Tibet
and Mongolia`s historical, political, and religious ties, and the Treaty of
1913
Dr.
Arya Tsewang Gyalpo*
Tibeto-Mongol
Friendship Alliance Treaty was signed on February 13, 1913, at Ulan Bator.
Photo:
Lungta Spring 2013, Amnye Machen, Dharamsala
Abstract:
Tibet and Mongolia had close historical and religious ties since the times of
Genghis Khan who conquered nearly the whole of Asia and Eastern Europe in the
13th century. Tibetan Lamas and the descendants of Genghis Khan developed a
unique relationship of "Cho-yon", priest-patron, where the Mongol's
military power protected Tibet from internal and external attacks and the
Tibetan Lamas gave the Mongol chiefs moral and spiritual legitimacy to rule. Later,
this priest-patron relationship continued with the Manchu Qing dynasty too. However,
at the turn of the century, both Tibet and Mongolia became pawns of the Great Game
of the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Asia and the Chinese invasion. Today, we have
an independent Mongolia on one side, and Tibet and Southern Mongolia on the other
under Chinese occupation. Through systematic suppression of information and
distortion of history, China continues to claim sovereignty over Tibet and Southern
Mongolia. This paper will examine Tibet-Mongol's historical, political, and
religious ties to challenge the Chinese false claims and resurrect the 1913 Tibeto-Mongolian
Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, the real aspiration of the two nations.
Tibet
and Mongolia
Tibet and Mongolia
existed as independent nations with unique civilizations, languages, and
cultures of their own. They were once strong military powers who later adopted
the path of peace and non-violence. What was Tibet in the 7th to 9th century, was
Mongolia in the 12th to 14th century. Although Mongol Khans ruled the eastern
empire, including China, under the Yuan Dynasty directly, it left Tibet to the
Tibetans. The two shared a unique system of governance, politico-religious
theocracy, based on the Buddhist principle of reincarnation of the Dalai Lama
and the Khuthugtu Jetsundampa. The system is still alive and respected, albeit
in a different form.
Early Tibetan
Military Power
Tibet was once a military
power in central Asia in the 7th to 9th centuries. Emperor Srongtsan Gampo
(569-650 AD), who united the disarrayed Tibetan princely states, marched the
Tibetan army far east into the Chinese territory and claimed the hand of
Princess Wencheng Kungchu, and the Tang emperor Taitsung had to acquiesce. To the
South, the Tibetan army got into the Indian border to subdue King Arjuna in
Bihar for suppressing the Buddhist religion and for harassing the Chinese
goodwill mission.
The Tibetan Emperor helped restore King Narendradeva's reign in Nepal. To the North,
the Tibetan army went as far as the Tarim basin and captured the four garrisons
of Anhsi, present-day East Turkistan. During
the time of Emperor Trisrong Deutsan and Emperor Triralpachen in the 8th and
9th centuries, Tibetan military power was at its peak. In 763, Tibetan troops
raided the Chinese capital Changan, present-day Xian, and installed a new emperor,
Ta-she. In 778,
Tibetans helped Siamese King Imoshun in fighting the Chinese aggression in the
region. In 790 Trisrong Deutsan's army recaptured the four garrisons of Anhsi
or Anxi and the area around a lake in the north of Oxus River, present-day Amu
Darya in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which came to be known as Al-Tubbat, a
little Tibetan lake. During
Triralpachen's time in 821, a peace treaty initiated by the Buddhist monks in
Tibet and China was made and the contents of the treaty were inscribed on three
pillars erected one at the Chinese capital Xian, one at Tibet-China border
Gongumeru, and one in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.
The Tibetan emperors, who
united Tibet and sought hegemony beyond borders, saw the need to enrich the moral
and spiritual side of the Tibetan empire. Emperor Trisrong Deutsan invited
Indian Saint Shantarakshita and Tantric Guru Padmasambhava to teach Buddhism in
Tibet. This was followed by the visits of many Indian masters to Tibet and
Tibetans to India and Buddhism began to get firmly established in Tibet through
royal patronage. However, Wudum Tsanpo, the 43rd Emperor of Tibet, was against
this too much influence of religion which he felt was weakening the country and
making it precarious to foreign invaders. But his unpopular policy to suppress
religious institutions got him assassinated in 842 and thus started the
disintegration of Tibet and the land remained without central leadership for
about 400 years until the emergence of Sakya Lama's rule with the help of
Mongols in the 13th century.
