The treasure of Galdan

by Andrej Andrejew

  “Well, this sounds very interesting but I think I would need to cross-check with our press attaché.”

  “OK, sure. Just let me know later should you be interested.”

  Short before 11:00 they parked in front of the Tibetan style building. There was nothing special about it, just the typical rectangular construction slightly inclining to the top, with cherry red painted stripes above the windows. They were greeted by the deputy director, a woman in her late fifties. Also present were a young man with very sharp facial features and a man about 80 years old, quite poorly dressed and with old fashioned spectacles.

  Nick started to talk, politely expressing his gratitude for the chance to visit the institute on such short notice.

  The young man started to translate simultaneously in Chinese. Then he translated the reply of the deputy director.

  “On behalf of the administration of our Institute I would like to welcome you Mr. Brown. We are very pleased to learn that English people are interested in our history and culture. Our institute has performed a lot of research in the field of Tibetan culture and medicine and is well known in China and abroad. Our research is aimed at strengthening the co-operation and friendship between all nationalities in our country and also friendship with other countries through learning of each other’s culture and tradition. This gentleman here is Mr. Cheng Wang Guo. This is his Chinese name but actually he is from the Inner Mongolia. Before his retirement he was the cultural director of Lama Temple in Beijing. He speaks Mongolian and Tibetan and has profound historical knowledge. I really hope he will be able to help you.”

  The old man started to talk. Despite the slow and patchy translation the story he told was so fascinating that Nick forgot all sense of time.

  Dzhungaria, 1644 – 1697

  1

  The Mongols were never a homogeneous ethnic group but a mix of numerous tribes spread between the eastern Siberia, the Far East and Altai mountains of central Asia. After around 150 years of unity under Chenghiz Khan and his successors, they disintegrated following the replacement of Mongol Yuan through the Han-Chinese Ming dynasty. The Mings continued the old Chinese policy of self-imposed isolation. The Mongol tribes living to the north of the Great Wall harassed the border regions, from time to time even threatening the capital city of Beijing. The Ming government, following the tradition of their far predecessors, treated the menace with patience. Generally speaking far reaching military adventures were not typical for Chinese policy. The very existence of the Great Wall is the best evidence that the main objective was the defence of the existing boundaries of the empire. Invasions of the foreign countries and even punitive expeditions were an exception rather than the rule. The same applied to how they treated the Mongol tribes. It was considered a more practical solution to buy them off than to send costly military expeditions.

  Following the downfall of the Mings, another set of “foreigners” ascended the imperial throne – the Manchurians who went under the name of the Qing dynasty. Actually there are hints that Yuan and Qing were not the only non-Han-Chinese dynasties. Before Yuan other Chinese emperors could possibly have been of Turk-Mongolian origin perhaps stemming from Kithan or Tabgach.

  The Qings continued following the main rules of Chinese tradition but with one meaningful difference. Whereas the previous rulers divided the world into Han-Chinese civilization and the barbaric world outside, Qings declared all people on the Earth being equal members of one great family with the sun of imperial benevolence shining upon all of them. In China itself however they imposed the strict rules of apartheid. The Manchurians usually did not mix with the rest nor did they intermarry with them. Also it was prohibited for the Han-Chinese to settle on the territory of Manchuria.

  Initially the Mongol chieftains considered the Qing emperors as one of them, just a set of representatives of another nomadic tribe lucky enough to grab the throne in Beijing. It quickly emerged that they were mistaken. They had underestimated the assimilating power of Chinese culture. As was the case with Yuan emperors, in the second generation the Qings became pure Chinese rulers.

  Meanwhile the Mongol tribes’ relationships continuously deteriorated after the downfall of Yuan. Between the 15th and 17th century the Mongol territories were divided into several major khanates. The eastern Chahar Tumen and Baarin Karchin, the northern Khalkha Tumen, western Oirat tribes and southern Ordos.

