生平

噶爾丹是準噶爾首領巴圖爾琿台吉第六子，僧格的異母弟。其名取自藏語「甘丹」（）一詞，意為兜率天。

1648年，幼年的噶爾丹被認定為四世尹咱呼圖克圖，（又稱溫莎活佛，Dben Sa）的轉世，1656年赴西藏拉薩大昭寺接受五世達賴喇嘛灌頂，此後去日喀則扎什倫布寺拜四世班禪為師。1662年四世班禪圓寂，他又回到大昭寺追隨達賴，受到達賴器重，其間與桑結嘉措結為好友。噶爾丹在西藏期間留心軍政事務，「不甚學梵書（佛經），顧時時取短槍摩弄。」

1670年，準噶爾琿台吉僧格被其同父異母的兄弟卓特巴巴圖爾、車臣台吉殺害。噶爾丹從西藏返回，在其叔楚琥爾烏巴什和僧格盟友和碩特部鄂齊爾圖汗的支持下，擊敗了車臣和卓特巴巴圖爾。此時僧格之子策妄阿拉布坦年紀尚幼。1671年，噶爾丹被承認為準噶爾部的首領，繼承琿台吉的稱號。1672年，噶爾丹上疏清廷，請求照常例遣使入貢，清廷允准。1673年，噶爾丹反戈向幫助他繼位的叔父楚琥爾烏巴什進攻，1676年兼併楚琥爾烏巴什的屬地人口。次年，噶爾丹又攻滅了對其有恩的和碩特部，鄂齊爾圖汗被殺，其妻逃往伏爾加河流域投奔土爾扈特首領阿玉奇。

1678年，噶爾丹統一了天山以北的草原地區，厄魯特諸部都聽從他的號令。在噶爾丹請求下，五世達賴賜予他「博碩克圖汗」（）的稱號。此後，噶爾丹遣軍向東攻取哈密和吐魯番，向西臣服哈薩克諸部。1682年，在白山派回教徒的支持下滅天山以南的葉爾羌汗國。此時，他認為自己力量強大，提出要與清朝皇帝平起平坐。1685年，他攻占安集延，臣服吉爾吉斯。

1686年，噶爾丹借喀爾喀蒙古諸部內亂之機插手其內部事務。1687年，與扎薩克圖汗部等結盟，出兵攻打土謝圖汗部。1688年，土謝圖汗殺扎薩克圖汗和噶爾丹之弟多爾吉扎布。噶爾丹遂在俄國支持下發兵蒙古高原。至8月30日，噶爾丹已占領喀爾喀全境，土謝圖汗和哲布尊丹巴率喀爾喀全族南下尋求清朝保護。但此時南疆回教徒叛亂，噶爾丹不得已回軍。不待噶爾丹回軍，留守本土的僧格之子策妄阿拉布坦已經平定了叛亂，但是他的才幹引起了噶爾丹的猜忌，噶爾丹甚至暗殺了其弟索諾布阿拉布坦，迫使策妄阿拉布坦率領部眾逃至博爾塔拉河，噶爾丹親率追兵，仍被擊敗。

1689年，清朝和俄羅斯簽訂《尼布楚條約》，俄羅斯放棄對噶爾丹的公開支持。1690年，噶爾丹駐地科布多發生大旱，噶爾丹被迫率軍東征，此時，策妄阿拉布坦乘虛而入，占據了準噶爾本土。後路被斷的噶爾丹只得一鼓作氣，與清朝爭奪水草豐滿的漠南地區。6月21日，噶爾丹擊敗清軍，兵鋒直指據北京僅有700里的烏蘭布通（今內蒙古克什克騰），並拒絕清朝的和議，向其使者表示：「聖上君南方，我長北方」。清朝康熙帝初擬御駕親征噶爾丹，但因患瘧疾而返回北京。9月4日，在烏蘭布通之戰中，清軍擊敗噶爾丹。噶爾丹僅率數百人逃回科布多。

1691年，噶爾丹受到策妄阿拉布坦的突然襲擊，糧食和物資為之一空，幸受到在拉薩掌權的第巴桑結嘉措的支持，方才得以與策妄阿拉布坦議和。1692年，噶爾丹遣使聯絡科爾沁蒙古首領沙津反清，沙津按照清朝旨意假意應允。1695年，經過數年的休養，噶爾丹在第巴桑結嘉措的支持下，再次進軍喀爾喀。1696年，康熙帝親自率軍與其決戰于昭莫多，獲決定性勝利。妻子阿努可敦亦戰死。1697年，康熙帝前往寧夏，組織對噶爾丹的包圍，費揚古擒獲噶爾丹之子塞卜騰巴爾珠爾。

