Anomalous zones and mysteries of Kalmykia. Baron Ungern's treasure: is the solution to the mystery close? Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and aliens

Rumor claims that these countless treasures are buried somewhere in the Mongolian steppe. However, expeditions that went there several times were unable to find them. And in the early 30s, the Harbin journalist Korobov, who obviously knew something about the treasure, warned in the newspaper of Russian emigrants “Rupor”: “What is not hidden by you is not what you will get, gentlemen! The valuables left behind by Ungern will go to those who reveal the mystery of the disappearance of the main cash register of the Asian Division. The key to this secret is in Gumbum, one of the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet.”

The beginning of this story dates back to the summer of 1917, when Major General Roman Fedorovich Ungern von Sternberg left Petrograd for Transbaikalia as an emissary of Kerensky in order to strengthen confidence in the Provisional Government among the Cossacks. The baron did not return back. He became an associate of the ataman of the Siberian Cossack army Grigory Semenov, the successor of the “Supreme Ruler of the Russian State” Admiral Kolchak. But Ungern, who received the rank of lieutenant general, continued to fight. At the beginning of the winter of 1920, the cavalry Asian Division, which he formed from Cossacks, Mongols and Buryats, invaded Chinese-occupied Mongolia. While the baron's army, stretching for many kilometers - cavalry, infantry, artillery, convoys - slowly advanced across the waterless yellow steppe, he himself, at the head of the vanguard, reached the Mongolian capital Urga (now Ulaanbaatar).

He believed that with the capture of Urga, the implementation of his grandiose plan for creating his own empire, which would stretch from Tibet to the Tunguska taiga, would begin. Being a far-sighted politician, Baron Ungern declared himself a defender of the yellow or Lamaist faith. And he even solemnly accepted her, going through an initiation ceremony in a Buddhist monastery. He freed the ruler Bogd Gegen from Chinese captivity and, after the capture of Urga, returned him power over all of Mongolia, after which the grateful ruler granted the general the title of Wang, and with it the four highest privileges: the right to have yellow reins on a horse, wear a robe of the same color and boots, ride in a green palanquin and pin a three-point peacock feather to his cap.

Yellow color is the sun. Green is the earth, the awakening spring steppe. Three points in rainbow feathers mean the third degree of earthly power - the power that has a third eye to read in the souls of people. The fifth privilege, “Dressed in yellow, Directing his path in yellow,” as Ungern floridly called Bogdo-gegen, was appropriated to himself: to take into the treasury of his Asian division all the gold conquered from the Chinese, since it is a yellow metal. Among other trophies, there was also a meter-tall statue of Buddha made of pure gold. However, even this was not the main value in the legendary treasure of the Buddhist baron. Much of the cash was indemnity collected from the Mongols by the Chinese, allegedly for non-payment of debts to merchants and moneylenders from the Middle Kingdom, in the amount of about 15 million rubles in royal gold. Ungern considered them his personal capital, which he could dispose of at his own discretion.

It remains to add to this that at least a dozen expeditions - Mongolian, Soviet and joint - that were not advertised by their organizers - were at different times searching for the “Ungern treasure”. On the Chinese side of the border, in the area of ​​Lake Buir-Nur and the Khalkhin-Gol River, free treasure hunters from among Russian emigrants also roamed the steppe. However, no one could boast of success.

It turns out that the treasury of the Asian Division is completely lost? There is probably no basis for such a categorical conclusion. The “Gold of Ungern” showed... a Polish trace. And not at all because the ancestors of one of the branches of his family in 1526 were accepted by the Sejm into the Polish nobility and received a coat of arms. Just by coincidence, three Poles were involved in the fate of the baron and his treasures.

So, the first source is a certain pan Anthony Ferdinand of Ossendowski, “writer, traveler, scientist,” as it said on his business card. In May 1920, he traveled across Mongolia and was a guest of Ungern. Before parting, according to Ossendovsky, the baron handed him a bag of gold coins in denominations of 5 and 10 rubles. The Pole was supposed to give this money to Ungern’s wife, who lived in Beijing at that time. The general also put his six-seater Fiat at his disposal.

Ossendowski later described this journey in his memoirs. There you can, in particular, read about your visit with Ungern to Gandan, the sacred city of Buddhist monk lamas. Moreover, the baron, in the presence of the Pole, allegedly presented the rector with a will and a plan for a cache in which one and a half tons of gold were hidden. The will stated that if legal heirs did not appear within fifty years, all the gold should be used to spread Lamaism.