Buddhism
in Tibet
Tibet around that time
was without a unified central leadership. There were regional power struggles
among the small hegemonies and warring chieftains. But this period gave Tibet
and the Tibetans a good time to interact with India and Nepal and Buddhism
began to bloom in Tibet. With the complete burning and destruction of Nalanda
and Vikramshila universities in 1193 AD, Buddhism gradually died in the land of
its birth. Fortunately, the teachings found a safe haven in Tibet, where the
major Indian texts were translated into the Tibetan language. Buddhism
flourished in Tibet and played an important role in maintaining peace among the
warring nations of Mongolia, Manchu, Nepal, and China.
Mongols`
Conquest
Mongols under the
leadership of Genghis Khan rose in power in the 12th century and by the next
century, most of Asia and Eastern Europe came under Mongolian domination.
Mongols established five Khanates to rule the country and the conquered
territories: Mongol Qipchag Khanate in Russia and Europe; Ilkhanate in Persia,
present-day Iran, Iraq, Turkey, etc.; Chagatai Khanate in the area around
present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kirghizstan; Ogedei Khanate in the area around
the Mongol homeland; and the Yuan Empire in present-day China, Burma, and Korea
in the east.
Godan Khan, a grandson of
Genghis Khan who attacked Tibet in 1240, later realized that the Mongol empire was
strong but it lacked the deep moral and spiritual hallow of Tibet. His audience
with Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsan of Tibet in 1247 at Liangzhou opened Mongolia
to Buddhism. Later, Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271, further
promoted Buddhism in Mongolia with Sakya Phagpa of Tibet as his teacher. China`s
Sung Dynasty came under the Yuan Dynasty in 1279, which was a Mongolian dynasty.
Therefore, the Chinese claim on Tibet and Southern Mongolia based on the Yuan Dynasty`s
conquest is irrelevant and a gross distortion of history. If this logic is to
work, then Mongols have a far better reason to claim China and Tibet.
In the later part of the
Yuan regime, its grip on power and administration began to wane due to internal
feuds, corruption, and discriminatory policy. Ultimately, the peasants' Red
Turban Rebellions (1351-1368) toppled the Yuan regime and the Chinese Ming
dynasty took over in 1368. The Mongol Yuan Dynasty survived as the Northern
Yuan Dynasty in present-day Mongolia and Southern Mongolia.
In 1644, the Chinese Ming
Dynasty collapsed and the Manchu Qing Dynasty took over China just as the Mongol's
Yuan Dynasty took over China 365 years ago in 1279. In 1634 with the death of
Lekdan Khan, the last Khan of the Great Northern Yuan dynasty, and his son Eiji
Khan's submission of the Imperial Seal to the Manchu Emperor, Mongolia came
under the influence of the Qing Empire.
Mongols
and Tibetans` Coexistence
Although the Yuan Dynasty
disintegrated gradually, remnants of the Great Northern Yuan Dynasty and the
divided Mongol Khans played important roles in Tibet's internal political and
religious struggles. When Tibet was engrossed in internal power struggles for
temporal and religious leadership, the Mongol tribes under their chieftains
sided with the Tibetan factions of their choice. Prominent
Mongol tribes involved in the Tibetan infighting around the times were: the Qoshot
of Oirat Mongols, Dzungar, Chahar, Chogthu, Urluk of Torgut Mongols, and so on. Khuthugtu
Khan, also known as Lekdan in Tibetan, the last Khan of the Great Northern Yuan
dynasty, was a follower of the Karmapa school of Tibetan Buddhism. He along
with the Choghtu Mongol tribes tried to suppress the Geluk school of Tibetan
Buddhism. But Toru Bayikhan aka Gushri Khan, the leader of the Qoshot Mongolian
tribe of the Oirat confederation, intervened and his victory led to the
installation of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso, as the temporal and
spiritual leader of the whole of Tibet in 1642. This
was how the Dalai Lamas began to rule Tibet until the Chinese invasion in 1950.
The
Great Game
The great game of
Anglo-Russian supremacy in Asia led British India to send a military expedition
to Tibet in 1904 and the 13th Dalai Lama fled to Mongolia, where he was warmly
received and the relations between the two countries strengthened. The Dalai
Lama stayed in Mongolia for about a year and became aware of the Mongolian
people's aspiration for a greater and closer union with Tibet and to do away
with the Qing dynasty's influence. Both
Mongolia and Tibet saw the prospect of a grand alliance of Tibet and united
Mongols under the Russian protectorate.
