Ubashi Khan

Ubashi Khan was the great-grandson of Ayuka Khan. When he decided to return his people to Dzungaria, the Dalai Lama was contacted to request his blessing and to set the date of departure. After consulting the astrological chart, the Dalai Lama set the return date, but at the moment of departure, the weakening of the ice on the Volga River permitted only those Kalmyks who roamed on the left or eastern bank to leave. Those on the right bank were forced to stay behind.

Under Ubashi Khan's leadership, approximately 200,000 Kalmyks began the journey from their pastures on the left bank of the Volga River to Dzungaria. Approximately five-sixths of the Torghut tribe followed Ubashi Khan. Most of the Khoshuts, Choros and Khoits also accompanied the Torghuts on their journey to Dzungaria. The Dörbet tribe, by contrast, elected not to go at all. The Kalmyks who resettled in Qing territory became known as Torghuts. While the first phase of their movement became the Old Torghuts, the Qing called the later Torghut immigrants "New Torghut". The size of the departing group has been variously estimated between 150,000 and 400,000 people, with perhaps as many as six million animals (cattle, sheep, horses, camels and dogs).DeFrancis, John. In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan. University of Hawaii Press, 1993. Beset by raids, thirst and starvation, approximately 85,000 survivors made it to Dzungaria, where they settled near the Ejin River with the permission of the Qing Manchu Emperor. The Torghuts were coerced by the Qing into giving up their nomadic lifestyle and to take up sedentary agriculture instead as part of a deliberate policy by the Qing to enfeeble them. They proved to be incompetent farmers and they became destitute, selling their children into slavery, engaging in prostitution, and stealing, according to the Manchu Qi-yi-shi.[https://books.google.com/books?id=6qFH-53_VnEC&pg=PA103 Dunnell 2004], p. 103.[https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA139 Millward 1998], p. 139. Child slaves were in demand on the Central Asian slave market, and Torghut children were sold into this slave trade.[https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA305 Millward 1998], p. 305.

After failing to stop the flight, Catherine the Great abolished the Kalmyk Khanate, and the title of Khan, making Ubashi Khan the last to hold this title.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}

{{gallery

|File:Kalmyk exodus (Geoffroy, 1845).JPG

|"Exodus of 500.000 Kalmyks to China in 1771", led by Ubashi Khan. Engraving by Charles Michel Geoffroy.{{cite book |last1=Lacroix |first1=Frédéric |title=Les mystères de la Russie: Tableau politique et moral de l'Empire russe ... Ouvrage rédigé d'après les manuscits d'un diplomate et d'un voyageur |date=1845 |publisher=Pagnerre |pages=440-441 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gsEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA440 |language=fr}}

|File:东归英雄纪念塔.jpg

|Monument to the return of the Torghut in Korla, Xinjiang. Statue of Ubashi Khan in the front and the memorial tower in the back.

}}

{{noteslist}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Ubashi}}

Category:History of Kalmykia

Category:Kalmyk people

Category:People from the Kalmyk Khanate