As for the burial place of the treasure, there are eyewitness accounts of a curious incident, the hero of which was Ossendowski. One Christmas, while among the guests, under the influence of wine fumes, the “traveler” made an unexpected confession. Suddenly approaching the bookcase, he took a book of his memoirs from the shelf. Here, on page one hundred and four,” Ossendovsky said importantly, “is a photograph of the place where enormous valuables await their owner. I took this photo myself. Where exactly? I will say this: somewhere at the source of the Amur.

So, the first place of the treasure is the source of the Amur, although it is possible, if you believe Ossendovsky, that another cache or even several could have been laid, since after the Pole’s departure events took an unexpected turn.

Of course, the message of a “writer, traveler, scientist” can be treated differently. But much of what he said about Ungern and his stay as a guest of the commander of the Asian Division is basically true. You can verify this by comparing one or another episode from his book with corresponding fragments from the memories of other participants in the same events.

The second source is Kamil Gizycki, a Polish Tatar from Galicia who happened to serve at the headquarters of the Asian Division. Before that, he fought against the Reds: first as a legionary of the Separate Czechoslovak Corps, and then in the ranks of the 5th Siberian Division of General Chuma formed in Novonikolaevsk. An engineer by training and an explosives specialist by military profession, Gizycki enjoyed the complete trust of Ungern, who entrusted him with important tasks that required ingenuity and the ability to keep his mouth shut.

Gizycki was lucky: after the defeat of the Asian Division, he managed to avoid captivity and eventually returned to Poland, where in 1929 a book of his memoirs, “Around Uriankhai and Mongolia,” was published in Lvov. This person from Ungern’s inner circle does not directly say anything about the location of the treasure. The only thing he allows himself is to make a casual assumption: he should be looked for near Lake Buir-Nur, in one of the countless hollows filled with silt and liquid clay, which the Mongols call “lags.” Ungern could not order that the gold be buried in the ground, says Gizycki. For he respected Lamaist customs, which forbid digging in soil considered holy. The author of the memoirs notes that the baron even wore Mongolian boots with their toes turned up, so as not to inadvertently violate the Lamaist prohibition.

So, you need to look not at the source of the Amur, but near Lake Buir-Nur?

How did the historian manage to establish Adolf Dikhtyar, this contradiction is only apparent. It is known that the Amur is formed as a result of the confluence of two rivers - the Shilka and the Arguni. This means that from a geographical point of view it has two sources. And if in Outer Mongolia, which became the Mongolian People's Republic after the revolution, it is generally accepted that the Amur is a continuation of Shilka and Onon, then in Inner Mongolia, which is part of China, with no less reason they see the beginning of the Amur in Arguni. Ossendovsky was well versed in the geography of Mongolia and it was these geographical nuances that he took into account when he tied the location of the treasure to the sources of the Amur.

The traveler has not been to the Hyangai Highlands, where Onon originates. Consequently, if Ungern entrusted him with the secret of the treasure, the Pole could only take his photograph on the road from Urga through Tamsak-Bulak and Amgalan to Hailar, crossing the Khalkhin Gol River. Therefore, speaking about the sources of the Amur, he meant the upper reaches of the Argun.

Further, if you take a large-scale map, you can see that near its mouth Khalkhin Gol is divided into two branches: the left one flows into Lake Buir-Nur, the right into the Orchun-Gol river, connecting lakes Buir-Nur and Dalainor, and the last in turn, it is connected by a channel to Argun. So there are no differences between Ossendowski and Gizycki. The sources of the Amur, which the first one talks about, and Lake Buir-Nur, which, as indicated in geographical reference books, belongs to the Amur basin, are the same places.

Finally, there is a third source - Kazimek Grochowski. A mining engineer by profession, he spent a long time exploring gold deposits in the southern part of Barga and conducted geological research in eastern Mongolia. After the October Revolution, he settled in Harbin, where in the 1920s he became the director of a gymnasium where children of Poles who emigrated from Bolshevik Russia studied. At the same time, he began collecting all kinds of materials about the Poles in the Far East, on the basis of which he wrote a book published in 1928 in Harbin.

