The Kalmyk-Oirats of Uzbekistan

The Kalmyk-Oirats of Uzbekistan, numbering approximately 1,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Uzbekistan; a dialect subgroup of Kalmyk-Oirat (xal). They mostly adhere to Mahayana Buddhism and Kalmyk is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Kalmyk-Oirat

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: East Asian Peoples
Country: Uzbekistan
People Cluster: Mongolian
Primary Language(s): Kalmyk (xal)
Primary Religion(s): Mahayana Buddhism
Population: 1,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024678

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Mahayana Buddhism
Religious Affiliation: Buddhism

75%
%
Mahayana Buddhism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Kalmyk
Language Family: Mongolic-Khitan

100%
%
Kalmyk-Oirat Speakers

Media Resources in Kalmyk:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Kalmyk:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2002 Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow✓✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Kalmyk bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Kalmyk-Oirats:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Kalmyk-Oirats of Uzbekistan

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
readRomans 3:12

Pray that those who are enslaved to sin will admit their need for a Savior, acknowledging that no one is righteous.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
readJohn 3:16

Pray that the lost will seek God and learn that they have a heavenly Father who loves them and wants them to live eternally with Him.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
readIsaiah 26:3

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, the Lord will keep them in perfect peace as they trust in Him.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
readEphesians 1:13-14

Pray that God will work through believers near and far in bringing the lost to Himself, giving them what they need to do the task He has set before them, and helping them rest in Him because He has given them His Spirit.

Oirat, Western Mongul Across Countries (ROP3 - 107607) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

6 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Kalmyk-OiratsKalmyk-OiratsMongolia191,000Unengaged and UnreachedKalmykChinese Folk Religion
Kalmyk-OiratsKalmyk-OiratsRussian Federation183,000Engaged yet UnreachedKalmykTibetan Buddhism
Kok Nur OiratKok Nur OiratChina105,000Engaged yet UnreachedKalmykMahayana Buddhism
Kalmyk-OiratsKalmyk-OiratsKyrgyzstan8,200Unengaged and UnreachedKalmykTibetan Buddhism
OiratOiratUnited States1,900Engaged yet UnreachedKalmykTibetan Buddhism
Kalmyk-OiratsKalmyk-OiratsUzbekistan1,000Unengaged and UnreachedKalmykMahayana Buddhism

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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