Baatr Kitinov
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (Moscow, Russian Federation)
Russian Federation

Between the 1600s and 1630s, the Khoshuts were the most powerful Oirat tribe. Therefore, when the leaders of the Gelug school made an appeal to Oirats for military assistance in the intersect struggle in Tibet, the chuulgan (Mong. ‘congress’) of Oirat rulers made a decision to send some combined forces to the Land of Snows. After the successful campaign of the Khoshut Güshi Khan in 1637–1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama Lobsang Gyatso, who became the spiritual and secular head of Tibet, granted him and his descendants the titles ‘Ruler of Faith’ (Tib. chogyal) and ‘King of Tibet’ (Tib. gyalpo). Then, Güshi Khan established close relations with the Manchu Qing dynasty, the new rulers of China, and managed the organization of his own state in Qinghai for which he wrote the main legislative act known as Khökhnuuryn chuulgany tsaazyn bichig. However, his sons divided the domain into two parts — Tibetan and Kokonor (Qinhai) ones between which, especially at the time of Gyalpo Lhabzang, Gushi Khan’s grand-grandson, tensions and hostility arose. Lhabzang also entered into a confrontation with the powerful desi (Tib. ‘regent’) Sangye Gyatso which resulted in death of the latter in 1705. The Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso’s displacement by Lhabzang and the appointment of the new Dalai Lama, Ngawang Yeshe Gyatso, led to an escalation of hostilities with other Oirats which resulted in the capture of Lhasa by the Dzungars in 1717 and the establishment — due to the Qing support — of the Seventh Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso’s rule in Tibet. The Qing government had approved a new administrative structure in Tibet — Kashag — the leaders of which Kanchenne and Pholanay had somewhat special relationships with the Khoshuts: the first one was Lhabzang’s son-in-law, and the latter was considered an incarnation of Galdan Tsewang, Güshi Khan’s grandson. Khoshuts were viewed upon by the Fifth Dalai Lama as an important force for the future of the Gelug school, and Manchus also intended to preserve the role of Khoshuts in Tibet, but after the 1723 attempted Kokonor uprising by Luvsandanzan in the region, Beijing completely and dramatically changed its policies: the Khoshuts lost the right to be kings of Tibet, and were incorporated into the Qing Empire.