PREFACE

I. LKHAGVASUREN and Yuki KONAGAYA

Part I LINGUISTICS

The Formation of the Oirat Dialect

D. TUMURTOGOO

Current Trends in Oirat Dialect Studies

E. PUREVJAV

Part II HISTORY

Oirats and Tribes of Bargudzhin-oron

Dorj V. TSYBIKDORZHIEV

Kalmyks, Oirat Descendants in Russia: a Historical and Ethnographic Sketch

E. P. BAKAEVA

Resources on the History of Oirat Migration Maintained by the National Library of Mongolia

O. BOLORMAA

Several Letters Regarding Galdan Boshogtu

S. CHULUUN

Locations of Oirat Tribes in the 18th-century Jungar Khanate, according to Modern Chinese Historiography

D. KUKEEV

Russian Policy toward Kalmyks and Jungars during the Decline of the Jungar Khanate

L. CHETYROVA

Relocation of Oyirad Groups to Manchuria and Hulun Buir

Akira YANAGISAWA

Clear Script Sources on Oirat History: Classification, Values, and Significance

N. SUKHBAATAR

Similarities and Differences between Mongolia and Tuva in the Evolution of Bilateral Ties

D. SHURKHUU

Part III ETHNOLOGY

Socium Division Markers: Instruments of Kinship Relations as Expressed in Oirat and Buryat Traditions

M. M. SODNOMPILOVA

The Oirats of Kyrgyzstan: Social, Cultural, and Identity Practices of the Sartkalmaks

B. Z. NANZATOV

The People of the Oirot Khan

S. P. TYUKHTENEVA

Altaic Uriankhan Clothing of the Late 19^th and Early 20^th Centuries

I. LKHAGVASUREN

Tuvans Outside of Tuva: The Problem of Ethnic Self-conservation

M. V. MONGUSH

The Tuvan Legend of Genghis Khan, Using the Xinjing Tuvans as an Example

SARANGEREL

Part IV FOLKLORE

Eet Mergen Temene: Fairy Tale and Reality in Questions of Characters' Historicity

B. B. GORYAEVA

The Problem of Researching Kalmyk Buddhist Literature from the 20th and Early 21st Centuries

D. N. MURZAEVA

On the Mongolian Folk Drawling Song

S. OYUNGEREL

The Milk-sprinkling Ceremony

M. GANBOLD

Oirat Oral Histories of Natural and Social Changes in Ejene Banner, Inner Mongolia

Kanako KODAMA and Yuki KONAGAYA

List of Contributors