  The Oirats (or Kalmuks as Turkic sources call them) populated the vast area: the line between the Zaysan lake and the city of Kashgar in the west, the Khangai mountains in the east and the oases of Turfan and Hami in the south. In the north the Oirat nomads moved up to the lands of Kazakh and Kirgiz tribes. Some Oirats moved as far as the delta of the Volga and settled there. They are still living in the area, having their own autonomous Kalmyc Republic which is a part of Russian Federation.

  In the fifteenth century, while the emperors of the newly established Ming Dynasty were focused on controlling their borders with the Norhern and Eastern Mongols, the Oirats were busy challenging them. After defeating the last Jagataite khans of Mogholistan they made forays as far as Ili region and southern Siberia. They also managed to inflict several defeats on the Chinese army and even to take the Ming Emperor prisoner.

  At the end of the 16th century the Oirats were under the domination of Kalkha mongols until their ruler Baibagas Khan defeated the Khalkha mongol army in 1578. According to some sources it was him who accepted and promoted Buddhism in the area.

  At that point in time the Oirats had built a rather loose and not always friendly confederation of three major groups: the Alashan Oirats who lived to the west of Helanshan mountains; the Khoshuts occupying the area around the Kuku Nor lake; and the Choros or Zhungars.

  One more attempt to overcome the differences between the Mongol tribes failed at the meeting of the major Khans in 1640. Around this time the Dzungar Khanate started to gain more and more power. Under the Khan Batur Khuntaiji, Buddhism became the established religion of Dzungaria. The Khan maintained closed contacts with Tibet and even received Russian envoys from the newly developed regions of southern Siberia.

  Another person who made an enormous impact on the development of Dzungarian culture and promoting Buddhism was Zaya Pundit. His main objective was to transmit the wisdom which he had collected during his long stay in Tibet for the benefit of his country. Some Tibetan scriptures had already been translated into old Mongol language (mongol bichig) but the majority of Oirats did not have sufficient command of this language. Therefore Zaya Pundit created a new system of script – called todo bichig - and translated over 150 scripts.

  2

  Galdan was born 1644, the sixth child of Batur Khuntaiji. Following the newly implemented tradition to send a son to the monastery, he was selected for this role. Thus in 1651 he was sent to Lhasa to commence his studies. Dalai Lama V personally cared for the education and well-being of young Galdan. First of all it was in Tibet’s interest to maintain the advance of Karma Kagyu (known to us under the names as Diamond Way or Tibetan Buddhism or Vajrayana.) He could already see meaningful progress with the faith expanding as far north as Baikal Lake, up to Korean borders in the East and the dense forests of Yunnan in the south. Expansion to the west was unthinkable, with the Muslim rulers there holding power firmly in their hands. Most important was the fact that the Qing dynasty, which ascended the throne in 1644, Galdan’s birth year, professed Tibetan Buddhism. Secondly, these regions were considered the benefactors of the faith and donated generously. Dalai Lama V was in need of money. The construction of the first part of Potala (the White Palace) had been completed but the work on another part (the Red Palace) was still ongoing and quite costly. Therefore the handsome amount of silver which Batur Huntaji sent with his son was more than welcome.

  Actually Galdan was not amused about the prospect of becoming a lama, but he accepted the will of his father and studied diligently. In 1653, while still in Lhasa, he received the sad message that his father was dead. As if tha
t wasn’t bad enough he was then informed about the struggle for power which had started up. Another blow came in 1662 with the death of Zaya Pundit. In 1664 Galdan finished his studies and asked Dalai Lama V to be allowed to return home to become the spiritual coach of his brother Sengge who succeeded his father. Although Sengge prevailed in the struggle for power, this had not ended the hostilities. His brothers Tseten-Taiji and Zotba-Batur were challenging his position. Despite the initial defeat Tseten-Taiji plotted his revenge and eventually murdered Sennge in 1671.

