A Treaty of friendship and alliance between the Government of Mongolia and Tibet was signed on 11 January 1913 (corresponding to 29 December 1912 of the
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
), at Urga (now
Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...
).
This treaty's text in Mongolian was published by the
Mongolian Academy of Sciences
The Mongolian Academy of Sciences (, ''Mongol ulsyn Shinjlekh ukhaany Akademi'') is Mongolia's first centre of modern sciences. It came into being in 1921 when the government of newly
independent Mongolia issued a resolution declaring the establi ...
in 1982, and in 2007 an original copy in
Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to:
* Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
* Lhasa Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect
* Any of the other Tibetic languages
See also
*Old Tibetan, the language ...
and
script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
surfaced from Mongolian archives.
There have been questions about the authority of a Tibetan negotiator, Dorjiev, to conclude such a treaty, being he was both a Russian citizen and ethnically Tibetan.
Treaty's signing and validity
During the
Xinhai Revolution
The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...
against the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, both
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
and
Outer Mongolia
Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gained ''de facto' ...
declared their formal independence from China under theocratic heads of states, and both had had no success in gaining official recognition from the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
. In the treaty signed on 11 January 1913, Mongolia and Tibet declared mutual recognition and allegiance. Both sides declared mutual relationships based on the "Yellow religion" (Gelug sect of Buddhism), obliged to provide aid each other against "internal and external enemies", declared free trade etc.(see Kuzmin, S.L. The Treaty of 1913 between Mongolia and Tibet: new data. - Oriens (Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences), no 4, 2011, pp. 122—128 /ref> for facsimile of Mongolian and Tibetan originals and for comments to text). The Mongolian representatives signing the treaty were foreign minister Da Lama Ravdan and commander-in-chief
Manlaibaatar Damdinsüren
Manlaibaatar Damdinsüren ( mn, Манлайбаатар Дамдинсүрэн, ''first hero Damdinsüren'', bo, རྟ་མགྲིན་སྲུང་།; March 13, 1871 – January 27, 1921), born Jamsrangiin Damdinsüren (), was a mi ...
. The Tibetan representatives who signed this document were Dalai Lama's representative
Agvan Dorjiev
Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev, also Agvan Dorjiev or Dorjieff and Agvaandorj (russian: link=no, Агван Лобсан Доржиев, bua, Доржиин Агбан, bo, ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་; 1853, Khara-Shibir ulus, — Ja ...
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, and Tibetan officials in Mongolia: Ngawang Choizin, Yeshe Gyatso and Gendun Kalsang. There existed some doubts to the validity of this treaty: the 13th Dalai Lama denied that he had authorized Dorjiev to negotiate political issues. It was supposed more important that neither the cleric nor the Tibetan government appeared to have ever ratified the treaty.Bell, Charles, ''Tibet Past and Present'', 1924, pp 150f, 228f, 304f. Nevertheless, such ratification in that time monarchic Mongolia and Tibet was not necessary.
The Russian government maintained that, as a Russian subject, Dorjiev could not possibly act in a diplomatic capacity on behalf of the Dalai Lama. Nevertheless, before signing the treaty, Dorjiev met in Mongolia I. Ya. Korostovets, Russian plenipotentiary in Urga, and told him that Tibet wants to come in treaties with Mongolia and Russia. Korostovets, having mentioned that "Khlakha (Outer Mongolia) had just declared its independence, recognized by Russia", had no objections against conclusion of treaty between Mongolia and Tibet, but he was against a treaty of Tibet with Russia
According to the
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
, this treaty was signed under the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama.
There are data that the treaty signed by Russia with Mongolia in 1912 (i.e. before signing the treaty with Tibet) meant international recognition of Mongolia as a state which was not required a sanction from a third side; as a result, the treaty between Tibet and Mongolia is considered as de jure recognition of Tibet as a state.
In any case, the independence of both Tibet and Mongolia continued being unrecognized in international law although Russia and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
continued to recognize at least the suzerainty of the Republic of China over these areas. Russia and the UK were more comfortable with formally recognizing China's suzerainty and keeping an ambivalent position towards Mongolia and Tibet's independence. In addition, there was also a concern among Russia and UK that recognizing Tibetan or Mongolian independence would allow those areas to come under the other power's influence, respectively, a situation which all concerned believed to be worse than a situation in which those areas were nominally under the control of a weak China.
Aftermath
News of the treaty aroused considerable suspicion amongst the British negotiators at the
Simla Convention
The Simla Convention, officially the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet, , who feared that Russia might use the treaty to gain influence on Tibetan matters. While China ultimately did not sign the Simla Convention,The Chinese government initialed but refused to ratify the Agreement. See Goldstein, Melvyn C., ''A History of Modern Tibet'', p75 for details a similar treaty, the tripartite
Treaty of Kyakhta
The Treaty of Kyakhta (or Kiakhta),, ; , Xiao'erjing: بُلِيًاصِٿِ\ٿِاكْتُ تِيَوْيُؤ; mn, Хиагтын гэрээ, Hiagtiin geree, along with the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), regulated the relations between Imperial ...
, was signed by Mongolia, the Republic of China and Russia on 25 May 1915. The agreement affirmed Mongolia's complete autonomy in internal matters and Russian privileges in Mongolia, and at the same time formally recognized China's suzerainty over the country.Treaty text quoted from B. L. Putnam Weale, The Fight For The Republic In China '
See also
*
History of Mongolia
Various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu (3rd century BC–1st century AD), the Xianbei state ( AD 93–234), the Rouran Khaganate (330–555), the First Turkic Khaganate, First (552–603) and Second Turkic Khaganates (682–744) and oth ...
*
History of Tibet
While the Tibetan plateau has been inhabited since pre-historic times, most of Tibet's history went unrecorded until the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism around the 6th century. Tibetan texts refer to the kingdom of Zhangzhung (c. 500 BCE – 625 ...