nomadic confederation · China, Tibet and Mongolia
Four Oirat
Origins
The Oirats were forest and steppe peoples of north-western Mongolia who had joined the Mongol Empire early. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 they formed a union of four main groups, usually listed as the Choros, Torghut, Dörbet and Khoshut, and challenged the Northern Yuan khans for leadership of the steppe.
Rule and society
The confederation was governed by an assembly of chiefs, and its leaders, not being descendants of Genghis Khan, usually ruled through puppet khans. Toghon and his son Esen built Oirat power in the 15th century; Esen defeated and captured the Ming emperor Zhengtong at Tumu in 1449 and briefly took the title of khan himself before being killed in 1455.
Decline and legacy
Pushed west by Dayan Khan and Altan Khan, the Oirats moved towards Dzungaria in the 16th century and adopted Gelug Buddhism. In the 1630s the confederation divided into the Dzungar Khanate, the Kalmyk Khanate on the Volga and the Khoshut Khanate in Tibet.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Kalmyk Khanate split from Four Oirat1630 CE
- Khoshut Khanate split from Four Oirat1642 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Four Oirat. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/four-oirat
- MLA
- “Four Oirat.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/four-oirat. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Four Oirat.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/four-oirat.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Four Oirat’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/four-oirat (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