Kalmykia (Russia)

Qalmg Tangc^

Last modified: 2003-01-25 by antonio martins
Keywords: kalmykia | qalmg tangc^ | buddhism | om | pink | flower | lotus | nine | error | law | derben oirat | oirat | error | erdneeva (b. b.) |
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• Presentation of Kalmykia
• Description of the flag
• 1992-1993 flag

• Historical non-Soviet Kalmykia flags
• Kalmykia in the Soviet Union, 1917-1942,1958-1992
• Russia
• Russian subdivisions (list and clickable map)

• Kalmykya today, containing the flag
  reported by Dov Gutterman, 27 Mar 1999 Arms of Elista, capital of Kalmykia
  reported by István Molnár, 04 Dec 2001

Presentation of Kalmykia

(Note: You need an Unicode-aware software and font to correctely view the cyrillic text on this page. See here transliteration details).

• Name (english): Kalmykia • (russian, short form): Калмыкия | Kalmykiâ • (russian, long form): Республика Калмыкия | Respublika Kalmykiâ • (local, short form): Халмг Тангч | Qalmg Tangĉ
  
• Local official language: Kalmukian
  
• Capital (russian): Элиста | Êlista • (english): Elista
• Area: 76 100 km² (≅29 400 sq.mi.) • Population: 314 300 inhabitants in 2000
• Status: Republic (Республика | Respublika) within the Russian Federation
• Federal District: Northern Caucasus • Economic region: Volga
• License plate code: 08 • Ham radio code: KM • ISO 3166-2 code: KL
• Flag adopted on 1993.07.30 • Coat of arms adopted on 1993.07.30

Kalmyks, Mongol people of Oirot language, are of Buddhist religion. Torgut, Dorbet and Buzawa tribes live in the republic. (Sart Kalmyks of Kyrgyzstan are Muslim.) Kalmyks migrated to Caspian region in the XVII th Century from Central Asia (nomadic cattle breeders). Presently, Kalmykia is a constituent Republic of Russian Federation with a fascinating personality as its president.
Chris Kretowicz, 06 Jun 2001

The Kalmyks settled the Volga River region in the seventeenth century. A Mongol people, they were originally Buddhist in faith. Annexed to Russia in 1771.
Stuart Notholt, 17 Sep 1995

Kalmyk people are the last Western Mongols, the only buddhist people in Europe.
Giuseppe Bottasini

Kalmylkia is a remnant state of the Mongol Khans, and retains as a major religious force, Buddhism.
Bruce C. Ward, 16 Apr 1997

I have an interesting photograph. It shows the Kalmyk minister of culture presenting a Kalmyk flag to the Mayor of Howell (New Jersey, US). The flag is fully streched out in front of them. Howell and Elista (the capital of Kalmykia) participate in a sister cities program. Many of the Kalmyk people who fled Russia in 1917 to Yugoslavia and France, wound up in a displaced persons camp in Germany after WWII. In 1952 they came to the US where most of them settled in Howell. I am told that Howell now has the largest concentration of Kalmyk people in the western hemisphere.
Dave Sanderson, 07 Apr 1997

The golden yellow is consistent with our faith. Yellow hat tradition of the Gelunpa sect. The circle is the traditional learning tool of all mongol children. We are not people of square or linear reality. Our shelter is round as the world, when we sit on the steppes and look around us at the world in a circle.
Erdne Dorje, 22 Jun 1998

The Lotus Flower has significant symbolic meaning to many Buddhists, especially those away from southern and southwestern asia. By several sects, including mine, the Lotus Sutra is the highest of Buddhist teachings. The lotus grows out of the silt, mud and muck of the earth, and yet blossoms with great beauty — just as the nature of one's potential Buddhahood exists even in the heart of the most evil of men.
Bruce C Ward, 16 Apr 1997

The flag of the Republic of Kalmykia was adopted 30 July 1993. In the flag regulations which were issued 8 February 1994 the flag is described as follows (Source: Government of the Republic of Kalmykia):

Regulations of the National flag of the Republic of Kalmykia — Khalmg Tangch

1. The National flag of the Republic of Kalmykia — Khalmg Tangch — Ulan zalata khalmg is a rectangular panel of golden-yellow, in the middle of which is a sky-blue circle with a white lotus constisting of nine petals.
   The flag is attached to a pole crowned with a red tip in the forme of a "tongue of flame" with contour outlines of the ancient symbol of Derben-Oirats — four circles clamped together, in the base of which there is "ulan zala". The ratio of the flag width to its length is 1:2. The ratio of the radius of the circle to the flag width is 1:3,5. The ratio of the distance from tip to tip of the flower to the flag width is 1:4.,.
   

The first post soviet flag of Kalmykia was adopted by law of 30 October 1992. (Source: Government of the Republic of Kalmykia)

Article 158: The National flag of the Republic of Kalmykia — Khalmg Tangch is a rectangular panel consisting of three horizontal stripes: the upper one is sky-blue, the middle one is golden-yellow and the lower one is scarlet. In the centre of the golden-yellow stripe, in a circle having a diameter equal to 1/4 of the flag width, is a sign in the form of flame of fire over the two wavy lines. The sign and the circumference are scarlet. The ratio of the width of the stripes of light blue and scarlet to the width of the golden-yellow stripe is 1:2. The ratio of the flag width to its length is 1:2.

Scarlet was the Soviet Flag. It was never shown in pink, as this is a Russian alternate description for red.
Ralf Stelter, 27 Jun 1999

This flag is listed under number 93 at the chart Flags of Aspirant Peoples [eba94] as: «Khalmg-Tangch (Kalmyks) - South-East Russia».
Ivan Sache, 15 Sep 1999

South east?! Only if South-East european Russia...
António Martins, 16 Sep 1999