Friendship and Antagonism

This paper is particularly concerned with the economic aspects of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s Mongolian exile. His presence there eclipsed the authority of Mongolia’s highest incarnation, the Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, and offerings formerly given to the Mongolian leader were gifted to the Tibetan leader. Tibetans accompanying their leader also became an important economic presence in Mongolia, and in the final part of the paper the author discusses the implications of this Tibetan presence after 1913, when Mongolia and Tibet afforded each other mutual diplomatic recognition amidst claims to independence. The revitalization of the interchange between Tibet and Mongolia resulted not only in friendship, but also in antagonism.