The 13th Dalai Lama of
Tibet and the 8th Jetsun Dhampa Khuthugtu played important roles in keeping the
two countries independent of Manchu, Russia, and the British. Manchu dynasty
who executed the priest-patron relationship with Tibet well in the past became
more assertive in laying claim on Tibet. British India fearing that Tibet would
come under Russian influence occupied Tibet.
Russia and British-India
looked at Mongolia and Tibet as important and profitable buffer states,
important to keep the rivals at bay, and profitable to keep their commercial
and trade interest. Chinese suzerainty concept helped them to keep each other
from occupying the regions and yet maintain their commercial sphere of influence
in the regions. The Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904 gave the British considerable
rights in Tibet, but China was not happy about this treaty. To mollify China, the
Anglo-China Convention was signed in 1906, and
finally, the tripartite treaty, the Simla agreement of 1914, and the validity
of this agreement is a still debate requiring separate papers. Russia signed an
agreement with Mongolia promising to protect its autonomy and non-interference
from China in the region's internal affairs in November 1912. This was followed
by the Sino-Russian convention in 1913 and ultimately a tripartite treaty among
Russia, China, and Mongolia in June 1915.
The ambiguities
surrounding the treatise and the strong resistance from Tibet and Mongols made
China assertive and later aggressive. The Republic of China invited Tibet and
Mongolia to join the newly formed Republic. But
both Tibet and Mongolia believe that though they had certain levels of
relations with the Qing regime, it never compromised the sovereignty and independence
of their nations. They firmly rejected China's proposal.
Russian,
Tibet, and Mongol Alliance
In this quagmire, Tibet
and Mongolia, who were once military powers and later turned into peaceful
religious nations, found themselves confronted with the new nation-state
concept and the tightening noose of the great game gnawing at their
independence. The 13th Dalai Lama's escape from British invasion and stay in
Mongolia and his meeting with the 8th Khuthugtu Jetsundampa and the Mongolian
princes in 1904 sparked a close feeling of shared history, religion, and
culture. They saw the need to exert their independence and protect their
religion and culture. In this direction, they saw hope in Tsar's Russia, strong
and powerful, under whose reign Buryats, Kalmyks, and Tuva enjoyed a high
degree of autonomy in practicing their Buddhist religion.
Here, Agvan Dorjiev
(1853-1935), a Buryat Mongol, who studied in Tibet and rose to the rank of
Tsennyi Khenpo, a debating partner and teacher to the young 13th Dalai Lama,
played a very important role in promoting and preserving Tibet and Mongolia's
independence. He advised both Khuthugtu and Dalai Lama to see the Russian Tsar
as the ultimate protector of the faith and devoted his whole life to promoting the
Pan-Buddhist Kingdom under Russia's protection. Dorjiev
visited Russia three times with messages from the 13th Dalai Lama to the Tsar
seeking relationship and protection. Russia responded favorably and
diplomatically but without making any concrete commitment.
Tibet
and Mongolia Declare Independence
Toward the beginning of
the 20th century, the great game of British and Russia became more manifest, plunging
Tibet and Mongolia into the whirlpool of geopolitics away from their spiritual
world of peace and complacency. The geopolitics of the time tried to divide
Tibet and Mongolia into outer and inner regions. While this was effected in
Mongolia, Tibet withstood the division initially. (However, in 1965 the CCP
created Tibet Autonomous Regions with central and western Tibet, and included
Amdo and Kham provinces of Tibet into the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu,
Sichuan, and Yunan.)
Having lost the Opium War
in 1840 with British India, the Qing's power began to diminish in China and Western
colonial powers began to exert their influence in China. Despite
the fragile and unstable situation, the Qing emperor held an aggressive policy toward
Tibet and Mongolia.
Taking advantage of weak
and unstable Tibet after the British invasion in 1904, breaking the historical
sacred priest-patron relationship, the Qing army invaded Tibet (1906-1910),
looted the country, and brought immense destruction of monasteries and
properties. The 13th Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India, where he
negotiated with British India to support Tibet to expel the invading Manchu forces.
In October 1911, China's decade-long civil wars and the Xinhai Revolution led
by Sun Yat-sen toppled the Qing Dynasty and China became a republic. This
enabled Tibet to drive out the invading Manchu force and break all relationships
with the Manchu based on the priest-patron principle. Although Tibet has been
an independent nation since ancient times, the geopolitics and the needs of international
diplomacy made the 13th Dalai Lama declare Tibetan independence on February 13,
1913.