Ungern also came to the attention of Grokhovsky. Or rather, not so much the baron himself as his treasures, which haunted many Harbin emigrants. Based on the stories of people who knew the commander of the Asian division well, Grokhovsky writes that in connection with the unsuccessful start of the campaign to the north, the first thing Ungern considered necessary to do was to send the division cash desk from the combat area to a safe place in the east.

After several days of travel, a small group of soldiers escorting valuables stumbled upon a Red detachment. A shootout ensued. The Ungernovites realized that the execution of the baron’s order depended on the speed of their horses, and they tried to break away from the Reds. During their hasty escape, they even had to finish off their own wounded for fear that they might reveal the secret of their mission. However, the pursuit overtook. And so, about 160 kilometers south of Hailar, they decided to bury the gold.

Thus, as a result of Grokhovsky’s independent research, an additional clarification of the location of the treasure appears - 160 kilometers or, most likely, versts, because neither the Russians, nor especially the Mongols, used the metric system of measures at that time, to the southwest of Hailar. But this will be exactly the vicinity of Lake Buir-Nur.

The area of ​​the probable burial area of ​​the “golden treasure of Ungern” is about 600 square kilometers. At first glance, it seems that finding it there is perhaps more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. However, with the use of modern technology, in particular the latest magnetometers for aerial photography, this problem can well be solved.

We jumped out on the weekend and raced across the Kalmyk steppes in the morning. I’ll just say it’s sunny and warm near Stavropol. How surprised we were when we arrived at the place. It was cold, windy, but at least nothing fell on our heads. The places were so beautiful, there was no limit to our joy. And so it began. It turned out that during the night the earth had become so covered that the earth had turned to concrete. By lunchtime the weather cleared up, as you can see from the photo. The earth had moved away, we walked around a village with the interesting name Akhnud, it seemed like there were some finds, but it was a little pleasant... and then unexpectedly. A car drives up to us and gets out of it, whoever you think... Mr. Comrade Major with a pestle and in uniform, the first time he saw the Uskoglazov policeman... He clearly explained to us that we are scaring the local residents and he is a local police officer here and he doesn’t need us here. To our question, what if we move to the next beam, he said, of course, move there, it’s not my plot. It’s beautiful. According to the findings, there are not enough photos for planting. A couple of pennies, one in the photo, the second with a stone finally. A dozen or two coins they sour in soap By the way, who understands them, one two-room car from 1902. In a word, adventure. I also forgot to mention about the riders on black kakunas with carbines behind them who jumped out of the darkness, it was scary. The Kalmyks fly around the steppe like mad.. If you drive past a kashary, close the windows in the car .The dogs come up such that they don’t need to stand on their hind legs to look out the window.heh.so.

Among the treasures were several silver ingots, spot gold, and even an entire unlooted tomb. Such finds became known over the past 10 days of October.

1. Ancient tomb from the Roman era.

The city of Milas in Turkey, like any other, is developing thanks to construction. However, something strange was discovered at one of the construction sites. The workers immediately called archaeologists, who carried out a study of the area with metal detectors. It turned out that a burial chamber created 2,400 years ago had been opened. It contained 103 artifacts dating back to the Hellenistic and Roman eras. They date back to the time when Milas was the capital of ancient Caria, and the religious center of Labrand.

“Since the chamber was never opened or looted, all the artifacts in it have remained intact to this day. Among the finds are clay lamps, ritual bowls, offerings to the dead, dishes, cosmetics, many gold threads, as well as a unique necklace made of bone,” said Gulnaz Savran, director of the Milas Museum.

2. When two million is not better than one.

3. Meteorite weighing 28 tons.

In Argentina, with the help of deep metal detectors, it was possible to discover the huge Campo del Cielo meteorite weighing 28 tons. Well, actually, that says it all. They dug up the cobblestone, photographed it, and took it to the scientific center to examine it. Eyewitnesses say that under the layer of dirt the meteorite is colored - there are red, green, yellow, white and brown colors. According to scientists, this meteorite fell to earth about 4,500 years ago.

4. House with treasures.

A user of the social network Reddit with the nickname EvilEnglish loved his grandparents very much. And the grandparents are his. And also collect old items. After death, the old people bequeathed their house in Tennessee to their grandson. When he arrived to clean up, he found a very dirty carpet... He decided to get rid of the musty carpet, but when he lifted it, he discovered a safe. And in the safe there is a time capsule from the 30s, coins before 1937, books, money, even silver bars. In general, the heir was lucky.

