Tibetan Buddhism in Qing China’s Policy of Integration of Tibet and Mongolia

After several successful military campaigns aimed to expand and strengthen the Qing state’s borders, the Manchu rulers faced the challenge of integrating culturally diverse regions into their growing empire. Many researchers believe that the Manchu rulers’ interest in Buddhism was linked to a desire to comprehensively control Tibet and Mongolia, as well as to limit the significant influence of lamas on people living in these regions. Thus, the empire needed a unified and distinctive Qing culture. This investigation, drawing on biographies, official reports, and administrative documents, primarily those associated with General Nian Genyao and other military leaders, aims to add new material to the descriptions of the process of incorporating Tibetan Buddhist traditions into the general Qing culture. The study primarily focuses on the Amdo (modern Qinghai), border region between Tibet and Qing China, which from the 1720s had a strategically important role for expanding Qing contacts with communities in Inner Asia.