the history of buddhism among the mongols 397
It is obvious that both the Khan and the Lama expected mutual
bene ts from this invitation. The question as to what the precise bene ts
involved really were cannot be answered with certainty. Probably, the
Lama hoped for support from the powerful Mongol leader in his effort
to strengthen the position of the dGe-lugs-pa versus the other schools.
The Khan, on his part, may have thought that the dGe-lugs-pa were
especially useful to enforce the moral and educational power of the
Buddhist religion for a renaissance of the Mongolian society and, at
the same time, for the foundation of his political position in relation
to the other Mongolian princes and China, the borders of which he
scourged again and again. It is notable that for this aim, the relation-
ship between Qubilai and ’Phags-pa was taken as an historical example.
Altan Khan bestowed the Lama bSod-nams-rgya-mtsho with the title
“Dalai Lama”, i.e., “ocean-like teacher”. bSod-nams-rgya-mtsho was the
third of a series of human incarnations of the bodhisattva Avalokitevara,
the tutelary deity of Tibet. He likewise is the third Dalai Lama, as his
two predecessors were posthumously also referred to as Dalai Lama.
bSod-nams-rgya-mtsho, in turn, bestowed the Mongolian Khan with
the title “Cakravartin Seen Khan”. By doing so, he explicitly awarded
him the same status as the real ruler of the world (cakravartin) Qubilai,
whose epithet was Seen, “the wise one”.^88
5.1. Translation ActivityThe encounter between Altan Khan and the third Dalai Lama was
the start of a new era in the history of Buddhism in Mongolia. The
statement that this was a “second conversion of the Mongols” is not
tenable.^89 As we have seen, Buddhism maintained its position in Mon-
golia, also after the fall of the Yuan, even if to a far lesser extent than
under the ideal conditions of the time of the Great Mongolian Empire.
the political developments leading to alliance between Altan Khan and other Mongol
princes with the dGe-lugs-pa is Altan Khan’s biography Erdeni tunumal neretü sudur, “The
Book entitled ‘Precious Clearness’”, composed about 1607. It was translated and studied
by Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz (2001) and Johan Elverskog (2003). For translations into
Japanese and Chinese, see Kollmar-Paulenz 2001, p. xi and Elverskog 2003, pp. 1–2.
About the meeting of Altan Khan with the Dalai Lama and the consequences for the
history of Mongolian Buddhism, see also Heissig 1970, 327ff. 88
Cf., e.g., Úiral 1996, p. 156. The mutual conferring of titles is described in detail
in the biography of Altan Khan, see Kollmar-Paulenz 2001, pp. 300–302; Elverskog
2003, pp. 160–162.
(^89) This has already been pointed out by Serruys 1963, p. 186.