Galdan Boshugtu Khan- The Last Nomadic Conqueror
In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the region now known as Xinjiang was dominated by the Dzungar Khanate, a coalition of Oirat (Western) Mongols united under the Choros (an Oirat tribe) Prince Erdeni Batur. Erdeni had risen to power with the goal of uniting the fractured Mongols against the encroaching powers of the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing Empire, but he was only partially successful as the Khalkha (Eastern) Mongols refused to submit to Dzungar rule. He also could not take the title of Khan as that title was traditionally reserved to descendants of Genghis Khan, the infamous founder of the Mongol Empire. However, Erdeni did succeed in establishing Tibetan Buddhism the official faith of the Mongols, whose influence would play a major role in the events to come.
When Erdeni died in 1653, his third child Sengge became the new Khong Tayiji (Crown Prince) of the Dzungar Khanate. His remaining sons received their own land inheritances, but Galdan, his fourth son, transferred his inheritance to Sengge and left to study under the 5th Dalai Lama in Tibet. Born in 1644, Galdan initially appeared uninterested in steppe politics, having just given up his inheritance in favor of studying to become a lama himself. This all changed, however, with the murder of Sengge by his half-brothers Tsetsen and Tsotba in 1670. Upon hearing of his brother’s death, Galdan immediately renounced his monastic vows and returned to Dzungaria to avenge Sengge, defeating both Tsetsen and Tsoba in 1671. Galdan then took his brother’s place as Khong Tayiji of the Dzungar Khanate, and he married his widow, Queen Anu, a warrior-queen who would become one of his most trusted counselors.
Having seized control over the Dzungars, Galdan then proceeded to consolidate his position among the many peoples of Central Asia. In 1677, Galdan would defeat his remaining rivals in Dzungaria, forcing them to flee east and causing panic to arise among the Khalkha Mongols. From 1678 to 1680, Galdan would also conquer the last remnants of the Chagatai Khanate, along with oasis cities such as Hami and Turfan that made up the ancient Silk Road. Military campaigns were also launched against the politically-divided Kazakh Khanate, driving the Kazakhs westward and further expanding the Dzungar sphere-of-influence. With these conquests, Galdan obtained permission from the Dalai Lama to proclaim himself Boshugtu Khan, derived from the Mongolian term for “decree of Heaven” or “destiny”. In effect, Galdan had bypassed the traditional requirement of Genghisid ancestry by decreeing that his right to rule came not from blood, but from the divine will of heaven itself.
By taking the title of Khan, Galdan Boshugtu Khan could now lay claim to the legacy of Genghis Khan himself and strive to unite the Mongols under a single banner once more. Doing so would first require defeating the Khalkha, who continued to resist Dzungar demands for subjugation. By 1687, Galdan was preparing his armies for an invasion of Khalkha territory, having further bolstered his soldiers with firearms bought from Russian settlements in Siberia. All he needed now was a proper motive for launching the attack, which he received when his younger brother died in an internecine conflict among the Khalkha. Claiming vengeance for his slain brother, Galdan invaded the Khalkha in 1688.
The Khalkha, lacking unity and facing an enemy armed with gunpowder weapons, collapsed under Galdan’s invasion. After being defeated by Galdan in the three-day battle of Olgoi Lake, Khalkha refugees abandoned their homeland and either accepted Russian subjugation in exchange for protection, submitted themselves to the Dzungars, or fled south to the Great Wall and the protection of the Qing Dynasty. For the first time since the reign of Dayan Khan in the late 16th century, the Mongols were united under one Khan, and it appeared that Galdan might indeed become a great conqueror in the same tradition as Genghis Khan or Tamerlane.
Unfortunately for Galdan, his conquest of the Khalkha proved to be the highpoint of his conquests, as his actions had earned the ire of the Qing Dynasty under the rule of the Kangxi Emperor (reigned 1661–1722). The Qing would not tolerate the rise of a unified Mongol state that could threaten their still-young dynasty, and the disintegration of the Khalkha had created a refugee crisis along the frontier that needed to be addressed. The Kangxi Emperor thus launched an expedition over the Great Wall to defeat Galdan and neutralize the Dzungar threat. After being lured in through partially disingenuous offers of peace-talks by the Emperor, Galdan encountered the main Qing army at Ulan Butong, only 350km north of Beijing, on September 3rd, 1690. Despite being outnumbered 5 to 1, Galdan’s 20,000 troops protected themselves from the onslaught of Qing cannon-fire through creating a camel-wall, or tuocheng, made up of 10,000 camels covered in felt and bound together to form an impromptu defensive structure. Through firing between the camel-wall, the Dzungars were able to resist several Qing assaults before retreating deeper into Mongolia. Although the Qing commander claimed victory, the Dzungars inflicted more casualties on the Qing than they lost themselves, and Galdan remained at large.
