Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
| Created: | 2017-02-08 14:53 |
|---|---|
| Institution: | Department of Archaeology and Anthropology |
| Description: | Suited to nomadic life, traditional costumes reflect not only the climatic conditions of Kalmykia but also the history of interaction between the Kalmyks with their neighbours. Unlike other Mongolian groups, the Kalmyks – who have lived in a unique environment among the Russians, Cossacks, and various nationalities of the Caucasus – wear unique hats, boots, and belts decorated with interesting ornaments and designs. Having said this, Kalmyk costumes still display similarity to those of other Mongolian peoples not only in terms of design but materials used such as skin, felt, wool, furs, and textiles. In the past, Kalmyk costumes were class, gender, age and season specific. The aristocracy, for example, used bright colours and expensive textiles. Their winter coats were often decorated with valuable skin and fur of such animals as sables, beavers, squirrels, lambs, foals, and others. The clothes of ordinary shepherds, by contrast, were simpler and darker in colour.
Women Women’s traditional dress consists of two layers, tsegdg and terlg. Tsegdg, which was worn over terlg, is a long sleeveless garment made of durable cloth and abundantly decorated with embroidery. It has a V-shaped open collar and two crooks for napkins or purses on either side at the waist. By contrast, terlg is a long robe with wide sleeves narrowing towards the wrists. It has a small standing collar meeting at the front. Both tsegdg and terlg can be made from textiles of various colours, except for yellow and red, which are colours reserved for the Buddhist clergy. Unmarried women or brides, who had not yet given birth to children, wore a hat called kamchatka, which was sewn from fabric with the same name and embroidered with gold or silver patterns. By contrast, the traditional dress of a married woman was complemented with a special festive hat called khalmg. In everyday life, women wore several types of simpler hats called jatg and buslyach, as well as robes called berz and khuvtsn. The hair of a married woman was divided into two braids, each clad in special hair bags called shivrlg, which were the main markers of her marital status. Men Bushmud is a traditional man’s robe with long wide sleeves narrowing towards the wrists. Usually sewn from dark fabric, linen, or silk, bushmud has a V-shaped open collar. A plastron, or a false shirt-front decorated with embroidery, is worn underneath. The robe was always worn with a leather belt, usually decorated with silver plates and ornaments. The most popular kind of belt was the so-called ‘reed belt’ (khulsn bus), which consisted of plates that resemble the reed in terms of shape. Another belt variety was ‘chest belt’ (avdr bus), which has quadrangle plates resembling a chest/drawer in the Kalmyk yurt. Hence, the name. The most expensive belt, beloved by the aristocracy, was the so-called ‘Cherkassy belt’ (Cherksh bus) consisting of small and large buttons that are protruded but hollow inside. Kalmyk men wore pants called shalvr which were of two types: syarsn shalvr was made from cowhide and kenchr shalvr from cloth. Men also carried a knife in a scabbard made from silver or leather on the left side of the belt and a flint on the back. In the past, tobacco pipes and whips were also attached to the belt. Men, both young and old, wore a hat called khajlg. Children Traditionally, toddlers and babies did not have clothing peculiar to their age group. They usually wore simple and unisex clothes made of old garments belonging to their parents or even grandparents. Children started to wear gender-differentiated garments when they participated in household chores. When boys were about 8 years of age, their garment already resembled that of grown-up men. Teenage boys wore trousers (shalvr), a shirt (kiilg), a robe (bushmud and lavshg), a belt (bus), and a hat (khajlg). At around 14, girls also wore distinctly female clothing. Biiz is a dress for girls made of colourful materials. Underneath they wore a plastron embellished with gold and silver threads. Girls were also supposed to wear a special corset called jilyatg over their underwear. It was intended to tighten the breast, which was believed to make horse riding easier. A belt made of cloth was an essential item in traditional girls’ clothing. By contrast, married women’s dress was loose and without a belt. Kamchatka and toortsg are traditional hats for girls and young women alike. |
Media items
This collection contains 29 media items.
