INTRODUCTORY NOTICES. 
15 
The Turgut 1 on the Imil river and about Tarbagatai. 
The Khoshot in the eastern ranges of the Tien Shan. 
The Koko-Nor region seems to have been chiefly the home of the Khoit, 
though the Khoshot were also largely represented there, and to a certain 
extent some of the other tribes. 
All were, and are still, Buddhists and ardent followers of the Grand 
Lama of Lhassa. They have also been much bound up with Tibet, and 
Tibetan affairs, since the middle of the 17th century, and it will be seen 
further on, how they sometimes made themselves masters of Lhassa. 
For the purpose of tracing the story of the Khojas of Eastern Tur- 
kistan, there is no necessity to go further back into the history of the 
Zunghars than about the year 1676, when the chief then in power over 
them—the notorious Galdan—-first began to extend his influence eastward 
and to the south of the Tien Shan. The Emperor Kang-Hi, the second 
of the Manchu dynasty, was then reigning in China, while in Eastern 
Turkistan, the last representatives of the Mo gh uls were still nominally 
exercising the functions of Khans over the disintegrated provinces of 
that country, though the actual power lay already with the Khojas. 
This Galdan (or Galdan Bushetu Khan) as his title afterwards 
became, 2 was born in 1645, his father, known as the Erdeni Baatur (or 
Bahadur) having been a warlike chief, who had developed considerable 
power and had been able to treat, on something like equal terms, with 
Russia, China and Tibet. 3 Galdan was not his eldest son and did not 
succeed to the chiefship, but was sent to Lhassa to study for the priesthood, 
whence, after a few years, he returned to his own country as a Lama. 
Here he soon contrived to make away with his brothers and to set himself 
up (about 1671) as the tribal chief, with the title of Taishi, 4 or Kung- 
Taishi. His turbulent disposition was not long in showing itself, for he 
1 The Turgut are perhaps best known to English readers from DeQuincey’s IligJit 
of a Tartar tribe. They were compelled by tribal enemies gradually to migrate west¬ 
ward in the 17th century, and finally (in 1703) all settled between the lower Volga and 
the Ural river. During the reign of Peter the Great they lived there in peace, but 
unable to endure the rule of Catherine II, and learning that their ancient enemies, the 
Choros, had been practically exterminated by the Mancbus, they returned to Zun gli aria 
in 1771—2, and became Chinese subjects. 
3 The word Galdan is itself only a title, and means, I believe, King. The chief’s 
personal name does not appear to be known. 
8 He is also reported to have made a successful raid on the cities of Eastern Tnrkis- 
tan in the year 1634, or about the time when temporal power there, first fell to the 
Khojas. (How'ortk, I, p. 617.) 
* The Tajl of our Turk! author. 
