Kalmyk deportations of 1943 originally nomadic shepherds of Dzungaria. They speak a West Mongolian language, an Altaic language. They practice Lamaism, a form of Buddhism practiced also in Tibet. In the 1630s, several Oirat tribes migrated westwards and settled along the Volga river. They were consolidated into a new ethnic group, the Kalmyks. While a part of their group went back to Dzungaria, others stayed and recognized the authority of the Russian Empire by the 18th century. During the Russian Civil War, a majority of Kalmyks actively participated in anti-communist Russian armies. When the Bolsheviks ultimately took power, numerous anti-communist people emigrated from Russia
Greco-Buddhism art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian, and he is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" () in Chinese Chan texts. In 485 AD, according to the 7th century Chinese historic treatise Liang Shu, five monks from Gandhara travelled to the country of Fusang ("The country of the extreme East" beyond the sea, probably eastern Japan), where they introduced Buddhism: Two half-brothers from Gandhara, Asanga and Vasubandhu (4th century), created the Yogacara or "Mind-only" school of Mahayana Buddhism, which through one of its major texts, the Lankavatara Sutra, became a founding block of Mahayana, and