Kalmyk people or Kalmyks (alternatively translated as "Kalmuck," "Kalmuk," or "Kalmyki") is the name given to western Mongolic people - Oirats, whose descendants migrated from western China in the seventeenth century. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Through emigration, small Kalmyk communities have been established in the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.