Zaya Pandita (Namkhaijiantsan)

1599-1662.

[Buddhism & Nordland, 2007] Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijantsan (1599–1662) was a Buddhist missionary priest, diplomat and the most prominent scholar of Oirat origin. Zaya Pandita studied in Tibet for 18 years becoming one of the highest-ranked Oirat clerics before he was sent back to his homeland as a missionary. Zaya Pandita became known for his diplomatic skills—he helped facilitate the Great Mongolian Convocation (khurultay) of 1640, and his linguistic skills—he created the “Tod Bichig” (Clear Script) used by Oirats and Kalmyks and translated over 200 scriptures from Tibetan to the new writing system. The Mongol Convocation of 1640 had the aim of uniting all Mongols into a confederation and, in that, it failed. But, it succeeded in creating a legal code that established a system of rules that governed the daily activities of all Mongols from the Volga River in southeastern Russia to present-day eastern Mongolia. These set of laws are called the "Great Code of the Forty and the Four" (Döchin Dörben Hoyar un Ike Tsagaza) known as the Khalkha-Oirat Law*. In 1648 Zaya Pandita created the Clear Script (Todo Bichig) by modifying elements of the traditional Mongol script with the Uighur script. The idea was to create a pan-Mongol writing system that eliminated the ambiguities inherent in the old Mongolian script. The script never became an all-Mongol writing system, but it was adopted by the Kalmyks and used by them until 1924. Some of the Oirats in China still use it to this day. Zaya Pandita was also responsible for translating over 200 sacred texts from Tibetan to todo bichig. Over forty are directly attributed to Zaya Pandita, including the famous four-volume Clear Mirror of Teachings** and The Sutra of the Golden Light. *** A hagiography (life of a saint) was written by Zaya Pandita’s student Ratnabkhardo in 1690. * It is interesting that the “Code” favors the Oirats, that the Ge-lug-pa lamas were instrumental in creating it, and that shortly after the khurultay the Oirats conquered Tibet installing the 5th Dalai Lama and making Ge-lug-pa the dominant sect in Tibet. The Oirat Khoshut Güshi Khan was proclaimed Khan of Tibet by the 5th Dalai Lama, in turn and the Khoshuts continued to be “Khans of Tibet” until 1723 they were crushed by the Quing Chinese. ** THE CLEAR MIRROR: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age by Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen, translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok, Snow Lion Publications, 1996. *** Available at: http://www.fpmt.org/

teachers/zopa/

advice/goldenlight.asp

in a number of languages, including Mongolian.

Steppe Notes 2-2010 “Kalmyk”? ... “Kalmuck”? ...

