Image of the Jungar Galdan-Boshoktu-Khan in the Novel “An Eagle Soaring in the Sky” by Mongolian Writer B. Dogmid

Abstract

The article, based on the historical novel “An Eagle Soaring in the Sky” (2021) by the modern Mongolian writer Balzhirin Dogmid (1945), examines the life and work of the Oirat-Mongolian Galdan-Boshoktu-khan (1644–1697), a major political figure of the 17th century, the ruler of Dzungar Khanate. The modern need to realize, to better comprehend the scale of the political and international events of the 17th century in Central and East Asia, which are based on the relationship between Dzungaria, Qing China, Tibet and disparate Mongolian principalities, which led to total dependence on the Manchu Qing dynasty, excites many creative minds in Mongolia today. B. Dogmid, referring in his novel to one of the brightest charismatic rulers of Mongolia in the second half of the 17th century, tells about the main directions of the “Mongolian policy” of Galdan Boshoktu Khan, focusing on the personal human qualities of his hero. The desire of Galdan-Boshoktu to unite the Mongols under the auspices of the Oirats was based on the policy of the Oirat aristocrats, pursued by them since the fall of the Yuan Empire (1368) and the formation of the Oirat Union (Durvan Oirat, 15th–16th centuries). Interest in history, which rapidly increased by the nineties of the 20th century in Mongolian society, is not weakening even today. Moreover, the nature of this interest is changing, and the genre of the historical novel itself, which tells about one of the difficult periods of Mongolian history, about the life and work of an outstanding personality like Galdan-Boshoktu-Khan in evolutionary formation, in dynamics, in situations, as a rule, confusing and conflict relations with others (with Southern Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan, Qing China, Tibet, Russia) also change accordingly.