The Altan Khans (lit. Golden Khan) ruled north-western Mongolia from about 1609 to 1691 at the latest. Altan Khan of Khalkha also known as Altan Khan of Khotogoid ruled over the Khotogoids in northwestern Mongolia and belonged to the Left Wing of the Khalkha (Eastern) Mongols. Although they claimed to be Khan, Mongolian chronicles call them Hun Taij, which was a noble rank equivalent to prince.
After the death of Dayan Khan some time after 1517 his empire was split between his descendants and became a kind of family federation. His grandson, a different Altan Khan (1507–1582) of Tumet had successful military campaigns against the Oirats. Dayan Khan's youngest son, Gersendze Huangtaizi, was given lands approximately matching the territory of present-day Mongolia. By the early 17th century most of Outer Mongolia was held by his descendants. These formed four khanates, from west to east:
The Altan Khan was important circa 1609-1682. The Tushetu Khan, with his control of the religious capital, was long the leading figure in Khalkha.
In the 17th century, to the west, the Oirat Dzungar Khanate was gradually consolidated in modern-day Xinjiang; to the north, the Russians increased their hold over the Siberian forests; and, to the east, the Manchus moved south to conquer the Ming dynasty, eventually forming the Qing dynasty.
Khong Tayiji, also spelled Qong Tayiji, was a title of the Mongols, derived from the Chinese term Huangtaizi.
The Dzungar Khanate, also written as the Zunghar Khanate or Junggar Khanate, was an Inner Asian khanate of Oirat Mongol origin. At its greatest extent, it covered an area from southern Siberia in the north to present-day Kyrgyzstan in the south, and from the Great Wall of China in the east to present-day Kazakhstan in the west. The core of the Dzungar Khanate is today part of northern Xinjiang, also called Dzungaria.
The Khalkha or Kalka have been the largest subgroup of Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos and Tumed, were directly ruled by Borjigin khans until the 20th century; unlike the Oirats, who were ruled by Dzungar nobles or the Khorchins, who were ruled by Qasar's descendants.
Ubasi Khong Tayiji was a 17th-century Mongol prince. He was the first Altan Khan of the Khalkha who ruled Khotgoids in northwestern Khalkha. He was defeated by the Oirats in 1623.
Güshi Khan was a Khoshut prince and founder of the Khoshut Khanate, who supplanted the Tumed descendants of Altan Khan as the main benefactor of the Dalai Lama and the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1637, Güshi Khan defeated a rival Mongol prince Choghtu Khong Tayiji, a Kagyu follower, near Qinghai Lake and established his khanate in Tibet over the next years. His military assistance to the Gelug school enabled the 5th Dalai Lama to establish political control over Tibet.
Erinchin Lobsang Tayiji was a prince of the Khalkha federation in western Mongolia. See Altan Khan of Khalkha.
Erdeni Batur was a Choros-Oirat prince generally considered to be the founder of the Dzungar Khanate, centered in the Dzungaria region, currently in north-westernmost part of China.
Kharkhul was a Choros (Oirats) prince and tayishi of the Choros tribe. He is best known for forming and leading a coalition of the Four Oirats in battle against Ubasi Khun Tayishi, the Khalkha prince who ruled the Altan Khanate in present-day northwest Mongolia.
Sengge was a Choros-Oirat prince and the chosen successor of his father Erdeni Batur to rule over the Dzungar. Sengge ruled over a section of the Dzungar from 1653 until his murder in 1671 by his two older half-brothers Tseten and Tsodba Batur. Sengge is best known for defeating Erincin Lobsang Tayishi, the third Altan Khan, in 1667 and eliminating the Altan Khanate as a potential future threat to the Dzungar.
Badma Erdeni Khong Tayiji was a 17th-century Mongol prince of the Altyn Khan dynasty. Son of Ubasi Khong Tayiji, the first Altan Khan of Khalkha. In 1652, he abdicated the throne and his son Erinchin Lobsang Tayiji succeeded.
Khotogoid is a subgroup of Mongol people in northwestern Mongolia. The Khotogoid people live roughly between Uvs Lake to the west and the Delgermörön river to the east. The Khotogoids belong to northwestern Khalkha and were one of the major groups that make up Khalkha.
The Northern Yuan was a dynastic regime ruled by the Mongol Borjigin clan based in the Mongolian Plateau. It existed as a rump state after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 and lasted until its conquest by the Jurchen-led Later Jin dynasty in 1635. The Northern Yuan dynasty began with the retreat of the Yuan imperial court led by Toghon Temür to the Mongolian steppe. This period featured factional struggles and the often only nominal role of the Great Khan.
Choros or Tsoros was the ruling clan of the Ööld and Dörbet Oirat and once ruled the whole Four Oirat. They founded the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th century. Their chiefs reckoned their descent from a boy nourished by a sacred tree.
The Four Oirat ; also Oirads and formerly Eleuths, alternatively known as the Alliance of the Four Oirat Tribes or the Oirat Confederation, was the confederation of the Oirat tribes which marked the rise of the Western Mongols in the history of the Mongolian Plateau.
The Upper Mongols, also known as the Köke Nuur Mongols or Qinghai Mongols, are ethnic Mongol people of Oirat and Khalkha origin who settled around the Qinghai Lake in so-called Upper Mongolia. As part of the Khoshut Khanate of Qaidam Basin and the Qinghai Lake, they played a major role in Sino–Mongol–Tibetan politics during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Upper Mongols adopted Tibetan dress and jewelry despite still living in the traditional Mongolian ger and writing in the script.
The Altai Uriankhai refers to a Mongol tribe around the Altai Mountains that was organized by the Qing dynasty. They now form a subgroup in western Mongolia and eastern Xinjiang.
The Khoshut Khanate was a Mongol Oirat khanate based on the Tibetan Plateau from 1642 to 1717. Based in modern Qinghai, it was founded by Güshi Khan in 1642 after defeating the opponents of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. The 5th Dalai Lama established a civil administration known as Ganden Phodrang with the aid of Güshi Khan. The role of the khanate in the affairs of Tibet has been subject to various interpretations. Some sources claim that the Khoshut did not interfere in Tibetan affairs and had a priest and patron relationship between the khan and Dalai Lama while others claim that Güshi appointed a minister, Sonam Rapten, as de facto administrator of civil affairs while the Dalai Lama was only responsible for religious matters. In the last years of the khanate, Lha-bzang Khan murdered the Tibetan regent and deposed the 6th Dalai Lama in favor of a pretender Dalai Lama.
The Dzungar–Qing Wars were a decades-long series of conflicts that pitted the Dzungar Khanate against the Qing dynasty and its Mongol vassals. Fighting took place over a wide swath of Inner Asia, from present-day central and eastern Mongolia to Tibet, Qinghai, and Xinjiang regions of present-day China. Qing victories ultimately led to the incorporation of Outer Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang into the Qing Empire that was to last until the fall of the dynasty in 1911–1912, and the genocide of much of the Dzungar population in the conquered areas.
Tüsheet Khan refers to the territory as well as the Chingizid dynastic rulers of the Tüsheet Khanate, one of four Khalka khanates that emerged from remnants of the Mongol Empire after the death of Dayan Khan's son Gersenji in 1549 and which continued until 1930.
René Grousset, 'The Empire of the Steppes, 1970
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