“What’s the diff”? The question one most often receives when mentioning the word “Kalmyk” is, “What in the world are you talking about?” Few Americans know that the Kalmyks are a Mongolian ethnic group that has lived in Russia since, at least, 1609. Even fewer know that the country of Kalmykia is the only ethnic Mongolian country in Europe or, that it is the first, and only, officially Buddhist nation in Europe. It is only specialist of Russian history (or the War of 1812, in Europe) who know that the Kalmyk 2nd Cavalry regiment was among the first Russian troop formations to enter Paris in 1814. Who? The people who became known as Kalmyks originated as members of the Western Oirat Mongols. The Western Oirats were one of the two main Mongol groups the others were the Khalkha (Chingizides of Chingis Khan fame). The Oirats were composed of four major sub-groups, tribes or clans: Choros or Ölöt, Torghut, Dörbet, and Khoshut. Kho Orluk, a Torghut khan, began moving west from the upper reached of the Irtysh river with approximately 50 thousand “tents.” In 1608 his ambassadors began negotiation with the Russians about establishing a khanate (kingdom) in the lower Volga region. These talks were successful and 1609 is now officially recognized as the year the Kalmyks became incorporated into the Russian state. It took until 1630 to move the Torghuts and elements of the Dörbets to the Volga region and to establish the khanate. The period between that date and 1750 is considered to be the golden age of the Kalmyk khanate. By 1771 due to a number of factors the dissatisfaction of a large majority of Kalmyks reached a point where under Ubashi Khan’s leadership, about 200,000 of them, after receiving blessing from the Dalai Lama began a return to Dzungaria. Five-sixths of the Torghut and most of the Khoshuts, Choros and Khoits (who by that time became part of the khanate) went on that unlucky journey. The Dörbet, on the other hand, did not go. The most common narrative that explains the Dörbet staying put is the story that the Volga thawed on the day of departure and therefore the Kalmyks on the other side of the river were unable to join the exodus. While this tale is accepted by many, it also finds detractors, and the issue of why some Kalmyks remained in Russia cannot be said to be definitively settled. In any case, it is the remaining Dörbet and minority of the other clans who remained, who are the direct ancestors of today’s Kalmyks.. The Russian government felt betrayed by the exodus and in retaliation disbanded the Khanate. Members of Kalmyk leadership (tayishis) were made part of the nobility in the Russian state and the non-noble members of the tribe/clan were enserfed to them. Serfdom of the Kalmyks to the tayishis remained in force until 1897 although serfdom among ethnic Russians was abolished in 1861. Needless to say, the period around 1771 was quite unsettled for the Kalmyks and this manifested itself by large-scale participation of the Kalmyks in the Pugachev Rebellion (1774-1775) the largest and, for a brief time, most successful peasant rebellion in Tsarist history. The repressions that followed the crushing of the rebellion, population pressures caused by influx of German, Russian and Ukrainian farmers, and an active conversion campaign by the Orthodox church motivated Dörbets (and later, Torghuts) to migrate from the Volga region to the Sal’sk District of the Don region where they took the name Buzava (or Don Kalmyks). In 1798 the Tsarist government recognized the Buzava as Don Cossacks, both militarily and administratively. As Cossacks the Buzava were freed from serfdom, could farm independently, and while serving in the army were paid by the government. After the Communist revolution and the ensuing Civil War a significant number of Kalmyks, predominantly among the Don Cossacks, emigrated to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and a few other countries. In the homeland the Soviets established the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast (Region) in November 1920. It was formed by merging the Stavropol Kalmyk settlements with a majority of the Astrakhan Kalmyks. A small number of Don Kalmyks (Buzava) from the Don Host migrated to this Oblast. The administrative center was Elista, a small village in the western part of the Oblast. In October 1935, the Oblast was reorganized into the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. On December 28th, 1943, the entire population, including Kalmyk Red Army soldiers, was deported to various locations in Central Asia and Siberia. The transfer occurred within 24 hours, at night, during winter, without notice in unheated cattle cars. The mortality rate in the first year of the deportation is estimated to have been around 50 percent. In 1957 the population was allowed to return and an Autonomous Oblast was reinstated. In 1958 the Republic was formed again. In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the independent Republic of Kalmykia was formed which remained as a constituent republic in the new Russian Federation. The capital became Elista. The Don Kalmyks (Buzava) and others who retreated with the White Armies settled in Yugoslavia in the main, with others settling in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and France. In Yugoslavia they build the first Buddhist temple in the Balkans and began rebuilding lives shattered by WWI, the Revolution, and Civil War. Unfortunately WWII came and as the Soviet Army began advancing on Eastern Europe the Kalmyks uprooted, once more, left their new countries. After the war the Kalmyks found themselves in Displaced Persons refugee camps (many near Munich, Germany) with little prospects of resettling in a new country. It is at this point that with the help of the Tolstoy Foundation and the Church World Services efforts were made to resettle them in the U.S. Those initial efforts were rebuffed on the grounds of the Immigrant Act of 1924 (containing the Asian Exclusion Act) which prohibited the immigration of Asians into the U.S. The decision for excluding Kalmyks was appealed and on August 28, 1951, the Acting Attorney General of the United States affirmed a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision that had overturned an adverse decision of a special inquiry board holding a Kalmyk couple ineligible to immigrate because they were not members of the "white" race. Sustaining the appeal of the rejected couple, the BIA found, inter alia, that the Kalmyks' centuries-old history of occupying the European section of Russia militated a favorable decision regarding their contention that they were European and therefore not subject to the race-based bar to their entry into the United States and eventual naturalization as American citizens. The hard work and novel legal arguments of lawyers working on behalf of the Kalmyk couple cleared the way for the rest of their otherwise eligible compatriots to successfully immigrate to America. This is how between December 1951 and March 1952, 571 Kalmyks arrived in the United States, a majority settling in Howell, New Jersey, with additional families and individuals arriving later on. Today, the U.S. is the major settlement area of the Kalmyks outside the Russian Federation. What about the Kalmucks? The term “Kalmyk” is a very inexact transliteration of the term “Хальмгуд” (Khal’mgudh) and is alternatively transliterated as "Kalmuck," "Kalmuk," or "Kalmyki," among others. The “Kalmuk” transliteration is found in the Howell street name “Kalmuk Road,” the only road so named on this earth.