people are mestizos with Kazakh, Uyghur, Tatar, Bashkir blood lines. The material collected in this field work will be implemented to trace the history of the Issyk Kul Kalmyks’ development and to compare it with that of the Kalmaks living in Russia and China as well as to forecast the further evolution, to investigate the demographic and genetic structure of Karakol Kalmyks, to calculate the genetic distances and the degree of relationship with Russian Kalmyks. The photographs taken will allow to create generalized portraits of Sart Kalmak men and women. Therefore, this research will highlight the most recent trends in the development of this ethnic group.