Aware that Galdan would only continue to threaten the stability of the Qing so long as he remained alive, the Kangxi Emperor prepared for a second campaign against Galdan while also isolating him diplomatically. The 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk with the Tsardom of Russia had settled the Chinese-Russian border in Manchuria, leaving the Russians with little interest to join a war against the Qing when Galdan’s envoys began broaching the possibility of an alliance. The Qing also supported a rebellion led by Galdan’s nephew, Tsewang Rabtan, in Dzungaria, thus cutting Galdan off from his homeland. Galdan also lost the support of the Dalai Lama when the sDe-pa, the regent of Tibet, agreed to disavow Galdan in 1693. Finally, the 1691 Dolon Nor assembly saw the Khalkha Mongols officially submit to the Kangxi Emperor in exchange for the reconquest of their old territories, beginning more than 2 centuries of Qing rule over Mongolia.
Having been isolated from his homeland and all potential allies, Galdan was left wandering through Khalkha territory as his army dwindled from disease, starvation, and desertion. In 1696, the Kangxi Emperor led three armies over the Great Wall with the goal of trapping Galdan and ending his pan-Mongolic ambitions once and for all. Galdan evaded the Qing Emperor for weeks, using the harsh, open terrain of the Mongol steppe to wear down the Qing army’s supplies. The tactic succeeded- the center army led by the Kangxi Emperor was forced to retreat on June 12th due to a lack of food and fodder. Unfortunately for Galdan, his retreat from the Emperor had led him right into the path of the westernmost army, led by Qing General Fiyanggu. The western army had blocked his escape route after an eleven-day forced march where the Qing and their Khalkha retainers lived off the flesh of their own horses and camels, forcing Galdan to make battle at the Jao Modo valley. Having gained the strategic high ground, the Qing cannons devastated the Dzungar ranks, many of whom were near starvation and already demoralized by their constant retreating. As his troops wavered and then broke, the Qing cavalry surrounded the Dzungar camp, slaughtering their warriors and capturing thousands of cattle and sheep. Galdan Boshugtu Khan would have certainly died on that battlefield were it not for Queen Anu, who led a desperate counterattack that allowed her husband to escape the encirclement at the cost of her own life.
Although Galdan had survived the Battle of Jao Modo, his cause was now beyond recovery. Possessing little more than 40–50 retainers, Galdan had no hope of continuing the war against the Qing, nor could he return to Dzungaria where his nephew now ruled. Tibet also ignored his pleas for aid- the 5th Dalai Lama had already been dead for several years, and the regent of Tibet was unwilling to anger the Kangxi Emperor by supporting a cause that already appeared to be lost. Fleeing deeper into Mongolia from both Qing forces and their new Khalkha subjects, Galdan suddenly died under mysterious circumstances on April 4th, 1697, while camped in the Altai Mountains. The Kangxi Emperor suspected that he may have been poisoned, while some scholars believe that he may have succumbed to plague.
Following Galdan’s death, his corpse along with his surviving son and daughter were seized by Tsewang Rabtan, who faced mounting pressure from the Kangxi Emperor to surrender them to Qing custody. The Kangxi Emperor was not content with Galdan’s death- he intended to wipe out all trace of his former rival. After pleading with the Emperor to show mercy to Galdan’s family, Tsewang finally gave into Qing demands and handed the body of Galdan and his children over to the Qing. In the fall of 1698, Galdan’s bones were crushed and scattered to the winds in a formal ceremony in Beijing, so even his spirit could no longer menace the Qing dynasty. His two children were fortunate enough to be officially pardoned and lived the rest of their lives in the imperial capitol.
The life and conquests of Galdan Boshugtu Khan represent the beginning of the end for a way of life that had persisted in the Central Asian steppes for millennia. As strong, centralized states such as the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing Empire expanded their borders inward, the nomadic tribes living in the steppes found themselves increasingly enclosed and vulnerable to external conquest. The steppe was once their refuge- now it was their prison. Galdan’s pan-Mongolic ambitions could have potentially delayed or even reversed this historical trend had they succeeded, but his war against the Khalkha inadvertently accomplished the exact opposite by driving them into the open arms of the Qing. While the Dzungar Khanate survived Galdan’s fall and would continue to menace the Qing for several more decades, they were no longer an existential threat to the dynasty. Nevertheless, Galdan Boshugtu Khan deserves to be remembered for demonstrating that Mongol history and their influence on the world did not end with the collapse of Genghis’ Empire, but instead continued with new polities and individuals attempting to make their mark on history. And although Galdan failed in his attempt at glory, his story represents a pivotal turning-point in the historical development of Central Asia, one that could have gone in a far different direction.
