UNESCO labels the Buryat language of Siberia as endangered, a world language that may soon disappear. This paper examines how different institutions, historical events, and cultural shifts allowed for language loss. While specific particularities make the Buryat language story unique, many of the reasons for the decline of the Buryat language are also similar to those of other diminishing minority languages. Indeed, the decline of Buryat language from the 1960s offers important parallels for the situation in Inner Mongolia today.