Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia (p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (Даурия, Dauriya) is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Siberia and the south-western corner of the Far Eastern Russia.
The steppe and wetland landscapes of Dauria are protected by the Daursky 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
Patom Plateau and North Baikal Highlands to the Russian state borders with
Mongolia and China. The Transbaikal region covers more than 1,000 km from west to east from Lake Baikal to the meridian of the confluence of the
Shilka River and Argun Rivers. To the west and north lies the
Irkutsk Oblast; to the north the
Sakha Republic (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.
[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.]
Part of the area is protected by the Dauria Nature Reserve.
Fauna and flora
The region has given its name to various animal species including
Daurian hedgehog, and the following birds: Asian brown flycatcher (
Muscicapa daurica),
Daurian jackdaw, Daurian partridge,
Daurian redstart,
Daurian starling,
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 larch ( Larix gmelinii) as well as that of the 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.
[
History of Mongolia, Volume I, 2003.]
In 1667, Gantimur opened Transbaikalia and the country on the Amur River to the influence of the Tsardom of Russia.
In Imperial Russia, Dauria itself became an oblast - the Transbaikal Oblast (), established in 1851, with its capital at Nerchinsk, later at Chita. It became part of the short-lived Far Eastern Republic between 1920 and 1922.
, the administration of the historic Transbaikalia includes Buryatia and the Zabaykalsky Krai; the area makes up nearly all of the territory of these two federal subjects.
See also
-
Transbaikal conifer forests
-
Daurian forest steppe
-
Khentei-Daur Highlands
-
Po dikim stepyam Zabaikalya
