to Khalkha to found the Tusheet khanate and to build
Erdeni Zuu, a monastery at Ogodei’s old capital of
Kharakhoram modeled on Altan Khan’s monastery in
Koke qota. After failing to recruit Dge lugs pa lamas
to come to Khalkha for his monastery’s consecration,
Abadai enlisted local Sa skya pa lamas. As a result,
Erdeni Zuu continued to be allied with the Sa skya pa,
even long after the Khalkha khans solidly came to sup-
port the Dge lugs pa.
In 1588 the third Dalai Lama died en route to Mon-
golia. Altan Khan, sensing a brilliant opportunity,
pushed to have his own great-grandson recognized as
the fourth Dalai Lama, who was named Yon tan rgya
mtsho (1589–1617). Despite this prestigious coup,
through the first decades of the seventeenth century
Inner Mongolia remained contested ground. The
Northern Yuan emperor, Ligdan Khan (r. 1605–1634),
a devout Buddhist, patronized the Sa skya pa and sup-
ported a complete Mongolian translation of the Bka’
’gyur(a project later emulated in a woodblock printed
version by the Manchu Kangxi emperor, r. 1660–
1723). In 1617 Ligdan was given a golden image of Ma-
hakala that was said to have been made by ’Phags pa
and used in Kublai’s campaigns against south China.
Ligdan enshrined it at the center of his capital in Cha-
har. As he retreated west in the face of Manchu incur-
sions in 1634, the Mahakala and all the powers that
accompanied it fell into Manchu hands. In 1636 they
took the image and installed it in the center of their
ancestral capital, Mukden, later moving it to Beijing.
Mongolian Buddhism and the Manchus
Meanwhile, in Tibet, the fifth Dalai Lama enlisted the
support of Gushri Khan of the Qoshot, who had es-
tablished himself in the Kokonor region. In 1642
Qoshot troops defeated the rivals of the fifth Dalai
Lama and the Dge lugs, most notably the king of
Gtsang. This year traditionally marks the beginning of
the Dalai Lamas’ rule over Tibet. However, it was only
with the death of Gushri Khan in 1656 that the fifth
Dalai Lama became the unrivaled ruler of Tibet.
Some years earlier, in 1639, Abadai’s son, the
Tusheet Khan Gombodorji (1594–1655), had had his
own young son, known as Öndür Gegen or Zanabazar
(1634–1723), initiated as a Buddhist monk at Erdeni
Zuu before a convocation of Khalkha lords. The boy
traveled to Tibet with a large retinue in 1651, where
the fifth Dalai Lama recognized him as an incarnation
of the famous historian Taranatha (1575–1634), a
member of a rival order, the Jonang pa, who had spent
years missionizing in Mongolia. The Dalai Lama gave
Öndür Gegen the title Rje btsun dam pa (Mongolian,
Bogdo Gegen) and charged him with establishing the
Dge lugs pa in Khalkha. Öndür Gegen is credited with
building numerous monasteries, the primary of which
was a traveling collection of yurts, Urga (from Mon-
golian örgöö,“palace”) or Da Khuree (Great Circle),
where he reigned as Rje btsun dam pa Khutukhtu
(Mongolian for incarnate lama) of Urga. He also de-
signed rituals; established religious festivals, among
them the annual Maitreya Festival; borrowed from the
Panchen Lama’s monastery, Bkra shis lhun po; and
produced brilliant paintings and sculptures. In 1691,
pressed by the onslaughts of Galdan, khan of the West-
ern Mongolian Dzungar tribe, Öndür Gegen led the
Khalkha lords to Dolonnor, Inner Mongolia, to seek
the protection of the Qing Kangxi emperor. The em-
peror and his lama subsequently spent considerable
time together in Beijing and at Wutaishan. When first
the emperor and then Öndür Gegen died in 1723, the
latter’s remains were enshrined at imperial expense at
a new, palatial Chinese-style monastery, Amarbayas-
galant khiid (hermitage), south of Lake Baikal.The Qing emperors, following the Mongols’ prece-
dent, were recognized by the fifth Dalai Lama as ema-
nations of Mañjus ́r. They maintained close diplomatic
relations with the great lamas of Tibet and Mongolia.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, hun-
dreds of Mongolian lamas flooded into the Qing cap-
ital at Beijing, where they were mainly housed at the
Huangsi (Yellow Monastery) and the Yonghegong
(Palace of Harmony). The lineage that forged the clos-
est ties to the Qing emperors was that of the Lcang skya
Khutukhtus, who were granted primacy over the Dge
lugs pa Buddhists of Inner Mongolia. Particularly
effective was the third incarnation, Rol pa’i rdo rje
(1719–1786). Born in Amdo of a Monguor (Ti-
betanized Mongol) family, Rol pa’i rdo rje was brought
to the Songzhu Monastery in Beijing as a child during
the reign of the Yongzheng emperor (r. 1723–1735)
and raised with Yongzheng’s eventual heir, Hongli,
who reigned as the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–1795).
Qianlong’s reign marks the height of Mongolian and
Tibetan Buddhist prestige and power at the Qing court.
Rol pa’i rdo rje initiated the emperor into the Cakra-
samvara Tantrain 1745, taught him Tibetan and San-
skrit, and accompanied him on regular pilgrimages to
Wutaishan. Rol pa’i rdo rje was also an invaluable ad-
viser in the emperor’s efforts to control the process of
incarnation among the powerful lineages of Tibet and
Mongolia, and in his many projects in Buddhist art,MONGOLIA