Galdan Boshugtu Khan
The Dzungar invasion in Tibet should be regarded against the background of the aggressive politics of colonization and expansion waged by the Manchu-Chinese Qing dynasty in Central Asia. The warlike Dzungars opposed the Qing during close to a century under their leaders Galdan Boshugtu Khan, Tsewang Rabtan and Galdan Tseren. The Dzungar people had been converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the early 17th century and had a close relation to the Gelugpa church and the Dalai Lamas. Their conquest of Tibet in 1717 served in the first place as an expansion of the political and religious power basis of the Dzungar Khanate. The plan was to subjugate the Khoshut tribe whose pro-Qing ruler Lhabzang Khan had exerted full power over Tibet since 1705. Another aim was to move the 7th Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso to Lhasa; however, the boy was kept safely under Qing control in the Kumbum Monastery, and a Dzungar attempt to take hold of him in 1717 was defeated.