The conquest of Küküx nour and Tibet from 1637 to 1642 by Oirads led to the Gelugpa's seizure of religious power and significantly altered the political and religious landscape of Central Eurasia. Research on this event has often been biased towards the Gelugpa's perspective, necessitating a broader examination within the context of secular politics and the nomadic dynamics of Central Eurasia. This paper focuses on the metaphor of the “Golden Bridge” to explore and elucidate how the trade network expanded and reorganized from Siberia to Tibet after the conquest.
The Oirads accumulated wealth by trading and relaying products across diverse ecologies and regions, moving from north to south. Lhasa, Xining, and Tobolsk emerged as key trading cities in Eurasia, where various kinds of comodities like tea, medical herbs, silks, furs, wares, horses and cattle were exchanged. These developments also impacted the East-West trade dominated by the Moġul Khanate, and shifted the power dynamics between the north and south regions around the Tianshan Mountains in favor of the Oirads. Overall, the influence of nomadic political power on Eurasian trade in the 17th century remained a significant and inescapable factor.