A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

170 A history of Inner Asia
The process, consummated by 1620, was similar: tribal leaders such as
Boibeghus-baatur of the Khoshot, Khara-kulla of the Choros, Dalaitaiji
of the Dörböt, and Khu-Urluq of the Torghut converted, and their
tribes followed suit.The conversion was followed, whether coincidentally
or through a causal relationship, by several developments of historical
importance and ultimately tragic consequences.
Those Oirats who stayed in Jungaria, led by the Choros under their
khan Baatur-Khongtaiji (1634–53), consolidated their hold on the area,
symbolizing this by stabilizing their headquarters in the form of a city
which became the modern Chuguchak (Tacheng).Baatur-Khongtaiji
also sent one of his sons, Galdan, to Lhassa as a novice in a lamasery.
Galdan, however, eventually received a dispensation to break his vows
and return to Jungaria in order to join the succession struggle that had
flared up among his brothers after their father’s death.By 1676 he
emerged as the victor, inaugurating his own reign (1676–97).It was he
who transformed the small khanate into the relatively short-lived but
memorable Jungar empire of Sinkiang, which lasted until its destruction
by the Chinese in 1758.He founded it in two stages: the first was the
unification of all the Oirat tribes of Jungaria under his rule; and the
second was the extension of his suzerainty over the entire Sinkiang.The
fact that Galdan subsequently directed his main and ultimately unsuccessful
efforts toward Mongolia and China underscores the almost accidental
and anomalous nature of the second step; for it was provoked by
the aforementioned quarrel between a descendant of Genghis Khan
and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad: the Chaghatayid Ismail
made an effort to recover some of the power which the Khwajas, in particular
Hazrat Apak of Kashgar, had usurped in Altishahr from the
Genghisids.The Khwaja fled to Tibet where he found refuge with the
Dalai Lama, who instructed Galdan Khan to restore the dervish to his
former position.The Oirat khan occupied Kashgar, sent Ismail a prisoner
to Kulja, and in 1678 re-established Hazrat Apak in his former
position but as his vassal.The irony of these events is striking: the Dalai
Lama, a Buddhist incarnation, is asked by a descendant of the Prophet
of Islam to restore him to his position of prestige and power, and the
latter is reinstalled by an infidel khan.
Galdan Khan’s main ambition lay, however, farther east.After consolidating
his hold on Sinkiang by taking Turfan and Hami in 1681, he
repulsed in 1688 an attack by Tsaghun-Dorji, one of the five Khalkha
chieftains of Mongolia, and then himself invaded their territory.The
Khalkha retreated to Tümet territory in Inner Mongolia, requesting