5. Found a treasure on the map.

An extraordinary event took place in the Polish city of Lubomierz. It all started, in principle, in a standard way: a woman called the police and asked to detain two people with metal detectors who were rummaging through her property. It turned out that they were two Germans who had come to look for treasure using a map left by their deceased grandfather. He worked as a gardener and buried the treasure back in 1952. The police prohibited young people from digging without permission. Then they are attention! - they asked the owner of the site for permission, and she gave them permission.

Residents of Hamburg found watches, gold jewelry, cufflinks with precious stones, an antique cigarette case and coins from the 19th century. As a result, the finds were sent for examination. If it turns out that they are of historical value, they will be sent to the local museum.

As for the treasure-hunting news, there is little of it: perhaps it is worth mentioning that the remains of the palace of Emir Edige, one of the most influential rulers of the Golden Horde, were allegedly found in the Mangystau region of Kazakhstan. And in Kalmykia, the Museum of the Central Khurul exhibited the “Shatta Collection” - figurines, images of deities, lamps and other ritual rarities that were found near the village of Shatta. They were discovered by local electrician Nikolai Ivanov. The ancient religious objects were apparently hidden in the ground by one of the village residents during the days of repression in 1943.

From the 7th century to the 9th century, on the territory of modern Kalmykia, the center of one of the early state formations of Eastern Europe - the Khazar Kaganate - was located. The masters of the Eastern European steppes over the next three centuries were the Pechenegs, Torques and Cumans. In the 13th century, the territory of the Volga-Don interfluve came under the rule of the Golden Horde, after the collapse of which the Nogai roamed here. The last wave to reach the Lower Volga steppes were the classic nomads of modern times - the Kalmyks or Oirats.

The ancestors of the Kalmyks are the Western Mongols-Oirats, immigrants from Central Asia and Western Mongolia. At the beginning of the 17th century, part of the Oirat rulers of the uluses (ulus is a territorial unit) moved to Russia. In 1608, their ambassadors were received by the Russian Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who gave a positive response to their request to accept Russian citizenship, allocate places for nomadism and protection from the Kazakh and Nogai khans. Gradually they settled in the lower reaches of the Volga, on the territory of the modern Republic of Kalmykia. Since 1664, there was a Kalmyk Khanate, which was liquidated in 1771, after part of the nomadic people, dissatisfied with the increasing oppression by the Russian government, made an unsuccessful attempt to return to their historical homeland. The lands were colonized by the Russian Empire and divided between the Astrakhan and Stavropol provinces. Kalmyks received autonomy only after the October Revolution of 1917.

Historical heritage

Modern economic activity on the territory of the Republic of Kalmykia threatens the safety of historical heritage monuments, so rescue archaeological excavations are being organized. Finds from steppe mounds allow us to explore the world of ancient nomads: to understand and imagine the way of life that nomadic tribes led in the distant past, to find out what religious ideas they had.

According to official data, there are about 200 thousand ancient mounds in the region (according to other sources, many times less - several tens of thousands), which are archaeological monuments of different eras, from the Bronze Age (V-IV millennium BC - end of the 2nd millennium AD .e.) until the Golden Horde time (second half of the 30s of the 13th century - mid-15th century). Burials of the Maykop culture are also found here (second quarter of the 4th millennium - second half of the 4th millennium - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC).

On the territory of Kalmykia there are 341 historical and cultural monuments, of which 51 are archaeological monuments. According to estimates, between 1929 and 1997, 3,885 burials and 1,289 mounds were excavated on the territory of the republic.

Research

The first period of studying archaeological monuments on the territory of the then Kalmyk Autonomous Region began in 1929 under the leadership of the director of the Lower Volga Regional Museum (Saratov), ​​professor of Saratov University P.S. Rykova. The archaeological and ethnographic expedition carried out reconnaissance work and excavations in the area of ​​the villages of Kalmytsky Bazar (now Privolzhsk, Astrakhan region), further, through Yashkul, to the then village of Elista, to Lake Khanata. These were the first archaeological finds and ethnographic objects collected during the expedition on the territory of Kalmykia. The exhibits are now stored in the funds of the Saratov Regional Museum of Local History. Works published following the excavations have also been preserved.

In 1932, in the newly proclaimed capital of the Kalmyk Autonomous Region, the city of Elista, the Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Kalmyks was created. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 124 mounds with 250 burials were examined, but none of the pre-war exhibits survived. Some of the items made of precious metals - 271 kg of gold and silver - were sent to the Defense Fund for melting down by order of the Soviet government. The remaining exhibits disappeared without a trace during the fascist occupation of Elista and during the years of deportation of the Kalmyk people.

