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.