Dress

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. Trousers were also made of skin. It was usually men who wore such trousers. The poor did not have many clothes. The wealthy had Russian boots and winter coats.

Alena: In the past married women wore tight waistcoat for beauty. It was worn underneath the dress, like another dress.

Karu: What was the difference between the dresses of married and single women?

A: Married women had two pigtails and wore a tsegdg (waist without sleeves). Single women wore a dress and had one pigtail. They also wore a hat. Of course, dresses of married and single women differed, which is not the case today. Today one cannot say whether one is married or single.

K: Can you talk about hats?

A: Married women’s hats were round in shape, with the top made from black velvet and had a thread. Old women wore hats made from lamb skin, also with a thread dangling.

K: Was there any difference between hats of young girls and single women?

A: Children did not wear hats. They run in the steppe without hats and looked like small black dots. They cleaned their noses with their hand and then smeared their faces.

K: What did men wear?

A: Men wore black beshmet and black hats.

K: Did they wear something underneath their beshmet?

A: They wore a shirt.

K: What shirts? With buttons?

A: With buttons. But buttons were not in the centre of the shirt but on the right side. Men wore the same beshmet every day. They also had a special one when going out.

K: What did men wear during holidays, at weddings?

A: A black beshmet.

K: Did they wear belts?

A: Yes, silver belts. They also had wool scarfs around their neck.

K: What were their boots like?

A: Black boots.

K: What were their trousers like?

A: Black trousers just like men wear today. But they were made from real cloth, and pushed into boots.

K: Did they wear socks?

A: Of course, they did. It is not that they walked barefooted.

K: Did men wear knives?

A: Every man had a knife on his left waist. Knives were kept in wooden scabbards covered with leather.

K: Who made knives?

A: Some bought at the market, some made themselves, I don’t know.

Alesya is engaged in the reconstruction of Kalmyk costumes based on the works by Irodion Zhitetskiy and Uryubdzhur Erdniev. She says that there is practically no research done on early costumes pertaining to the period when the Kalmyks arrived in the Volga region.

Traditionally, children did not have special ‘children’s clothing’, but wore the shirts of their older relatives.

Both children and grown-ups wore belts. A belt could be worn at three levels. If it was worn at the level of one’s waist, this symbolized that the wearer belonged to the world of the living. A belt worn below the waist meant that the wearer belonged to the underground world. If worn between the waist and the chest, this symbolized one’s belonging to the upper world. Children, men and single women wore their belts at the level of the waist. Married women did not wear belts at all.

False shirt-fronts called manishka had golden embroidery and simple buttons. Underneath manishka both men and women wore white shirts and trousers.

Men wore leather belts with metal ornaments. After 40 they gave it to their eldest son. On the right side of the belt men carried a tobacco pouch, a knife and a whip attached. Made both by Kalmyk and non-Kalmyk craftsmen, Kalmyk belts resembled Caucasian ones.

Women also wore belts. On the left-hand side, they carried a pouch (for candies or coins) and a napkin hung on a hook. Older women carried tobacco pipes.

During holidays girls decorated their hair with ornaments, coins or shell. Girls’ belts were also decorated with coins and shell.

Girls’ hats were called kamchatka and dzhatag. Men’s hats were called khadzhilga and makhla. All Kalmyk hats had a red tassel, although sometimes it was represented by a red cross or a red button on top.

Comfortable for riding but not so for walking, Kalmyk boots were made from red or black leather. With time, Kalmyk boots were replaced with Russian ones.

Resembling costumes of the Oirats in China, Kalmyk dresses of married women differed from those worn by girls or single women. Married women wore a shirt, a dress (terlg), and a sleeveless jacket (tsegdg). It is a general observation that in many cultures women’s dresses change at a slower rate than that of men.

After their weddings, Kalmyk women wore a khalmg hat, which consists of two parts – one part symbolises her natal family and the other her husband’s clan. In general, Kalmyk women wore this type of hat as long as they were fertile.

Married women had two braids (symbolising her natal family and that of her husband) that they put into special covers (shivrlg). Poor women’s shivrlg was made from any black cloth. A shivrlg cover had a metal triangle ornament (tokug) attached to its end, which served as an amulet. There was a belief that married women connected not only two clans (her natal and that of her husband) but two worlds, the sky and the underworld.

The fact that a married woman did not wear a belt not only hid her pregnancy but also protected her from jealous eyes and tongues.