The second stage of archaeological research began in the 60s of the 20th century. The city of Elista was slowly rebuilt after the destruction of the war, people were returning to normal life after the difficult stage of deportation. In the Kalmyk Republic, which again received autonomy status, along with the construction of schools and hospitals, a decision was made to organize the Kalmyk Local History Museum.

The revived republic was actively being built: the region needed a railway and a reservoir, so a large number of rescue archaeological expeditions were carried out in a short time. The first expeditions of the early 60s were organized by professor of the Kalmyk Institute of Language, Literature and History U.E. Erdniev, together with Saratov University professor I.V. Sinitsyn. During the second stage of archaeological research, 2192 burials were discovered. Human remains from the mounds were studied by scientific institutes in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Almost all the materials were published, the archaeological finds were transferred to the Kalmyk Museum of Local Lore, the Saratov Museum of Local History and the State Historical Museum, where they are kept to this day.

The third period of large-scale excavations dates back to 1977. Since that time, rescue expeditions have become almost annual. They were carried out in the zones of the “construction projects of the century”: KAROS - Kalmyk-Astrakhan rice irrigation system and KVCH - the Volga-Chogray canal, the Tengiz-Novorossiysk oil pipeline. During these studies, unique material was obtained. Field reports were submitted to the scientific archive of the Kalmyk Institute, and after 1992 - to the archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Currently, the National Museum of the Republic of Kalmykia named after. N.N. Palmova has 70 thousand storage units and occupies two buildings. The exhibition area of ​​the museum is more than 1500 square meters. m.

In 2008, a monograph by archaeologist, candidate of historical sciences, employee of KIGI RAS Maria Aleksandrovna Ochir-Goryaeva “Archaeological monuments of the Volga-Manych steppes” (a set of monuments studied in 1929-1997) was published, which is a unique reference book on archaeological research in Kalmykia.

Research by anthropologists, based on the study of bone material from Kalmykia, has made a significant contribution to expanding ideas about the racial type, ethnic differences, diseases and appearance of the ancient population of the Eurasian steppes. The Kalmyk steppes have still not lost their attractiveness for scientists. The introduction of modern computer research technologies into archeology, such as geographic information system methods, makes it possible to study monuments located at a considerable distance from each other, and with the help of navigation instruments, space and aerial photographs, it is possible to establish the most accurate geographical coordinates of objects and plot them on maps. New technologies make it possible to study archaeological sites on a larger scale and in depth, both geographically and chronologically.

Exhibits

In the Kalmyk Local Lore Museum named after Professor N.N. Palmova in the city of Elista houses several unique collections, including a collection of archaeological objects. For example, well-preserved clay vessels from the Bronze Age of the Catacomb culture (late 3rd millennium BC - mid 2nd millennium BC). Ceramics from burials of this time are distinguished by a wide variety of sizes, shapes and ornaments.

From necropolises of later times - items made of precious metals. Parts of harness were found in a burial near Yashul, which are real works of ancient jewelry art. Objects of bridles or entire sets of bridles discovered in burials of the Scythian-Sarmatian period (VI century BC - IV century AD) are considered by archaeologists as symbols of horses that accompanied the deceased to the afterlife to serve him there. In the life of nomads, a war horse was not just a riding animal. He played a key role in everyday life, and in mythology and religious beliefs he was one of the main characters.

The museum contains unique women's gold pendants with garnet inserts, found in a rich women's late Sarmatian (late 1st century - 4th century AD) burial in the town of Arshan Zelmen, in a box with other jewelry.

The Kalmyk Museum of Local Lore also contains three stone statues and fragments of two incompletely preserved statues from Polovtsian burials. In archeology, the name “Stone Women” was assigned to them, as they were called in Russian chronicles (from the Turkic word “babai” - ancestor). They were symbols of ancestors; ceremonies were held around them dedicated to the ancestors of a clan or even an entire tribe. They were built on any elevated places, including, of course, on mounds. From the stone sculptures one can judge the anthropological type of the Polovtsians. “Stone Women” are excellent examples of Polovtsian costume, jewelry, and weapons.

