Altan Tobci is the 17th century Mongolian chronicle. Some parts of the 13th centuryMongolianThe Secret History of the Mongols appear in Altan Tobci. It is regarded as a classic literature in Mongolia. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... The Secret History of the Mongols is the first literary work of Mongolian culture. ...
A later chronicle, the "AltanTobci", dated between 1621 and 1628, takes the genealogy eight generations further back to an Indian prince who manifested signs of divine origin, having turquoise blue hair, flat palms and soles, and eyelids that closed from the bottom upward.
Borte Cino was one of three sons of the seventh of these kings, and, as a result of quarrelling with his elder brothers, crossed a lake and came to the land of the Mongols and married a girl called Qoua Maral.
The former is not found in the "Secret History", but occurs in the story of Kujugun Sandali-tu Qagan in the later "AltanTobci" and in that of the ancestor of the Turkut in the Chinese Annals.
In particular, the author shows how Altan Khans reformulation of the boundaries of Dayan Khans Mongol nation and state catalyzed the political fragmentation of the Mongols with dire consequences in relation to the rising Manchu state.
The reason is that this text meshes with the focus of most late twentieth century scholarship which questions dominant historical narratives, be it feminism, subaltern studies, post-colonialism, etc. All of these approaches entail lifting the blinders of ideological master narratives to reveal the past of those historiographically marginalized.
Similarly, a discussion of Altan Khan's historic 1578 meeting with the Third Dalai Lama that presaged the conversion of the Mongols to Gelugpa Buddhism is a standard topic in all works touching on Tibetan or Mongolian Buddhist history.