4 - The Tibet-Mongolia Political Interface in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Data from Russian Archives

Summary

Abstract

Sergey Kuzmin's paper draws on Russian and Mongolian archives to discuss the relationship between the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the Jebtsundamba Khutagtu in the context of their joint hopes for future independence. This was promoted by the prevalence of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, the leadership of the Tibetan-born Jetsun Dampa Khutuktu, the influential Tibetan colony in the Mongolian capital of Niislel Khuree, and permanent contacts between Mongols and Tibetans. It demonstrates how the two states co-ordinated their independence struggle during the first half of the twentieth century. This association continued after the two states had broken away from China and continued into the 1930s, with individual Tibetan hierarchs becoming involved in local resistance to the Socialist suppression of Buddhism in Mongolia.

Keywords: Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Eighth Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, Russia, China

During the crisis and collapse of the Manchu Qing Empire in the early twentieth century, the Chinese (Han), Mongols, and Tibetans each sought to build their own independent nation-states. Mongolia and Tibet, which formed a single Tibet-Mongolian civilization, closely interacted in this pursuit. To prevent occupation of their lands by the Chinese, both tried to rely on Russia, which had close ties with the Mongols as well as with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama during his stay in Mongolia. There is a considerable amount of data on the relationship between Russia and Mongolia/Tibet in Russian archives, recorded by diplomats, military personnel, pilgrims, special envoys, officials, and others. It is interesting to compare some of this information with the Mongolian archival data, which has been partly published. Although a part of the Russian information is based on data received from Mongols and Tibetans, the Russian understanding of that data was based within the European political and historical paradigms of that time. Mongolian sources, on the other hand, tend to do the same within a traditional Mongolian or Tibet-Mongolian worldview, which sometimes leads to different understandings. However, there are many similarities in the basic conclusions each set of records reaches.

After the establishment of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) under the guidance of Soviet Bolsheviks, official Mongolian documents took on a phraseology that was similar to Soviet ones. Many archival documents on the relations between Tibet and Russia, along with a few selected ones on the relations between Tibet and Outer Mongolia, have been published earlier.