At the National Museum of the Republic of Kalmykia you can learn the complete history of the Kalmyk people. Rich ethnographic material is collected here, a collection of Buddhist religious objects is exhibited, and modern fine art of Kalmykia is presented.

Marat UALI and Maral TOMPIEV
After our publications about traveling around Kazakhstan, our fellow allies appeared. They turned out to be some amateur archaeologists. Reading our articles in the magazine “Wind of Wanderings”, they followed in our footsteps, and even found “Kalmyk treasures”. These finds, as well as our previous travels along Saryarka, the Shunak Mountains, and the Mointy River, made it possible to reconstruct the route and some details of the Kalmyks’ passage across the Kazakh steppes in 1771...

KALMYK TREASURES
It turns out that Kazakh amateur archaeologists are also looking for traces of the past in the Kazakh steppes, and even find Kalmyk treasures. We know about two groups of search engines (it is possible that there are more). Both groups found copper coins on the banks of Balkhash, and one group found lead bullets in the upper reaches of the Mointa River.
They even sent us our “share” - a dozen Russian coins. All coins are copper, issued before 1769 inclusive, and were found in three places on the northwestern coast of Balkhash. These finds, as we assume, mark the route of movement of the Kalmyks in June-July 1771 under the leadership of Ubashi. The coins were found on the very shore, at levels 343 m, 347 m, in places that were covered in the past with water and became shallow after the retreat of Balkhash, which is why they were preserved. This suggests that the Kalmyks threw coins into the water, apparently “for luck” or as a sacrifice to the spirit of the lake, and also that our assumptions about the high level of Balkhash in the past (~348–350 m) are confirmed.
Our colleagues in the search for traces of the past do not like to be called “black archaeologists.” One of them, under the nickname “Search Engine,” quite rightly wrote:
“We do not open graves or conduct searches at historical monuments. Our finds are “lost items” that were lost under various circumstances. The places where we are searching do not have any architectural structures or remains of buildings, we are searching in an open field, archaeologists will never go there for the sake of a dozen coins that have no historical value, and for us this is a hobby comparable to picking mushrooms or fishing. Of course, everyone has their own hobby: some fish with a fishing rod, some play football, and some travel through the Kazakh steppes in search of traces of the past. Another hundred years will pass, and those copper coins and iron arrowheads that we cannot find (we cannot save from corrosion) will turn into pieces of unidentified metal. For example, not long ago, on the shores of the Bay of Kashkanteniz, my friends found a cauldron with coins. The copper coins were so corroded that they turned into a solid piece of copper covered with a thick greenish crust. It had to be scrapped."

KAZAKHS VS KALMYKS. LAST FIGHT
It is known in Kazakh history that in the summer of 1771, the last battle with the Kalmyks in the 250-year Oirat-Kazakh confrontation took place on the Mointy River. The Kalmyks walked through the territory of Kazakhstan for six months and in June reached the upper reaches of the Mointa. Here they were met by a united Kazakh army led by Ablai Khan. Between the Otar and Shunak mountains and the Mointy River there is a relatively waterless valley. The Kazakhs, having occupied all the dominant heights, could control the entire area. There, in a “waterless and sandy” valley, the Kalmyks were forced to stop and fight. At first the battles went on with varying degrees of success. Then the army of Nuraly Khan approached, and the Kalmyks realized that they would not get rid of the Kazakhs so easily. But they did not crave bloodshed, since they were not going to fight the Kazakhs, but to go to the empty lands of the former Dzungaria in the Ili and Tarbagatai valleys. The leader of the Kalmyks, Ubashi, requested a respite and agreed to the return of prisoners and payment of tribute. And disputes began among the Kazakhs - what to do with the Kalmyks?
Opinions were divided. Ablai Khan was a supporter of the passage of the Kalmyks, and Nuraly Khan and some of the irreconcilable warriors thirsted for the blood of the eternal enemy. For three days, disputes and disagreements raged in the Kazakh camp. During the truce, the Kalmyks, just in case, began to exchange their belongings, armor, and weapons for Kazakh horses. Then, sensing that the protracted disputes among the Kazakhs would not end well for them, they decided to act. At night they lit fires and began to sing and dance, creating noise and distracting the Kazakh guards. Meanwhile, the main part of them, under the cover of darkness, quietly gathered and went around. After the departure of the Kalmyks, the coalition of Kazakh zhuzes disintegrated. Ablai Khan apparently convinced Nuraly Khan to stop the persecution. Only for some irreconcilable Kazakh warriors were the words of the khans not a decree. Their separate detachments continued the pursuit on their own.

