The Orusovs are members of the Khakhachin clan. According to a clan legend, one of their ancestors had three sons. His oldest son’s descendants are the Mandzhievs; his middle son’s descendants came to be known as the Denzenovs; the youngest son married a Russian woman and their descendants became the Orusovs. Danil and Sergei’s father, Sangadzhi-Garya, was born in 1898. Before the revolution of 1917, he studied in Tibet. Afterwards he got married and had 10 children, two of whom died in Siberia. During exile in Siberia, men from their family did carpentry and the women did needlework, thanks to which the whole family managed to survive. Besides building stoves, Sangadzhi-Garya also cured people. After exile, the family returned to their ancestral village of Dambur. Later the family moved to Elista.