In winter women wore a warm dress called terlg. They also made their jackets warm by stuffing them with wool. Dakha is a winter coat made from lamb skin. In winter hats and dresses were also made warm by adding a layer of felt or wool.

At their sons’ weddings Kalmyk mothers wear white trousers with a black fur attached between the legs which symbolizes fertility.

Kalmyk dresses had long sleeves to cover the hands.

The following stones were used in women’s earrings: red coral, white agate or turquoise. Before their marriage girls wore a single earring, and after their marriage two earrings. The main metal used in ornaments was silver.

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 wear kamzal. As a result, many Kalmyk women died of tuberculosis because their chests were either developed wrongly or were weak.

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.

In this video Zula explains to Dmitriy about Kalmyk traditional dress. Traditionally, the dress of married women differed from that of single women or girls. The former did not wear a belt, whereas the latter did. There was also a difference in hairstyles. Married women had two tresses that they put into shivrlg (special hair bags), whereas single women or girls had only one braid. Women’s dresses had sleeves long enough to cover the hands.

The dress that Zula wears has embroidery made from gold thread. She says that other bright colors, such as blue or red, were also used in embroidery. Both Zula’s and Dmitriy’s costumes have floral ornaments. In the past men also wore robes with embroidery made from silver thread, had a silver belt and a knife.

Zula also says that traditionally Kalmyk women wore silver or gold jewelry. Both genders had earrings. Single men wore an earring on their left ear, single women on their right ear, and married women wore earrings on both ears. Silver was considered pure metal that cleansed one’s thoughts and soul.

Kalmyk hats, both for men and women, differ from those of other nationalities in that they have a red tassel on the top.

Ekaterina recounts the following. In the past girls dressed up in many ways. Especially well-off girls liked to wear a dress with ornaments. On holidays girls wore a beautiful dress, ear rings, shivrlyk (hair cover) and tokug (metal ornaments attached to the end of one’s hair covers). Before getting married, I had spent around 5 months in another sovkhoz. Then we were sent to Siberia. One day when I got home accompanied by my friends, I saw my mother and sister sew a wedding dress with beautiful ornaments under a kerosene lamp. It was a simple dress, with buttons at the back. At the frond were zeg ornaments with silk thread sewn in circles. I wore it at my wedding.

Modern Kalmyk dress is very different. In the past dress was not as beautiful as it is today. Had it not been for the exile and life in Siberia, we would have known more. I do not know much about dress of the past. In my childhood I knew nothing, only knew that my mother wore a dress. She wore a tsegdg without sleeves. She did not wear a shivrlyk (hair cover). She braided her hair. Single women braided their hair into two and decorated it with ribbons. They also wore thin belts with thread and ribbons. During holidays men wore trousers and shirts with zeg ornaments. People who could afford it, wore leather boots that shone when they danced. We had a neighbor, a Derbet guy, who made leather boots from various materials.

This video shows Kalmyk traditional clothing displayed at an exhibition at the National Museum in Elista in April 2015.

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. Before their wedding, girls divided their hair into two plaits, put each plait in a special cover called a shivrlyk, and attached metal ornaments called tokug at the end of the plaits. Usually the tokug was made from silver, but the wealthy also used gold for this purpose. On the right side of their waist married women carried napkins in order to wipe sweat or their children or grandchildrens’ noses. On the left they carried small bags for money and candies for children etc. When women did household chores they took off their rings and put them in their waist bags.

Galina shows a married woman’s hat. Traditionally, old women wore round-shaped hats with a red thread at the top. Their dress was called berz. People did not buy ready-made embroidery as is the case today. Girls were taught how to make ornaments at home. Also, on par with boys, girls rode horses, looked after livestock and helped their fathers. Before Tsagan Sar, there was a custom to take out new dresses and hang them up in the house.

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 dancers’ costumes of today. Kalmyks also wore uch, a sheepskin coat. Such a coat was lined with fabric and inside it had lambskin fur. My mother had a squirrel coat that was lined with reps fabric. When my family was deported to Siberia, my mother put on this coat and wrapped my little sister in it. That is how they survived the journey in the winter.

As for hats, Kalmyks wore kamchatka (a hat made from a fabric called ‘kamka’). I did not see this hat myself, but I heard about it from others. My mother had a round hat made from lambskin. There was also a hat called toortsg and a hat called kapelyukh makhla (kapelyukha or ushanka). Again, I saw neither of them myself. There were many kinds of hats among Kalmyks.

