A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

chapter thirteen
The Buddhist Mongols
Toghon Temür, the last Yüan emperor of China and a Genghisid of the
Toluy-Qubilay line, fled in 1368 to Mongolia after the dynasty’s defeat
and replacement by the national Ming Dynasty.From then on, his
descendants and those of other Genghisid lineages would claim the right
to rule the Mongols, but without achieving the re-establishment of even
a unified Mongolia, to say nothing of a resurrection of the Genghisid
empire.The challenge of reconquering the northern and western portions
of Mongolia itself, with the historic region of Qaraqorum, from
their linguistic cousins the Oirats proved an arduous and protracted task.
The able and energetic Dayan Khan (enthroned in 1470, ruled from
1481) failed to do so despite the campaigns he waged from 1492 on, and
success was granted only to his equally remarkable grandson Altan
Khan (1543–83) and the latter’s great-nephew Khutukhtai Sechen
Khungtaiji, chief of the Ordos tribes (1540–86).Their victory over the
Oirats in 1552 was to benefit especially the Khalkha component of the
Eastern Mongols, who occupied these central and northwestern segments
of the country that eventually became the core of modern
Mongolia.For the time being, however, the center of political power
among Eastern Mongols was in territories corresponding to what is now
Inner Mongolia, more specifically areas inhabited by the tribes of
Tümet and Ordos.Meanwhile the Oirats retreated west after their
defeat to join their kinsmen in the Eurasian steppes, a move that would
contribute to the creation of the Jungar khanate in Sinkiang and the
Kalmyk khanate in southern Russia.
While ruling China as the Yüan Dynasty, Qubilay and his successors
began to abandon their people’s ancestral shamanism, which was
marked by religious indifference or tolerance, and to display a growing
interest in Buddhism.They – especially Qubilay – seemed to favor this
religion over others.The massive conversion of the Mongols to
Buddhism happened only after the dynasty’s return to Mongolia,
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