  There are only legends available about the departure of Galdan from Lhasa in 1664. According to one of them, the Dalai Lama V presented him with generous farewell gifts. Among them were the famous Sapphire Buddha, a 80 centimetre high statue studded with sapphires, emeralds and created from solid gold. Furthermore the legend tells that the statue was delivered to Lhasa in the 7th century to the court of Tibetan King Songtsan Gampo as part of the dowry for a Newari princess who became the king's wife.

  The treasure had survived several invasions well hidden in one of the monasteries in southern Tibet. Dalai Lama V was very proud of this possession but felt that he was giving it away into good hands. He also gave him some ancient scrolls written in Ranjana script, and two stone plates with a script Galdan had never seen before. Dalai Lama V explained to him that the origin of these plates was a Buddhist kingdom in the far West which had ceased to exist. Most likely this was a Greek script of Bactrian language, also known as Tocharian.

  After returning to Dzungaria, Galdan tried his best to fulfil his function as Hutuktu – a spiritual leader. After the murder of his brother Sengge in 1671, Galdan's blood was boiling but at the same time as a devoted Buddhist, he understood that he had to seek the permission of Lhasa to change the yellow robe for the clothes of the warrior. By 1672 Galdan and his allies were able to defeat his enemies, however Zotba-Batur had managed to escape. Galdan consolidated his power and was proclaimed Huntaiji – the ruler of Dzungaria. However this did not mean that all the other members of the family, let alone other chieftains, accepted it. One of Sengge's sons fled to Turfan while another one was poisoned, apparently on Galdan's instructions.

  Further battles and victories followed. He defeated the Alashan Oirats in 1677 and in the same year formally accepted the title of Khan. He followed this with an intervention in Kashgar. The previously deposed ruler of Kashgar Afaq fled from the Sufi sect Naqshbandia, also calledBlack Mountain and asked Lhasa and Galdan for help. Galdan was keen to intervene and eventually re-installed Afaq in Kashgar. Thereafter he gradually expanded his operations into the whole of East Turkestan or Moghulistan as it was known at that time. To secure his rear in the north, he dispatched his envoys to the Russian governor in Krasnoyarsk and even as far as Moscow. He also tried to remain on good terms with the Bokhara and Kazakh tribes. The imperial court in Beijing was concerned about his military adventures but restricted its actions to lukewarm reprimands and reminders not to slip from the righteous path. One of the reasons they didn’t take it further could have been the tensions on the Russian border and the unrest in the south. The situation in the Mongol territories was a nuisance but not a priority.

  The enmity between the major Mongol groups was the real challenge for Galdan and eventually the reason for his downfall. The year 1679 when he received the title of Boshoktu-Khan from Dalai Lama V seems to have been the zenith of his good luck.

  As has already been mentioned, the Mongols of those times were a very heterogeneous group, unwilling to forge an alliance. When in 1635 the Manchurians defeated Lygdan Khan, they captured from him the seal of Chenghiz Khan. Many Mongol chieftains accepted the Manchurian chieftain Abakhai as their supreme leader and paid the tribute even before he ascended the throne. The tribute was reasonable: one camel and eight horses per chieftain. It was very important to realize that this was a tribute and not a gift. It was the emperor who distributed gifts in return. Many times the reciprocated gifts were much more valuable than the paid tribute.

  The emperor Kangxi had undertaken countless attempts to mediate between the quarrelling khans, sent many envoys and letters. There are allegations that his role as peace keeper was not straightforward, that in fact he strictly followed the divide and rule practice. This is definitely exaggerated. Even though more and more khans joined under Qing banners allowing him to gain the full control of Khalkha by 1691, his interest to pacify the region was indeed genuine.

  In 1681 the Qings defeated the uprisings in the southern China, and in 1689 they signed the Nerchinsk treaty with Russia. This freed up their resources to turn their attention to the north.

  Kangxi maintained frequent correspondence with Galdan but eventually he started to lose his patience. Galdan’s recalcitrant refusal to commit himself to non-interference into Khalkha's affairs annoyed the emperor. Some trade and travel sanctions were implemented in 1683.

