Вопросы этнической идентификации калмыцких буддистов первой трети XX в. в контексте современных проблем исследования этнической истории калмыков

The article analyzes issues of ethnic and confessional identities in the contexts of challenges set forth by Kalmyk ethnic history studies. It examines a number of debated questions of Kalmyk ethnogenetic studies and the actively promoted (on the Internet) concepts of somewhat unified ethnic identity of the Kalmyks and Western Mongols (Oirats), as well as ideas about the formation of a unified Kalmyk identity in the early 20th century. An insight into the reasons to explain the emergence of the latter included the use of documents stored at archival funds and dealing with activities of Kalmyk Buddhist communities in the early 20th century. The paper shows that the ethnic identity to mirror common culture and origins of territorial groups inhabiting the Kalmyk Steppe before the 1900-1930s was actually ‘supported’ via multi-leveled self-identity processes within the confessional consciousness manifested in the then network of Buddhist monasteries and hierarchical structure of society. Contemporary views on recent formation of a unified Kalmyk identity stem from the available data confirming that during the period under consideration some common Kalmyk identity co-existed with a structurally different identity. The stratified ethnic identity mirrored in documents of Kalmyk Buddhists provides evidence of both somewhat preserved spatial borders of ethnic groups (resulting from peculiarities of the then administrative-territorial division) and the functions of mental (spiritual) markers performed by those borders. In present-day Kalmykia, people keep searching for new mental markers which gives rise to the current interest in the early Oirat or even Mongolian periods of Kalmyk ethnic history. In this perspective, we witness another actualization of the term ‘Dzungaria’ which is often referred to (in Internet articles) as the ancestral area of the Kalmyks, and the Western Mongols tend to designate this concept as ‘Oirat nutuq’ (Kalm. ‘hereditary / ancestral pasture lands’). Modern Kalmyk society also witnesses an increasing interest towards histories of clans. At the same time, processes of the 20th century resulted in the fact that nowadays the confessional (Buddhist) identity lies beyond any ethnic divisions

Eurasian Exchange Networks · European Linguistics and Anthropology · Materials Science · Soviet and Russian History