Other religious houses · The Oirat of Qutuqa Beki · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Naiman and Oirat shamans

Under the Church of the East and the Uyghur scribes the steppe and the forest keep the old religion: the Blue Sky (Tengri), the spirits of mountains, rivers and ancestors, and shamans who heal, foretell and work the weather.

The best-attested skill of the Naiman and the Oirat is the jada, the rain or storm stone: at Koyiten in 1201 Buyiruq of the Naiman and Qutuqa of the Oirat tried to bring a storm down on Temujin's army with it, and the wind turned on them (Secret History 141-144 as read). That is a story of 1201 and is used here only to show what both peoples believed their shamans could do on 1 January 1200. Qutuqa bears the title beki, which the Mongols give to chiefs of the first rank and later to the senior elder who leads the rites; which sense it carries for the Oirat chief is not settled.

The forest peoples of the Sayans and the Tuva forest, whose shamanism is the oldest in the sheet, are the likely source of the Oirat shamans' repute; no source says so.

Who holds it

Name
Qutuqa Beki is the one named Oirat leader
Title
Shamans of the Naiman and Oirat clans; no name
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not applicable
Confidence
low

Secret History 141-144 as read online; Wikipedia on Qutuqa Beki and the Oirats.

Overlord

None shown.

What it holds

  • Rites, charms and the rain-stone (no land or revenue)

Allies and rivals

Serves Qutuqa Beki and the Naiman khans.

How things stand that morning

Always present; nothing dated to the winter. A hard winter (dzud) is when a people looks to its shamans.

Threats

  • A failed spell: the wind that turns at Koyiten (1201)
  • Tengri's anger in a dzud winter

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1201At Koyiten Buyiruq and Qutuqa use the jada against Temujin; the storm turns on their own army.Depends on: Jamuqa's coalition meeting and fighting at Koyiten. Stopped by: The coalition not meeting.

Places of note

  • The Oirat forest (locator): Locator for the Oirat country; no shrine is known.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Oirat seat of the record (Toora-Khem) is a locator for the Oirat forest, not a shrine.

Evidence: One story of 1201 for the jada; the rest is the general account of steppe religion, not a dated fact for these peoples.

On the map: A locator point; the practice belonged to whole peoples and has no site.

Primary sources for The Oirat

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
  • The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
  • Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. Read online
  • Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
  • History of the Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. The Secret History of the Mongols, an English translation with numbered sections and dating footnotes (sections 141-169), read at anyflip
  2. Wikipedia, 'Buyruq Khan'
  3. Wikipedia, 'Qutuqa Beki'
  4. Wikipedia, 'Oirats'

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.