Media items
Alena Lidzhieva, Devl
Alena says that her paternal auntie sewed traditional robes called devl. Her auntie also made winter coats out of animal skin. In the past everyone wore traditional dress....
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Fri 12 Jun 2015
Alena Lidzhieva, Traditional Clothing
Alena talks about Kalmyk clothings.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Fri 12 Jun 2015
Alesya Kalmykova, Traditional Dress
Alesya is engaged in the reconstruction of Kalmyk costumes based on the works by Irodion Zhitetskiy and Uryubdzhur Erdniev.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sat 11 Mar 2017
Alexandra Sanzheeva, About the Kamzal Corset
Kamzal is like a corset. It was worn by girls from the age of 10. Its purpose was to suppress the girl’s breast. Even after marriage and after giving birth, women continued to...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sun 11 Nov 2018
Alexei Naranov, How Kalmyks Wore Earrings, Rings, and Knives
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 8 Aug 2017
Badma Koldaev, Traditional Kalmyk Dress
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sun 22 Apr 2018
Bulgun Lapsina, About the Dress of the Tersk Kalmyks
Bulgun says that her father always carried a knife with him, as it was customary. Kalmyk men’s dress resembled that of the Caucasians, with cartridge pockets on the chest.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 11 Sep 2018
Dmitriy Orusov, Zula Andratova, Kalmyk Ornaments and Dress
In this video Zula explains to Dmitriy about Kalmyk traditional dress.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 10 Aug 2017
Ekaterina Zhuzhaeva, Kalmyk Dress
Ekaterina recounts the following. In the past girls dressed up in many ways. In particular well-off girls liked to wear a dress with ornaments.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Tue 4 Apr 2017
Exhibition: Traditional Clothing
This video shows Kalmyk traditional clothing displayed at an exhibition at the National Museum in Elista in April 2015.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Fri 27 Jan 2017
Galina Goryaeva, Married Women's Dress
Galina says that in the past the way that married women dressed was different to single women. A married woman’s dress consisted of terlg and tsegdg.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Fri 8 May 2015
Ksenia Kardonova, About Traditional Clothing
Ksenia relays the following story. In the past, girls wore beshmet, while older people wore gowns. My mother used to wear a dress called khuvtsn with wide sleeves similar to...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Wed 6 Jun 2018
Larisa Shoglyaeva, Kalmyk Dress
Larisa recounts that when the Kalmyks returned to Kalmykia from Siberia, in Iki-Chonos where she lived many people wore traditional dresses. There were two kinds of dress, one for...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 2 Feb 2017
Lyubov Khokhlashova, About Kalmyk Dress and Embroidery
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Mon 3 Sep 2018
Maria Erdnieva, About Women's Dress
Maria talks about Kalmyk women's dresses.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Thu 11 Aug 2016
Maya Karueva, Men's Costumes
Maya says that traditionally men wore a manishka, a chest decoration made from floral embroidery. The embroidery was made from golden or silver thread. On top of it ordinary men...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Wed 20 Jan 2016
Maya Karueva, Women's Dress
In this video, which is shot at the National Museum of Kalmykia, Maya explains about women’s dress.
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Wed 20 Jan 2016
Mingiyan Lidzhiev, About Traditional Clothing
Mingiyan reminisces about what old people wore in the 1980s:
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sun 5 May 2019
Nikolai Khatuev, Kalmyk Clothing and Hats
Nikolai says that in the past the main clothing for both men and women was the beshmet robe. Married women wore the tsegdeg, whereas single women wore the beshmet. Old people also...
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Sat 4 May 2019
Nikolai Ubushaev, Why Does the Kalmyk Hat Have a Red Thread?
Nikolai relays that in the past during battles it was difficult to distinguish your side from the enemies. In order to overcome that, the Kalmyks came up with various war calls....
Collection: Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (DRESS)
Institution: Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
Created: Mon 19 Dec 2016