Updated: 08.10.2003

Ust-Ordynsk Buryat Autonomous District, 9,000 sq mi (24,000 sq km), pop. 144,000 (2000), South Siberian Russia, in the Irkutsk Region.

Formed in 1937, it stretches from the Baykal Mts. to the Angara river. The capital is Ust-Ordynsk. The area is crossed by the Trans-Siberian Railway. Chief occupations include herding, timber harvesting, and dairying.

Buryats, Buddhist descendants of the Mongols, make up 36% of the population; Russians make up 57%. Formed originally as a national area, it became an autonomous area in 1977.

The district's share of the industrial production of the Russian Federation was in 1997 0% and of the retail turnover 0.02%. The district has food, timber, wood, cellulose and paper production, machine building and metal processing. Agriculture raises dairy and meat cattle and produces wool and wheat.