In those times, there were not many fabrics available, and the basic clothes, including pants, were made from sheepskin. I heard that ordinary people after eating mutton would wipe their hands on these leather pants.

Kalmyk women wore berz similar to a Russian sarafan. It was usually made from black satin. Women also wore kamzal, which resembled a jacket or a short coat. With long sleeves, berz was worn under kamzal. Rich Kalmyks wore clothes made from silk or satin, while poor people from sateen.

I do not know much about boots. People told me they were made from Russian leather. My mother had boots with shoelaces. In 72 fables (a collection of folk stories) there is a story about a pair of boots that had a fight with each other because their owner wiped his hand only on one of them. Kalmyks often wiped their hands on their boots or pants, which shone because of the grease.

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 everyday use and the other to wear during holidays. An everyday dress was made from chintz. Berz, a married woman’s dress, was a long dress with its back made from a thick fabric to keep that part warm. A winter berz was made from warm materials such as wool and fur. Larisa’s mother had three dresses for everyday use that had a standing collar. However, she had none to wear during holidays. In the past, buttons were all hand-made, and the metal that was used was silver or gold. The front of a smart dress was decorated with embroidery resembling steppe grass, flowers, the sun, the moon etc. Larisa’s mother had several tokugs and wore shivrlyk around her plait. Made from a black fabric, velvet or satin, her shivrlyks were attached to a hat with a button. Traditional hats were colorful: the front was blue, the top either green, blue or multicolored. They were also different from modern stylized hats. Traditional dresses did not have waist or belt. On the right side where the waist would be, hung a napkin.

In the past, girls made their wedding dresses themselves. Girls or single women wore long dresses with beautiful belts decorated with various ornaments. A girl’s skill was judged by the dress she wore. If a woman had two plaits, it was a sign that she was married. Only single women had a single plait. In the past, people made clothing themselves, including boots and shoes. Boots were made from goat pelt that shone when people danced. Goat’s wool was considered soft, but that of cows – rough. Girls and women did not wear trousers. Galina says that today in the local temple in Orgakin village where she lives, women and girls are not allowed into the temple wearing trousers. She thinks that, by wearing trousers and looking like men, women stop respecting them.

In the past men wore only wide trousers. Larisa recounts a story about her husband’s uncle whose trousers were always stained with grease and fat. After eating, the uncle would clean his hands by rubbing them on his trousers, because according to him by washing their hands people also washed away their luck. In the past, men also always wore hats and carried a knife on their belts. Every-day clothing was dark colored, whereas celebratory clothing had a part called manishka with embroidery at the level of the chest. Boys wore shirts.

When in Siberia, Kalmyks sewed fur coats and cotton trousers. Old people wore traditional clothes. Larisa also recalls that she felt ashamed that her mother wore traditional dress and asked her not to do so. Now she thinks that she was ignorant of Kalmyk culture.

Darina: Did your mother wear a traditional dress?

Maria: Yes, she did. In our family three elderly women wore traditional dresses, including my grandmother, her younger sister, and my mother. They wore it until recently.

D: Do you know the names of traditional dresses and their parts in Kalmyk?

M: No, I do not, a girl sewed dresses for my grandmother. Our women wore hats without a red thread at top though. They also wore shivrlyk on their plaits.

D: What did she (your grandmother) do with her tokug?

M: When my grandmother was alive, she gave one of her silver tokug to me and the other one to her second daughter. From that tokug I made a pair of silver earrings. My mother did not wear tokug, only shivrlyk. My grandmother also wore shivrlyk. There is a song: ‘A girl with golden tokugs, a girl with golden tokugs/ When I see her my heart beats faster’.

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 wore a dark dress called beshmet. The aristocracy, by contrast, wore white beshmets. All men had a belt around their waist with various things attached to it, including a knife, a leather bag containing a tobacco pipe, a whip etc. The men’s hat, toortsg, was decorated with a red thread at the top.

In the video Maya shows a coat called uch made from foal’s skin, covered with a fabric. It is warm, soft and comfortable. Devl is a Kalmyk winter coat made from sheep’s skin. It is long and has a wide collar to protect the neck from the cold. When the Kalmyks were sent to Siberia, her grandmother, Maya recalls, used to make Kalmyk devl for the local people.

