Who are the Buryats
Buryats of Russia, Mongolia, Shenehen and the world diaspora share one cultural space. This page is the way into it: the project follows the people rather than a border, so what follows reaches across today's borders.
Everything below comes from material already published here — verified resources, a chronology with sources, and the people who carry the culture forward.
People today
Where Buryats live today
Languages and culture
Dictionaries, phrasebooks, apps and courses for learning, reading and writing Buryat.
25entries
All entriesNews outlets, Buddhist archives and community projects that carry Buryat culture today.
All entriesA category with a history
Who counted as “Buryat”, and what the word covered, is treated on this site as a historical question rather than a fixed given. The chronology shows, period by period, what is known and from which source; the Methodology page explains how statements are labelled.
- Before the 12th centuryDeep past of the Baikal region
- 12th–16th centuriesBuryad and related communities in the Mongol world
- 17th century–1727Border-making and colonial encounter
- 1727–mid-19th centuryReconstitution under border regimes
- Mid-19th century–1917Land, print and trans-Mongol modernity
- 1917–1937Revolutionary plurality and projects of autonomy
- 1937–1958Territorial fragmentation, state violence and war
- 1958–1989Late socialist Buryat modernity
- Since 1989Revitalisation, memory and the transnational Buryat world
Why do sources use different names?
The same community can appear under different names depending on who wrote and when: a self-name, a name given by neighbours or administrators, an administrative unit, the population of a territory, a genealogical tradition, a scholarly classification, or a present-day form of self-identification. That is why this site names the source and the period for every historical statement, keeps alternative readings visible, and explains terms such as ug, obog, omog, otog, «род» and clan in the Glossary rather than translating them with one word.
Buryat worlds across borders
Buryat communities developed around Baikal, across Transbaikalia, Mongolia and Shenehen. The map is a present-day schematic: it keeps these connected regions in one frame and does not show historical borders or fixed territories of any group.
Regions on the map
- CisbaikaliaEkhirit, Bulagat
- Tunka · OkaKhongodor
- TransbaikaliaKhori
- BarguzinBarguzin Buryats
- Selenga · DzhidaSartuul, Songol, Tabangut
- AgaAga Buryats
- MongoliaBuryats of Mongolia
- Shenehensince the 1920s · China
Areas of Buryat settlement
ethnographic map · settlement areas are approximate
Present-day schematic; not historical borders.
Communities & genealogies
Communities and genealogies are part of this record. The list below repeats the map: regions together with the community names attached to them in present-day usage. Names, borders and forms of belonging changed over time — see Methodology.
- CisbaikaliaEkhirit, Bulagat
- Tunka · OkaKhongodor
- TransbaikaliaKhori
- BarguzinBarguzin Buryats
- Selenga · DzhidaSartuul, Songol, Tabangut
- AgaAga Buryats
- MongoliaBuryats of Mongolia
- Shenehensince the 1920s · China
Archives, metrical books and finding aids for researching family lines, genealogies and local history.
All entriesPeople
scholars, writers, keepers of the language
14people
All peopleWhat is not here yet
Encyclopedic figures — population, the classification of the language, religious composition — appear on this page only with a named source and the date of the latest check. Until that check is done the line stays empty: a gap in the evidence is named as a gap rather than filled with a smooth narrative.
PrinciplesHow to continue learning about the Buryats
Choose one question instead of trying to cover everything at once. Language can start a conversation; family names lead to personal histories; celebrations, clothing and food offer ways to meet particular people and sources.
- Buryat names: examples, meanings and family histories →
An introduction to male and female Buryat names and how to check meaning, spelling and a family’s account of a name.
- Buryat traditional clothing: how to read an outfit →
What to look for in male and female dress: cut, belt, sleeveless garments and the provenance of a museum object.
- Buryat cuisine: buuzy, bukhler and getting to know the food →
How buuzy differ from khushuur, what bukhler is and how to explore Buryat cuisine through a menu and a family recipe.
- Sagaalgan: meaning, traditions and the date in 2027 →
What the White Month festival means, how family gatherings relate to Buddhist traditions, and what is confirmed about Sagaalgan in 2027.
- Start learning Buryat →
Five words or short expressions with sources, one question for a teacher and a time for your next session.
- How to research your genealogy →
From a family question to archive catalogues and documents: a research sequence and the limits of sources.
How to read general statements about culture
For each claim, ask which place and period it concerns, who described it and on what basis. A family memory, a museum object and a scholarly study provide different kinds of evidence. One example need not represent every Buryat; its value lies in preserving a particular experience.