Similarly, when the Qing
regime adopted an aggressive policy to control the western frontiers, including
Outer Mongolia, through stringent administration and cultural assimilation, the
Mongols revolted. The Qing's colonial ethnic and cultural assimilation policy
was greatly resisted by the Mongolians. The 1911 revolution in China and the
fall of the Qing dynasty gave Mongols a good opportunity to revolt and reject
the Qing`s authority. Mongolia declared its independence and installed the 8th
Jetsun Dhampa Khuthugtu as the temporal and spiritual head of Mongolia on
November 30, 1911.
Sun Yatsen, the first
Chinese President of the Republic of China, who took over the Qing regime rightly
said that historically China has fallen under foreign rule twice, the first
time under the Mongol's Yuan dynasty and the second time under the Manchu's
Qing regime. He treated the Manchu Qing regime as a
foreign power and declared Chinese republic and invited Mongolia and Tibet,
even Nepal to join the republic. But both
Khuthugtu
and the Dalai Lama claimed
their independence and rejected the proposal.
The implication here is
that China overthrew the Qing regime, which was a foreign entity, and the
Republic of China was born. This helped Tibet and Mongolia to shake off any
influence or authority that the Qing regime had been claiming over the two
regions. Just as the Manchu Qing regime was a foreign invader for China, as
declared by Sun Yatsen, it too
was a foreign intruder for Tibet and Mongolia. With the collapse of the Qing
regime, China won its independence, and Mongolia and Tibet too declared their
independence in 1912 and 1913, respectively.
Tibeto-Mongol
Treaty of 1913
The Tibeto-Mongol Treaty
of January 11, 1913, signed at Urga, present-day Ulan Bator, came as a response
to the indifferent, condescending, and aggressive attitudes adopted by Russia,
British, and China toward Tibet and Mongolia. The two countries realized that
they were used as pawns in the selfish game of the three powerful neighbors. They
found it odd that despite their independence since ancient times, why do they
need the endorsement of foreign countries. So, they recognized each other`s independence
from any foreign influence and promised to help each other against foreign
invasion, and bound themselves to work for the promotion of their faith and
values. The preamble of the agreement reads:
"Mongolia
and Thibet, having freed themselves from the dynasty of the Manchus and
separated from China, have formed their own independent States, and having in
view that both States from time immemorial have professed one and the same
religion, with a view to strengthening their historic and mutual friendship and
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nikta Biliktu Da-Lama Rabdan, and the
Assistant Minister, General and Manlai baatyr beiseh Damdinsurun, as
plenipotentiaries of the Government of the ruler of the Mongol people, and
gudjir tsanshib kanchen Lubsan-Agvan, donir Agvan Choinzin, director of the
Bank Ishichjamtso, and the clerk Gendun Galsan, as plenipotentiaries of the
Dalai Lama, the ruler of Thibet, have made the following agreement."
Articles one and two of
the agreement succinctly declare the formation of independent Tibet and Mongol
States and recognize and approve the authority of the Dalai Lama and the
Khuthugtu as the heads of the respective states.
The remaining seven
articles discussed how the two nations should collaborate and work together to
safeguard their territories and faith from foreign intruders and how trade and
commerce should be conducted for mutual benefits.
The three powerful
neighbors received this treaty with mixed feelings of doubt and concern. Instead
of respecting the aspiration of the two countries, the great game used it to
gain control and claim over the regions through the use of "autonomy"
and "suzerainty" concepts and they questioned the validity of the
treaty.
They purported that the treaty
was invalid because it was signed by Agvan Dorjeiv, a Mongol Buryat and citizen
of Russia, on behalf of Tibet. Some believed that the Dalai Lama had not
authorized Dorjiev to sign such a treaty. We must know that Avgan Dorjiev was a
respected scholar, tutor, and advisor to the 13th Dalai Lama, and his role as
an emissary of Tibet is well documented. He escorted
the Dalai Lama to Mongolia in 1904 when the British invaded Tibet. Moreover,
the two other signatories, Donir Ngwang Choezin and Gendun Galsang, were
authorized representatives of the government of Tibet posted
in Mongolia. Tibetans have sometimes downplayed Dorjiev's role while dealing
with the British officials, but this was more of a diplomatic move to assuage
the British fear. Whereas in reality, the 13th Dalai Lama and Tibetan Kashag
(cabinet) at that time relied heavily on Dorjiev's advice and his mission to
Russia and Mongolia.
