Herein are 39 Kalmyk-Mongolian children’s fairy and folktales which are Mongolian in origin. Herein you wind stories like: The Saga Of The Well-And-Wise-Walking Khan The Woman Who Sought Her Husband In The Palace Of Erlik-Khan The Gold-Spitting Prince Five To One The Fortunes Of Shrikantha The Use Of Magic Language The Wife Who Loved Butter Bhîxu Life The Saga Of Ardschi-Bordschi And Vikramâditja’s Throne The Boy-King Schalû the Wolf-boy Vikramâditja acquires another Kingdom The Voice-charmer How Naran Gerel swore falsely and yet told the Truth ….plus many, many more. Kalmyk folklore, fairy tales, omens and sayings are a little-researched genre of folklore. Since early times the Kalmyk people, surveyed nature, animals, and the birds around them, from which they created tales, legends, myths, songs, proverbs, and sayings that are notable for their keen observation, which, over time, have been infused with a healthy dose of deep wisdom, which is highly complementary to their commonly held practise of Tengric Bhuddism, or Mongolian Buddhism. The Kalmyk people are members of the Oirat clan which is Mongolian in origin. The Kalmyks (also spelled Kalmouk) migrated 3,700km/2,300miles from the steppes of southern Siberia on the banks of the Irtysh River to the Lower Volga region, bordering on the northern Caspian sea, arriving in about 1630AD. The most compelling reason was to escape the growing dominance of the neighboring Dzungar Mongol tribe. Along the route of their migration, the Kalmyks would have met and mixed with pagans and shamans, the Jewish Khazars, Islam from the Alans and Nogais, and Christianity from the Russians and other Slavic tribes. As such their folklore and fairytales are interwoven with elements of all these cultures creating a rich and diverse tapestry of lore which is reflected in this volume. ============== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Kalmykian, Mongolian, folklore, fairytales, Ananda, ancient, ape, Ardschi-Bordschi, ARDSCHI, BORDSCHI, arrows, ass, barley-corns, beasts, beautiful, birdcatcher, bird, catcher, Bodhisattva, bones, Boy-king, Buddha, Buddhist, butter, capital, caravan, chief, children, children’s books, children’s stories, Churmusta, companions, cunning, dancing, demons, eight, endowed, enemy, feathers, fifteenth century, 15th C., free, friends, Gandharva, garuda-bird, Gerel, grandparents with children, gratitude, Hermit, honour, horse, India, jewel, Khan, Khanin, King, kingdom, Kun-dgah, Lama, lioness, love, magicians, magnanimous, maiden, majesty, mango tree, marry, Massang, Master, merchandize, merchandise, merchant, Minister, Moonshine, mother-o’-pearl, mothers to be, mothers with children, mountain, Nâgârg′una, Naran, Naran-Dâkinî, Naran Dâkinî, noble, oxen, palace, parents to be, parents with children, parrot, peace, possessed, Prince, Princess, Queen, reading to children, sacred, sacrifice, Schimnu, Schimnu Khan, Schimnus, Serpent, Serpent king, seventy-one, Shanggasba, Siddhi-kür, soothsayer, Ssaran, Sunshine, Suta, tales, talisman, Teacher, temple, thousand, throne, token, transform, treasure, Vikramâditja, water, Well-and-wise-walking, Well and wise walking, weep, wisdom, wise, wolves, wood-carver, wood carver, youth

A comprehensive reference to Mongolia and the Mongols includes alphabetically arranged entries on the region's history, political movements, key figures, culture, languages, religion, economy, sociology, medicine, and climate .

Many know of Shambhala, the Tibetan Buddhist legendary land of spiritual bliss popularized by the film, Shangri-La. But few may know of the role Shambhala played in Russian geopolitics in the early twentieth century. Perhaps the only one on the subject, Andrei Znamenski’s book presents a wholly different glimpse of early Soviet history both erudite and fascinating. Using archival sources and memoirs, he explores how spiritual adventurers, revolutionaries, and nationalists West and East exploited Shambhala to promote their fanatical schemes, focusing on the Bolshevik attempt to use Mongol-Tibetan prophecies to railroad Communism into inner Asia. We meet such characters as Gleb Bokii, the Bolshevik secret police commissar who tried to use Buddhist techniques to conjure the ideal human; and Nicholas Roerich, the Russian painter who, driven by his otherworldly Master and blackmailed by the Bolshevik secret police, posed as a reincarnation of the Dalai Lama to unleash religious war in Tibet. We also learn of clandestine activities of the Bolsheviks from the Mongol-Tibetan Section of the Communist International who took over Mongolia and then, dressed as lama pilgrims, tried to set Tibet ablaze; and of their opponent, Ja-Lama, an “avenging lama” fond of spilling blood during his tantra rituals.

An epic account of the rise and fall of the Silk Road empires The first complete history of Central Eurasia from ancient times to the present day, Empires of the Silk Road represents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. Christopher Beckwith describes the rise and fall of the great Central Eurasian empires, including those of the Scythians, Attila the Hun, the Turks and Tibetans, and Genghis Khan and the Mongols. In addition, he explains why the heartland of Central Eurasia led the world economically, scientifically, and artistically for many centuries despite invasions by Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and others. In retelling the story of the Old World from the perspective of Central Eurasia, Beckwith provides a new understanding of the internal and external dynamics of the Central Eurasian states and shows how their people repeatedly revolutionized Eurasian civilization. Beckwith recounts the Indo-Europeans' migration out of Central Eurasia, their mixture with local peoples, and the resulting development of the Graeco-Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations; he details the basis for the thriving economy of premodern Central Eurasia, the economy's disintegration following the region's partition by the Chinese and Russians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the damaging of Central Eurasian culture by Modernism; and he discusses the significance for world history of the partial reemergence of Central Eurasian nations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Empires of the Silk Road places Central Eurasia within a world historical framework and demonstrates why the region is central to understanding the history of civilization.

This book unravels some of the complex factors that allowed or hampered the presence of (certain aspects of) Buddhism in the regions to the north and the east of India, such as Central Asia, China, Tibet, Mongolia, or Korea.