Mongols

Mongols, pastoral people now found in east-central Asia, including Mongolia and parts of China and Russia, who speak one of the Altaic languages. Their written language, Mongolian, dates from at least as early as the 11th century, and now has several varieties.

The Mongols are thought to have been a loose confederation of peoples (rather than one single ethnic group) until the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan united them into one formidable nation in the early 13th century. Under his leadership, they developed a powerful army that swept west into Europe and east into China, eventually forming a widespread Eurasian empire. The descendants of Genghis Khan ruled large areas of China, East Asia, Russia, Iran, and Turkey for long periods of time. The Mongols were subsequently overcome, and they returned to relative political obscurity.

The Mongols are made up of two main groups, the Buryat Mongols (or Northern Mongolian) and the Khalkha Mongols. The Buryat live mainly in the area surrounding Lake Baikal in Siberia, called Buryatia. The Khalkha make up the majority of the population in Mongolia and are the largest Mongol group in north Asia. Khalkha speak Halh Mongolian, and Buryat speak Buryat. Halh Mongolian, the national language of Mongolia, is used as the literary language by all Mongols (known as a second language by the Buryat). There are different varieties of Buryat, according to the country in which it is spoken (China, Russia, Mongolia). Most of the Mongol population now practises Buddhism and the remainder shamanism, their traditional religion. Many Mongols now live in cities, but there is still a large number of nomads, and their wealth consists of sheep, horses, cattle, camels, and goats.