敗亡

康熙三十六年（1697年）閏三月十三日，走投無路的噶爾丹死於科布多布彥圖河畔的阿察阿穆塔臺地方。死因有兩種說法：一是清代官方記錄並得到普遍認可的「仰藥死」（服毒自盡）；二是來自康熙朝滿文奏摺中記載的病死。其部屬丹濟拉、諾顏格隆等人將噶爾丹屍骸火化。隨後，丹濟拉攜噶爾丹之女鍾齊海及噶爾丹的骨灰，打算逃奔清朝。但策妄阿拉布坦派來的追兵將鍾齊海和噶爾丹骨灰劫走。次年（1698年），策妄阿拉布坦將噶爾丹骨灰獻出；康熙四十年，又送回鍾齊海。議政王大臣奏議：「（噶爾丹骸骨）……應照吳三桂粉骨揚灰例，擣為細末，拋散通衢。」康熙皇帝命令侍讀學士喇錫帶噶爾丹骸骨「置京城外，懸掛示眾。」

家庭

• 妻子，阿努可敦

文學作品中的形象

噶爾丹也是金庸武俠小說《鹿鼎記》中的一個人物。在該小說中，葛爾丹是主人公韋小寶以及喇嘛桑結的結義兄弟。

Early years and consolidation of power

At age of 7, Galdan was sent to Lhasa to be educated as a lama under the 5th Dalai Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery. He spent 20 years studying Buddhist canons, philosophy, astronomy, astrology and basics of medicine and pharmacology. In this sense, he was one of the best educated kings in Mongolian history.

He backed his brother Sengge's claim the title Khan of the Dzungars against the pretensions of their half-brothers Tseten and Tsodba Batur. With the support of Ochirtu Khan of the Khoshuud, Sengge's solidified his rule 1661. Nevertheless, the two brothers never gave up their royal aspirations and in 1670 Tsetsen murdered Sengge in a family coup. When Galdan's mother Amin-Dara arrived to Lhasa to inform Galdan of Sengge's death, Galdan immediately renounced his status as a lama and quickly returned to the Irtysh Valley to avenge him. After soundly defeating Tseten and Tsodba Batur in 1671, the Dalai Lama named Galdan Hongtaiji "Crown Prince".

After Sengge's death, Galdan took his widow Anu-Dara, granddaughter of Ochirtu, as his bride. Conflict within the family soon erupted again when Ochirtu, fearing Galdan's popularity, supported Galdan's uncle and rival Choqur Ubashi. In 1678 Galdan forced Ochirtu to flee to Kokonur and established hegemony over the Oirats. The following year, the Dalai Lama bestowed on him the highest title of Boshoghtu (or Boshughtu) Khan, or "Devine Khan".

Altishahr and the Kazakhs

Imams of the Naqshbandi lineage had replaced the Chagatayid Khans in the early 17th century. After the defeat of the , their exiled ruler Afaq Khoja approached the 5th Dalai Lama for military assistance in 1677. By the request of the latter, Galdan overthrew the in the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr and installed Afaq as his client ruler there. Galdan decreed that the Turkestanis would be judged by their own law except in cases affecting the Dzungar Khanate. The Dzungars kept control over the Tarim Basin until 1757.

In 1680 the Black Kyrgyz raided Moghulistan and occupied Yarkant. The inhabitants of Yarkant appealed to Galdan Khan for help. The Dzungars conquered Kashgar and Yarkant and Galdan had its ruler chosen by its inhabitants. Then he invaded the north of Tengeri Mountain in modern Kazakhstan the next year; he defeated Tauke Khan's Kazakhs but failed to take Sayram. He conquered Turfan and Hami the next year. In 1683 Galdan's armies under Rabtan reached Tashkent and the Syr Darya and crushed two armies of the Kazakhs. After that Galdan subjugated the Black Khirgizs and ravaged the Fergana Valley. From 1685 Galdan's forces aggressively pushed the Kazakhs. While his general Rabtan took Taraz, and his main force forced the Kazakhs to migrate westwards.

In 1687, he besieged the City of Turkistan, an important religious pilgrimage center for the Muslim Kazakhs, but could not take it.

Rivalry with Khalkha

At first the Khalkha and Oirat Mongols were allies, bound by the provisions of the Mongol-Oirat code. In order to cement this union, Galdan attempted to ally with Zasaghtu Khan Shira who lost part of his subjects to Tushiyetu Khan Chakhundorji, and moved his orda near the Altai Mountains. Tushiyetu Khan attacked the right wing of the Khalkhas and killed Shira in 1687. Galdan dispatched troops under his younger brother Dorji-jav against the Tushiyetu Khan the next year, but they were eventually defeated and Dorji-jav was killed in the ensuing battle. Chakhundorji murdered Degdeehei Mergen Ahai of the Zasaghtu Khan who was on the way to Galdan. The Qing court intervened and called all the Mongolian nobles to assemble a conference.

