Kho Orluk

Kho Orluk (Mongolian: Хо Өрлөг; died 1644) was an Oirat prince and Taish of the Torghut-Oirat tribe. Around 1616, Kho Orluk persuaded the other Torghut princes and lesser nobility to move their tribe en masse westward through southern Siberia and southward along the Emba River to the grass steppes north of the Russian garrison at Astrakhan.[1] During the process of securing the steppes for his people, Kho Orluk met limited resistance from the local Muslim tribesman, therefore setting the foundation of what later became known as the Kalmyk Khanate.

In 1620 his daughter married Ishim-khan (son of Kuchum, Khan of Sibir).[2][3]

In 1628, Kho-Orluk, accompanied by six sons, headed a horde of merchants with 50,000 wagons, moved west. Before reaching the Ural River, Kho-Orluk subordinated the Dzhambylutsky Nogai Horde, which roamed along the Emba River, to his power. In 1630, Kho-Orluk with the main forces of the Torguts approached the banks of the Volga. In 1629-1630, the Kalmyks besieged the Cossack towns on Yaik.

In 1633, Kho-Orluk subdued the Nogai Horde, resettled the Kalmyks-Torguts there, led by his eldest son Shukur Daichin, and himself moved to Emba. In 1635, the Kalmyks detachments of Kho-Orluk, having ousted the Nogais from the left bank of the Volga, spread along the left bank from Astrakhan to Samara.

In 1640, Kho-Orluk and his two sons Shukur-Daichin and Elden went to the All-Mongolian Congress in Dzungaria, in the foothills of the Tarbagatai ridge. Here the Oirat and Mongolian Taishi concluded a peace treaty and approved common laws. Kho-Orluk married his daughter to Erdeni-Batur, the founder of the Dzungarian Khanate.

In 1644, Kho-Orluk died during the Kalmyk campaign in the Caucasus. Ho-Urlyuk was succeeded by his eldest son Shukur-Daichin.[4]