BURIATS. The Buriats are a Mongol tribe, and are said to be an offshoot of the Khalkha Mongols. Their centre of dis persion to-day is Transbaikalia, but they are confirmed wanderers and are to be found from the Amur river to Lhasa. Some of the Buriats practise agriculture, but their chief occupation is the rearing of horses and cattle, and large numbers are steppe dwellers, with a culture similar to the other Mongol tribes (see MONGOL). Physically they are very much mixed and it is not possible to speak of a Buriat physical type; in religion they are Buddhists, but Shamanism still survives among them.