In this video, which is shot at the National Museum of Kalmykia, Maya explains about women’s dress. This is her story:

This is a dress of a married woman. This hat is called khalmg. On the top of it is a bundle of red threads. The embroidery on the left-hand side is called turun zeg (a foal’s hoof). The right-hand side of the hat has floral embroidery. This is called shivrlg (a cover for braids). In the past, women did a lot of work both inside and outside their tents. They looked after their children, collected dung (for fuel), fermented milk and wove ropes. So that their braids did not get in their way, women put their braids inside special covers called shivrlg. Married women had two braids, whereas single women had only one. The end of a shivrlg cover has a tokug, which is a metal ornament made from silver or sometimes from gold. A vest that married women wore on top of their dress is called tsegdg, which had a beautiful embroidery. By contrast, single women did not wear tsegdg vests. But they wore a belt. After their wedding, women stopped wearing belts. On the left side of a married woman’s dress was a napkin called bel, on the right side was a small metal ring. Each time a woman gave birth, she would put her baby’s umbilical cord in a small bag and attach it to this ring. The number of such bags was equal to the number of children that the woman had. The sleeves of the terlg dress is called nudrvch. It was also decorated with embroidery. Single women wore a biiz dress and a hat called kamchatka or dzhatag. The embroidery on these hats was made from silver or gold threads. Single women wore an earring on their right ear. After their wedding, women wore earrings on both ears. Small children did not wear dress with embroidery. Girls’ dress was similar to that of single women. People from nobility wore white robes, especially during holidays and celebrations. The color of one’s robe reflected that person’s social status.

In the past, parents chose a bride for their sons. Upon entering the tent of a potential bride, the parents tried to learn as much about her as possible: is she a lazy girl or a hard working one? In order to find this out, the parents would put a sheep’s dropping into the girl’s thimble. After some time, they would return to check the thimble out. If it was without the dropping that meant that the girl was hardworking and did sewing. If not, the verdict was that she was lazy.

When women grew old (when they became grandmothers), they took off their tsegdg and khalmg, and put on a dress called berz. Underneath this dress, they wore a white shirt and a pair of white trousers. They wore a toortsg hat with a red thread dangling from the top. In the past, the Kalmyks wore long sleeves in order to hide their fingers.

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. For example, during battles the warriors from the Keryad clan shouted ‘Tuula’ and the Tsatans shouted ‘Tuulan tokha’. But this innovation did not solve the problem, since it was impossible to hear who shouted what in the chaos of battles. Then the Kalmyks came up with another solution by attaching a read thread to their hats. Since then the Kalmyks wear their hats, even when drinking tea at home. All Kalmyks, irrespective of their age and gender, have the same red thread on their hats.

Sergei shows a rare Kalmyk belt made from silver, which is his family’s relic. He says that in the whole of Kalmykia there are no more than 3 belts like this. His family kept this belt in Siberia and did not sell it despite hunger and other hardships. In the past, such belts with thick silver plates and seals were a symbol of the holder’s high social status. People of middle social status had belts with thinner silver plates, while ordinary people wore leather belts.

During concert tours, Sergei says, he always wears his traditional costume with his silver belt. Every part of the traditional costume has its Kalmyk name and meaning.

He also talks about relics called bu in Kalmyk.

Zurgada says that in the past there were no nappies for toddlers. Instead people used cloth bags filled with ash, another purpose of which was to keep babies warm. Also, parents covered their babies’ feet with fur and put them inside felt beds. To keep babies’ armpits and genitalia dry, these parts were smeared with a powder made from dried mushrooms. Zurgada recalls that she used to go mushroom-collecting.

She also talks about a game played with ankle bones.

In the past, girls and women sewed their dresses themselves. People did not follow fashion, but wore similar clothing. Good girls were supposed to sit at home and do sewing or knitting. Zurgada learnt how to make thread from her sister.

Zurgan says that her mother sewed tsegdg and decorated them with beads. In the past, on fasting days women, including the elderly and young mothers with their children, went to temples to pray. They wore hats, tsegdg, and had shivrlyk and tokug on their hair. Zurgan’s mothers, both biological and her step-mother, had silver tokugs. Since gold is heavier than silver, tokugs made from gold was considered more valuable. Due to her ignorance, Zurgan says she did not ask for a tokug from her mother.

Zurgan also says that children, married women and old women wore blue or black hats. Young people, by contrast, had hats with embroidery.