  The last attempt to achieve settlement was made in 1686 when Kangxi has sent his envoys to virtually every corner of the vast Mongol lands. The minor chieftains and khans were invited to join a meeting at the end of May near the river Tzak in the area of Hulun Belchir. The majority responded and headed to the meeting. The conflict started already due to the fact that the Khalkha representatives considered their spiritual leader Dzebdzun Damba Hutuktu equal to Galdan Shiretu, the representative of Dalai Lama. The trivial issue of placement threatened to grow into a full blown conflict. Dzebdzun Damba Hutuktu not only refused to be seated below Galdan Shiretu but even on the same level. This was an insult to Dzungars who considered the Dalai Lama to have supreme authority.

  On the surface the outcome of the meeting appeared to be a success. The khans hugged each other, wished each other good health and went home. Some sources allege Kangxi had ulterior motives and claim his purpose of the meeting was to sew the seeds of a feud in order to gain control over Khalkha and remove the annoying adversary. However there is no evidence to prove or deny these allegations.

  The interval between 1686 and 1696 was a sort of a military stalemate. Galdan undertook several incursions into Khalkha which in some cases led to a confrontation with Qing troops. During the same time Kangxi and Galdan remained in contact but the tone of the letters became increasingly hostile.

  The Qing court decided to solve the problem once and for all in 1696. In March three columns of the imperial army were dispatched from different directions. The eastern one commanded by Subusu marched from Manchuria, the western column under Fen Gu started from Ningxia, and finally the central column under the imperial command left Dashi Kou.

  Galdan's brave warriors were no match for the superior Qing army. He was on continuous retreat and by June was nearly encircled. During the retreat he had to leave provisions and valuables behind which have been recorded in the Qing annals. They however do not mention the presents he received from the Dalai Lama. According to legend he asked his confidant Saysan Lama to secure the relics in a monastery which was located about a day’s travel to the north of a settlement located somewhere around the current city of Altai. In November Kangxi wrote another letter to Galdan and received his envoy in December. In March 1697 Galdan received an envoy from Kangxi but again the talks ended without resolution. In April Galdan received bad news from Lhasa. The Dalai Lama had been dead for nearly 10 years and his successor was a young boy, still under the tutelage of the regent. The last hope of getting support from Tibet was gone. Galdan did not feel well as May began. His condition deteriorated and within a few days he died. This was the end of the prominent Asian warrior. The mystery of the Sapphire Buddha seemed destined to remain concealed forever.

  For the Qing rulers however the misfortune of Galdan did not mean the end of their headache with the Oirats. His nephew Tsewang Rabdan was installed on the throne by the Qings but proved to be a difficult client constantly interfering with Chinese policy in Tibet and even invaded Turfan. Tsewang's son Galdan Sereng also clashed with Chinese. It was not until 1757 that the Oirats were to be defeated and not until 1759 tha
t the whole of Eastern Turkestan was incorporated into the Chinese Empire. This was the ultimate end not only of the Oirat story but also the nearly a thousand years of history of the lords of the steppe which started with the Huns.

  Beijing, April 2013

  1

  The talk lasted for approximately two hours but Nick felt it had taken much longer than that, and was completely exhausted. It was hard work paying attention to the story especially with the mediocre translation. Popescu dropped him at the embassy at 15:00 and Nick went straight to the office to write a report. On his way he met Tom.

  “Good that I catch you Nick - we’ve had some news from London. This really is a weird situation. Apparently the management of the auction has been approached and requested to hold up the bidding and disclose the identity of the seller. They agreed to postpone the auction but refused to disclose the identity. And they’re right from a legal perspective as there is no reason to intervene - the Chinese authorities have not officially asked for any legal assistance. The laws on protection of privacy and property should not be breached by some article in a newspaper! Do you know Mike Hornby, the second political attaché? Actually he is a liaison officer from Scotland Yard and will join our meeting on Friday. You are looking quite tired by the way.”