| How did there come to be so many Buddhists living in Kalmykia, an Ireland-sized region on Europe's eastern edge, thousands of miles from the religion's Asian heartland? |
| Soon after that, in September, Ilyumzhinov stepped down from the presidency of Kalmykia. |
| Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia. |
| Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Mongolia and Kalmykia. |
| Kalmyks, a largely Buddhist ethnic group of Mongol ancestry, are centered in the Kalmykia region, which neighbors Astrakhan. |
| An estimated total number of 50,000 saigas survive today in Kalmykia, three areas of Kazakhstan and in two isolated areas of Mongolia. |
