Transbaikal

Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia (Russian: Забайка́лье, tr. Zabaykal'ye, IPA: [zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ]), or Dauria (Даурия, Dauriya) is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia.

The steppe and wetland landscapes of Dauria are protected by the

Daurian Nature Reserve, which forms part of a World Heritage Site named "Landscapes of Dauria

".

Geography

Dauria stretches for almost 1,000 km from north to south from the

Argun Rivers. To the west and north lies the Irkutsk Oblast; to the north the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), to the east the Amur Oblast

. Oktyabrsky (Октябрьский) village, Amur Oblast, near the Russia-China border is a large site of uranium mining and processing facilities.^[1]

Part of the area is protected by the

Dauria Nature Reserve.^[2]

Daurian Nature Reserve

Fauna and flora

The region has given its name to various animal species including

Daurian shrike and the red-rumped swallow (Hirundo daurica). The Mongolian wild ass

(Equus hemionus hemionus) is extinct in the region.

The common name of the famous

Dahurian buckthorn

(Rhamnus davurica) are also derived from the same source.

History

The ancient proto-Mongol

Slab Grave Culture occupied the area around Lake Baikal in the Transbaikal territory.^[3]

In

Imperial Russia, Dauria itself became an oblast - the Transbaikal Oblast (Russian: Забайкальская область), established in 1851, with its capital at Nerchinsk, then at Chita. It became part of the short-lived Far Eastern Republic

between 1920 and 1922.

The administration of historic Transbaikalia currently [update] includes

Buryatia and the Zabaykalsky Krai; the area makes up nearly all of the territory of these two federal subjects

.

References

^ Shandala N, Filonova A, Titov A, Isaev D, Seregin V, Semenova V, and Metlyaev EG (2009), Radiation situation nearby the uranium mining facility, Environmental section poster P.9, 54th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, 12–16 July 2009, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
^ "The exhibition "Iris Russia"". flower-iris.ru. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
^ History of Mongolia, Volume I, 2003.