Güshi Khan (1582 – 14 January 1655; ) 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.
Name
It is also spelled Gushri Khan and Gushihan. In other languages it is:
Chinese: 固始汗
,
Early years
Güshi Khan was born Torobaikhu, the third son of Akhai Khatun and Khanai Noyan Khonggor, chief of the Khoshuts. He was descended from a younger brother of Genghis Khan, Qasar. At the age of 12, Torobaikhu had already won renown in battle against the Turkistanis. In 1625 a conflict erupted between the Khoshot chief Chöükür and his uterine brother Baibaghas over inheritance issues. Baibaghas was killed in the fight. However, his younger brothers Güshi and Köndölön Ubashi took up the fight and pursued Chöükür from the Ishim River to the Tobol River, attacking and killing his tribal followers in 1630. The infighting among the Oirats inspired one sub-group, the Torgut Oirat, to migrate westwards and eventually settle by the Volga River. Now Güshi succeeded to the position of Baibaghas as chief of the Khoshut.
Intervention on behalf of the Dalai Lama
In 1615, when the Oirats were still under the suzerainty of the Khalkha leader Ubasi Khong Tayiji, the elite had largely converted to Tibetan Buddhism. However, the period saw a rise in the internal religious rivalries within Tibet, in particular between the Gelug and Karma Kagyu schools. The main Gelug religious figure church was the Dalai Lama while the Karma Kagyu were supported by the dynasty of the Tsangpa based in Samdrubtse (modern Shigatse). They, in turn, found support from groups of Khalkhas and Chahars.
Sonam Rapten was the chief attendant during the youth of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617-1682). He drew up plans to end persecution of the Gelug and unify Tibet with the help of Güshi. The Gelug monasteries appealed for help against the Karmapa and Bon partisans such as the Khalkha prince Choghtu Khong Tayiji, who had recently settled in Amdo. This was a very bold move since the Mongols had a reputation of ruthlessness against military foes and civilians alike. Güshi was known for his devotion to the Gelugpa and responded positively. He was joined in a pro-Gelugpa league by the other Oirat princes: his nephews Uchirtu Sechen and Ablai Tayiji in the Zaysan and Ertis areas; furthermore Erdeni Batur, whose Dzungar and Dörbet Oirat subjects lived by the Ulungur, Irtysh and Emil Rivers, and even the Torghut chief Kho Orluk, who was in the process of subduing areas to the north of the Aral and Caspian Seas. As it turned out, it would nevertheless take several years to install the "Great Fifth" as the head of a unified Tibetan state.
In the company of the Dzungar prince Erdeni Batur, Güshi marched into Qinghai with 10,000 Oirat troops in 1636. In the next year he confronted the Khalkha forces of Choghtu Khung Tayiji, which were 30,000 strong and were opposed to the Gelugpa sect. The contest took place in the Kokonor Gorge and is known as the Battle of the Bloody Hill. The Choghtu troops were defeated and scattered, and the survivors had to surrender. Choghtu himself hid in a marmot hole but was found and killed on the spot. In that way the Khalkhas were suppressed in Tibet a short time after they were subjugated in Mongolia by the invading Manchu people.
Güshi proceeded to Ü-Tsang in 1638 as a pilgrim. There he received religious instructions by the 5th Dalai Lama. During a ceremony in Lhasa, he was placed on a throne and proclaimed "Holder of the Doctrine Chogyal" (, ). By this time he was also known by the title of khagan, adopted in defiance of the Borjigid (the direct descendants of Genghis Khan).
Güshi invited the Dalai Lama to visit his territories, but the Great Fifth was unable to do so due to the unstable circumstances in Ü-Tsang. He did, however, send a permanent representative to the Khoshut to maintain good relations. Güshi Khan returned to his newly conquered realm in Qinghai, where the Khoshuts resolved to settle down.