The Kalmyks were divided into two parts. The Dzungars who were part of them, originally from Tarbagatai, under the leadership of Tanji Noyon, went east along the southern edge of Saryarka. The other part, led by Ubashi, went south to Ili. On both sides of the Mointy River there are two hills with the same name Karaulshoki. The slopes of both hills are full of mass graves. Apparently, the departing Kalmyks left barrage detachments on these hills, which, at the cost of the lives of suicide soldiers, delayed the pursuit of the Kazakhs. The northern group of Kalmyk-Dzungars, fleeing from the warriors of the Orta Zhuz, according to Kazakh legends, poisoned the water by throwing dead dogs into wells. As a result, several famous Kazakh warriors were poisoned and died: Bayan, Itkara, Zhantai... In the end, the Dzungars, having crossed Ayagoz, reached the Emel River, where they were met by advanced Chinese pickets.
Parallel to Mointy, another river flowed into Balkhash, flowing from the Shunak Mountains and flowing into the Kashkanteniz Bay. We saw its dry bed in the Shunak Mountains, and then found it under the name Ergentu on an old map from 1777 by the Russian cartographer Islenyev. By the way, it shows the Kazakh name of the lake - Tengiz and the Kalmyk name - Balkhash, and Mointy is designated as Moupty. From this map, as well as from other maps and numerous testimonies of travelers, it follows that Balkhash is still a Kalmyk (Oirat) name. The southern group of Kalmykovs could go to Balkhash only between the Ergentu and Mointy rivers. Their sites on Balkhash are recorded by finds of Russian coins at the mouths of these rivers on the shores of the Kashkanteniz and Saryshagan bays, at the mouth of the Kyzylespe River (near the Zhastar railway station), but then are lost in the sands of Taukum...
We, too, moving on our trusty tulpara from the Shunak Mountains, went to the place where the Mointy River emerges from the Ozenzhal Mountains onto the Balkhash Plain and flows to the south, separating Saryarka from Betpakdala. We stop at the Kiik railway station and leave our guide Vovchik there. Then the road leads south, past Mointy station, along the Mointy River. Here, 242 years ago, the Kalmyks moved along the Novala valley towards Balkhash...

SPIRIT OF BALKHASH-NOR
The Kalmyk leader Ubashi rode in the rearguard of the kosh. Beneath him was a black horse, several noyons were riding next to him, and a little ahead, on a shabby camel, sat the Bogdolam Dzhalchin. Another part of the Kalmyks, under the leadership of Noyon Sheren, moved to the right, along the Ergentu River. Ubashi wiped the sweat from his forehead with a silk scarf and, languishing with thirst, recalled the blue Volga and the white Yaik: “These are fertile places where grass could hide an adult ram, and there was enough water for people and cows, where our fishermen caught carp the weight of a lamb... And we have abandoned everything and are going unknown where, unknown where. Even in Naryn Sands the land is more fertile than here. How long does it take for the Khasagi to live here? It’s not for nothing that they are so angry and furious.”