To avenge the death of his brother and expand his influence over other Mongol areas, Galdan prepared for war with the Khalkha of eastern Mongolia. Galdan established a friendly relationship with the Tsardom of Russia, which was at war with Tushiyetu Khan over territories near Lake Baikal in northern Khalkha. Bonded by a common interest in defeating the Khalkha, both Galdan and the Russians simultaneously attacked and conquered most of the territories of Khalkha. Armed with superior firearms provided by the Russians, Galdan attacked the land of the late Zasaghtu Khan, and advanced to the dominion of Tushiyetu Khan. The Russian Cossacks meanwhile attacked and defeated the Khalkha's contingent of 10,000 near Lake Baikal. In 1688, after two bloody battles with the Dzungar in present-day central Mongolia, Erdene Zuu Monastery and Tomor, Tushiyetu Khan and his son Galdandorji fled to the Ongi River.

Acting in defiance of contrary orders from the Kangxi Emperor and the 5th Dalai Lama, he entered Khalkha territory in 1688. The Zunghars occupied the Khalkha homeland, and forced Jibzundamba Zanabazar to flee. The Qing court strengthened its northern border garrisons, and advised the Khalkhas to resist Galdan. After being reinforced by fresh troops, the Tushiyetu Khan Chakhundorji counterattacked the Zunghars, and fought with them near Olgoi Lake on August 3, 1688. The Oirats won after a 3-day battle. Galdan's conquest of Khalkha Mongolia made Zanabazar and Chakhundorji submit to the Qing dynasty in September.

War with the Qing

By his victory in 1688, Galdan had driven the Khalkhas into the arms of the Qing and made himself a military threat to the Manchus. Unfortunately for Galdan, the Kangxi Emperor was unusually vigorous and warlike. While he was fighting in Eastern Mongolia, his nephew Tsewang Rabtan seized the Dzungarian throne in 1689. After a series of successful battles in the Khangai Mountains, at Lake Olgoi and Ulahui River, he approached the Great Wall of China. The Khalkha leaders retreated to Inner Mongolia with their troops and the Khalkha territory fell under Galdan's rule. The Qing deceived him to arrive near Beijing saying that they needed a treaty, but ambushed him at the battle of Ulan Butung, which was fought 350 kilometers directly north of Beijing near the western headwaters of the Liao River at the southern end of the Greater Khingan. Galdan's troops were seriously defeated by the Khalkha troops supported by the Qing army and Galdan retreated back to Khalkha.

Demise and death

In 1696 Galdan was on the upper Kherlen River east of modern Ulaanbaatar. Kangxi's plan was to personally lead an army northwest to Galdan while sending a second army north from the Ordos Desert to block his escape. Kangxi reached the Kherlen, found Galdan gone, but was forced to turn back due to lack of supplies. On 12 June 1696, the same day Kangxi turned back, Galdan blundered into the western army and was disastrously defeated at Terelj's Zuunmod near the upper Tuul River east of Ulan Bator. Galdan's wife, Queen Anu, was killed during the battle and the Manchus captured 20,000 cattle and 40,000 sheep. Galdan fled with his remaining 40 or 50 men. He gathered a few thousand followers who later deserted due to hunger. Failing in his objectives of usurping the Khaan's throne of Mongolia and the dreams of achieving greatness and with nowhere to go but facing imminent threat of being captured by the Manchus or Tsewang Rabtan, he took his own life by taking poison on 4 April 1697 in the Altai Mountains near Khovd with only 300 of his followers staying with him. He was succeeded by Tsewang Rabtan who had revolted against him.

A son and a daughter of Galdan remained in Tsewang Araptan's household along with a lama wanted by the Kangxi Emperor for desertion and for assisting Galdan. In 1698, Tsewang Araptan was forced to deliver the three of them to Beijing along with Galdan's ashes, which were then scattered on the military parade ground in the city. Although the lama was executed, Kangxi spared the daughter and son, and Galdan's other son, Septen Bailsur, who had been in prison until this time. They were all pardoned and housed in Beijing where they died.

Family

• Father: Erdene Baatar Hongtaiji

• Mother: Yum Agas khatun

• Siblings: Sengge khongtaiji

• Wife: Anu khatun

• Sons: Sebdenbaljir taiji

• Daughters: Zunchihai

In popular culture

Fiction

• The Deer and the Cauldron (鹿鼎記): a wuxia novel by Louis Cha. In the story, Galdan became sworn brothers with the novel's main protagonist Wei Xiaobao and the Tibetan Lama Sangjie.

Song

• The lyrics of the song "Black Thunder" by the Mongolian band "The HU" is based on a poem about Galdan Boshogtu Khan. The band later turned the song into "Sugaan Essena" for the EA video game "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order".