Jungar

Jungar (Zungar), collective name of several historical Kalmuk (West Mongolian) peoples, whose original home was in Kulja. Since the 17th century they were divided into four branches: Chorass, Turgut, Khoshot, and Durbat, each with its own khan (chief), but all recognising the supremacy of the Chorasses. The Turguts, being oppressed by the other Jungars, migrated in 1636 westwards to the Lower Volga; but after the destruction of most of their oppressors by the Chinese in 1756, about 150,000returned (1770) through the Khirghizsteppes to their old homes, losing half their number on the way. About 100,000 of these Turguts still survive in the Russian government of Astrakhan; but of all the other Jungars nothing now remains except Jungaria (Zungaria), the name of the region forming the heart of their empire, which, during the first half of the 18th century, stretched from Hami to Lake Balkhash. (Kouropotkine, Les Confins Anglt-Russes dans VAsie Centrale, 1879, p. 14).