Gradually the sultry air smelled of the approach of big water. The Moupty River, flowing to the left, has widened, turned yellow with clay soil and slowed its flow. Rare thickets of reeds appeared along the banks. Everything indicated that Balkhash-nor was already close. Suddenly, a cloud of dust appeared ahead, and after a while a young man sent from the vanguard in front jumped off his horse in front of Ubashi. He said that Balkhash was about ten miles away and the path ahead was clear. Ubashi knew about this even without him, but still threw him a pouch of tobacco for the good news. The news spread to other ends, and the whole crowd picked up speed.
About three hours later, the blue waters of Balkhash sparkled in the sun in the distance, and the Kalmyk Kosh, in a wide front from Moupta to Ergentu, came to the shore of the lake. Along the surface of the bay into which Moupty flowed, the east wind drove small waves, twisting and foaming the tops, as if a herd of sheep were swimming through the water. Dirty yellow river water, flowing into the bay, created bizarre stains of either yellowish or clean layers. Shouts of joy were heard among the women and children. And the warriors, seasoned in battles and hardships, stopped, tightly squeezing their sun-burnt lips, and only hope for the end of the hard journey shone in their eyes. The Kalmyks knelt down and disciplinedly waited for the command. Two young men - bandi - were the first to run into the water and, scooping clean water into a large cauldron, brought it to the bogdolam. But Jalchin did not drink it, but went into the water, folded his palms at his chest and read the mantra in Tibetan for purifying karma from all types of misfortunes. Having finished it, he shouted three times: “Om mane padme hum,” washed his face and drank Balkhash water from his folded palms. All the Kalmyks repeated the main Buddhist mantra after him, and the words “Om mane padme hum” echoed far over the shore. Only after this did the Kalmyks begin to fill their cauldrons with water. Ubashi also approached the water and tried to appease the spirit of the lake:
– Oh, these blessed waters of Balkhash-nor. You washed the Dzungar lands, you watered the Dzungar warriors and their horses, you saw my ancestors. Be favorable to me and my courageous people. Spirit of the lake, help us find a homeland on the former Dzungarian land and show us the path between the Khasags and Buruts. We will donate to you everything we have left.
He threw the remains of the arza out of the leather bottle-borkha into the water, and then took out a copper coin and threw it into the lake. The Noyons followed suit. Actually, he had prepared a Russian silver ruble for the victim in advance, but at the last moment a fit of greed forced him to pull out a nickel of the same size. Many ordinary Kalmyks also began to throw their coppers as a sacrifice to the spirit of the lake. Then preparations for parking began along the entire coast from bay to bay. Soon the smoke of the dung, mixed with the sour smell of arza and boiled meat, floated over the shore of Balkhash.

The stay near the lake lasted several days. The Kalmyks rested, watered their cattle, and they themselves drank arza and relaxed after a difficult six-month trek across the Kazakh steppes. It seemed that the hardest part was already behind us. Here it is, nearby, the native Dzungarian lake, and behind it the empty Dzungarian lands. They began to call the hospitable bay with yellow streaks from the Moupta River Shar-Tsagan/Yellow-White. Ubashi called the old Gelyung and asked for advice. The monk replied: “Just as a beautiful girl is never lonely, so rich pastures are never empty. Well, my advice is this: fear the Buruts more than the Khasags.” Gelyung's words alarmed Ubashi. After all, he had already reached an agreement with the Kazakhs, and the barrier detachment would detain the intractable warriors. Are the Buruts worse than the Kazakhs? And where did they come from? After a meeting with the noyons, Ubashi ordered the rest to end and get ready to set off.
Noyon Sheren suggested going through the Kuyel Karatau mountains, where he knew wonderful pasture places. But on the slopes of the Chu-Ili mountains and in the Sarybel valley they were met by the Burut Kirghiz. The Kalmyks did not engage in battle with them, but left the barrier detachment and turned to Ili, to the strip of water glistening in the east. But the spirit of the no longer Dzungarian Balkhash was not favorable to them. The strip of water turned out to be a huge bitter-salty puddle (Lake Itishpes), so that even the dogs did not drink this water, and the waterless Taukum desert stretched around... This is where the “berries” began for the Kalmyks, and Ubashi more than once regretted that he had saved the silver ruble . But even a gold piece thrown into the lake would not have helped the Kalmyks. The spirit of Balkhash has long ceased to be Dzungarian. Only the Dzungarian name reminded of the previous owners. And the ancient Turkic spirit of Tengiz Kol returned to the lake, and the Kalmyks were clearly superfluous here. For ten days they wandered through the desert, suffering from thirst and losing the remains of their livestock. Upon reaching the Kurty River, they were again met by the Buruts. According to the Russian sinologist N. Bichurin, “the bloodthirsty and predatory Buruts tormented the poor Torgouts right up to the Chinese border.” Before the Chinese pickets on the Tamga River (the left tributary of the Ili, just east of Charyn), the last Kalmyks left by the end of August.

SPIRIT OF TENGIZ KOL
We drive south along the railway and the Mointa riverbed. The Ergentu River no longer exists, and Mointy is lost in the sands, in the place Sulyzher covered with reeds, not reaching Balkhash 20–25 km. A country road leads to the Saryshagan railway station on the shore of the bay of the same name. Having passed the station, we drive out onto a good asphalt road leading to Priozersk. Once it was the busy and crowded capital of the Saryshagan training ground, and now it is an ordinary and half-empty city on the shores of Balkhash. While it is still light, we drive up to the water, and from the huge stones on the shore of Saryshagan Bay we throw a coin into the lake to appease the spirit of Tengiz Kolya. After all, we will return to the lake more than once.