Elvik says that the yochin is a string instrument originated from China. It is also popular in Mongolia and Buryatia. The first among Westerners to mention the yochin was Alexander Duma who visited Kalmykia in 1858. In the past this instrument was mainly used by the aristocracy. Following the revolution of 1917, the instrument gradually became forgotten. In modern times, the first yochin instruments were produced in Belarus in the 1990s according to the drawings of Elvik. The Kalmyk yochin, called ‘jingnur’, has a number of distinctive features that renders it deferent from its Chinese, Mongolian and Buryat versions.