Bayan-Olgij and Hovd Counties(3) hold much of Mongolia's share of the Altay(4) Mountains, running northwest to southeast and continuing in both directions beyond this area. Both Kuyten Mountain(5) on the Chinese border, in northwestern Baya-Olgij, and Monh Hayrhan Mountain, in southeastern Hovd, exceed 4000 meters. South of the mountains in Hovd, rivers drain into a desert sink. The southern Hovd border with China(6) is marked with low mountains.
In northeastern Hovd area are a series of large lakes--some of them fresh--receiving the waters of the Hovd River(gol) whose system drains the Altay's northeast side.Northeast of the Hovd river, in Uvs, are more mountains, including Turgen Mountain which reaches above 4000 meters. Yet further northeast is a great salt lake (nuur) after which the county is named. Uvs Nuur is the center of a radial pattern of rivers draining the mountains that surround its basin--some of them in Russia(7).
In southeastern Uvs is another great salt lake, Huargas, receiving the Zavhan(8) River from the southeast.
Less than 300,000 people lived here in 2004. Of these, more than four in ten speak Mongolian(9) and practice Lamist Buddhism. Almost as many speak Kazakh and are Sunni Moslems. More than one in ten speak Putonghua(10) Chinese and follow a syncretic blend of Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taosim and Chinese folk religions. Less then one in ten speak the Turkic language, Tuva, and also practice Lamist Buddhism. Thus, while there is no linguistic majority(11), Buddhists--including the syncretists--are the majority religion.
In this area there are only three cities: the administrative centers. All are about equal-sized and quite small: at or near 30,000 people.
Linguists guess the the Altaic language super-group started in the Altay Mountains, giving rise to the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic groups, and--according to most Korean scholars--Korean. I do not know when the Chinese arrived--perhaps two millenium ago when the silk roads across Chinese Turkestan were established. A long series of Turkic groups lived in western Mongolia.(12) At first they, and the Mongols, worshipped Tangri, the sky, with annual sacrifices, and also held yearly sacrifices in an "ancestral cavern" honoring metallurgy. The Uighurs, however, were converted by merchant proselytizers to Manichaeism--followers of the Persian prophet, Mani, and they made this the state religion.
More religious penetration from the west followed. the Kyrgyz brought or converted to Islam, overthrowing Manichaeism; and, around the lakes of Hovd and further east were many Nestorian Christians. The Kazakhs are probably the descendents of local Kyrgyz.
The Mongols moved here from the east during their imperial period. After their state diintegrated, another Mongol group--the Oirat(12)--became dominant in the 15th century.
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(1) Officially Mongol Ard Uls
(2) Also spelled Bayan-Olgiy
(3) Aimag in Mongolian.
(4) Also spelled Altaj.
(5) Uul in Mongolian.
(6) Transliterated alternately from Chinese as Zhongguo or Chung-hua; it translates as Middle Kingdom or Middle Land.
(7) Transliterated strictly as Rossija or Rossiya.
(8) Also splled Dzavhan.
(9) There are various dialects; some people consider some of them as separate languages.
(10) Also called the Beijing dialect (though this could be construed more narrowly) and Mandarin Chinese.
(11) Altaic languages include both Mongolian and Turkic languages like Kazakh, so that very broad grouping would constitute a linguistic majority.
(12) Many of them eventually crossed the Altay into Chinese Turkestan.
(12) Usually called the Kalmuks or Kalmyks during this period.