Doubt on the authority of
Dorjiev to sign came up when Sir Charles Bell, British India`s Ambassador to
Tibet and a noted Tibetologist, wrote that Dorjiev`s authority was based on a
letter given to him by the Dalai Lama in 1904 when the latter was fleeing from
the British expedition to Lhasa and the letter contain only religious matter
and nothing of treaty-making authority.
However, from the several letters and authorizations that the 13th
Dalai Lama had given to Agvan Dorjiev, Prof. Jampa Samten clarifies that it was
the letter of August 1912, not 1904, that authorized Agvan Dorjiev to sign
treaties on behalf of Tibet and the letter did mention treaty-making authority.
Dr. Michael C. van Walt
van Parag, a noted international lawyer, and a Tibetologist, made a legal
examination of the treaty and endorsed the treaty as a valid international
treaty made by the two nations who satisfy the treaty-making criteria under
international law. He
concluded his findings with:
"The
government of Mongolia today and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet and the
government in exile constitute continuity in relation to the parties that
concluded the 1913 treaty as the legitimate representatives of their respective
nations. The question that then remains to be answered is whether and to what
extent the 1913 treaty persists in its validity today. If the intention of
parties is to give expression to the continuity of the profound bonds that
unite them, ways of usefully implementing, reaffirming, and building on the
1913 treaty today can be explored."
Conclusion
The important point to
note here is: Mongols have played a far wider help in the form of priest-patron
relations than the Manchus. Starting from the sacred intimate relationship between
Mongols and Tibetans from Sakya Pandita and Godan Khan (1247) to Phagpa and
Kublai Khan (1254), the third Dalai Lama and Altan Khan (1578), the fifth Dalai
Lama and Gushri Khan (1642) and so on, Mongolia and Tibet enjoyed far deeper
relations and Mongol Khans provided greater service to Tibet in the form of
priest-patron relations. The 4th Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso, was a Mongolian and
the Mongol's spiritual heads both the 8th and 9th Jetsun Dhampa Khuthugtu were
Tibetans. If any military influence and conquest in the past justify a claim on
the sovereignty of another country, then Mongolia has a much better reason to
assert a claim over Tibet.
There is an urgent need
to study and research the roles played by the Mongol Khans and the Tibetan
Lamas to explore the working of the priest-patron relationship, which kept the
two communities close, yet without infringing on each other's sovereignty. This
may help the modern world to understand the concept of politico-religious
governance and peaceful coexistence.
Tibet and
Mongolia, who were once military powers realized the horror and destructive
nature of war and embraced the path of Ahimsa, non-violence, as taught by the
Buddha. If the world wants to see a future without wars, it must follow the
path adopted by Tibet and Mongolia.
China is a great
civilization with a rich history, culture, and potential to contribute
positively to promoting peace, arts, and learning. The communist leadership
should respect this great ancient civilization and refrain from rewriting and
distorting the history of the nation and the occupied territories to legitimize
the doings of the communist regime and suppression of freedom and democracy. The
Chinese communist regime's irredentist claim on Tibet and Mongolia based on the
vicissitudes of past relationships the two countries had with the Qing regime
is not valid.
Free
Tibet and Mongolia are very important to guide us to explore and further this
non-violent path of governance and peaceful coexistence. War is not a solution
to solve our differences, mutual respect and dialog are. H.H. the Dalai Lama
has on numerous occasions said that the 20th century was the century
of wars, we must make the 21st century a century of dialogs. Tibetans and
Mongolians were way ahead in realizing this, but the modern world has kept them
captive and chained. A free Tibet and Mongolia and H.H. the Dalai Lama`s
proposal of the Tibetan Plateau as a Zone of Peace will greatly contribute to
promoting peace in Asia and the world.
*Dr.
Arya Tsewang Gyalpo is the Representative of the Liaison Office of H.H. the Dalai
Lama for Japan and East Asia. He is the former Secretary of the Department of
Information and International Relations (DIIR) and former Director of the Tibet
Policy Institute of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The paper was presented
at the Second Mongol-Tibet Cultural and Religious Symposium organized to
commemorate the 110th Anniversary of the 1913 Tibeto-Mongol Treaty
of Friendship and Alliance at the University of Tokyo, Japan on July 15, 2023.
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Peter Bumbacher, The Spread of Buddhism, Brill, 2007 https://ia802902.us.archive.org/19/items/thespreadofbuddhismaheirmanandspbumbacheredsbrillarticles_444_t/The-Spread-of-Buddhism%20A-Heirman-and-S-P-Bumbacher-eds%20Brill%20%28Articles%29.pdf