12 Facts About Oirats

Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia.

Historically, the Oirats were composed of four major tribes: Dzungar, Torghut, Dorbet and Khoshut.

Oirats were fully submitted to Mongol rule after their ally Jamukha, Genghis's childhood friend and later rival, was destroyed.

The majority of the Oirats, who were left behind, supported Ariq Boke against Kublai in the Toluid Civil War.

The Ming Chinese had helped the Oirats' rise to power over the Mongols during the Yongle Emperor's reign after 1410 when the Ming defeated the Qubilaid Oljei Temur and the Borjigid power was weakened.

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Greatest ruler of the Four Oirats was Esen Tayisi who led the Four Oirats from 1438 to 1454, during which time he unified Mongolia under his puppet khan Toghtoa Bukha.

Oirats converted to Tibetan Buddhism around 1615, and it was not long before they became involved in the conflict between the Gelug and Karma Kagyu schools.

Oirats fought against a Manchu-Qing Dynasty army, and was defeated only in the following year and 80,000 people from his tribe were executed by Manchu army due to his "rebellion attempt".

Oirats spoke about those Torgut Oirats who had earlier migrated to Kalmykia in Russia and then fought against the Ottoman Turkish Muslim empire, and then crushed the Swedish king Charles XII, and then how 400,0000 Torguts migrated back to Dzungaria in 1771, fighting against the Cossack armies of Tsarina of Russia Catherine the Great.

Oirats mentioned how this had made Russia "lose" the support of Mongols.

Oirats was afraid of the Zunghar and wanted the Qing government to allow them to move away from the border.

Sart Kalmyks and Xinjiang Oirats are not Volga Kalmyks or Kalmyks, and the Kalmyks are a subgroup of the Oirats.