The Chowdur (meaning herder) or Choudor are one of the ten major groups of people who merged after 1920 to form the modern Turkmen Republic.

Two years later, in 1221, the Mongol conquest pushed the Oghuz tribes including the Chowdur from the Syr Dara region into the Kara Kum area and along the Caspian Sea.

Many Chowdur appear to have stayed on the Mangyshlak Peninsula from then through the Timurid and the Shaybanid Uzbek periods, beginning the Turco-Mongol transformation of these originally Oghuz people.

Turkmen living in the Murgab River delta (Margiana oasis) traditionally farmed and herded karakul and fat-tailed sheep with some goats.

[2] It is considered one of the major dialects spoken in modern Turkmenistan along with Arsari, Goklen, Teke, Salir, Sarik, and Yomud.