Dga'l-dan

or Galdan

born 1644?, Central Asia

died May 3, 1697, East Turkistan

Leader of the Dzungar tribes of Mongols, who built an empire that reached from Tibet in the southwest to the borders of Russia in the northeast.

As a younger son of a powerful chief, Dga'l-dan was sent to Tibet, where he was trained as a Buddhist lama. His older brother's death gave Dga'l-dan the opportunity to exercise political power; he avenged the death and went on to conquer eastern Turkistan (modern Sichuan, China) and Outer Mongolia. He led his armies toward Beijing but was defeated by the Kangxi emperor, who personally led some 80,000 troops armed with Western artillery.

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