31 August 2008

Vietnamese perspective on Mongolian Invasions

Posted by khuushuur under: history .

Buddhism Today has an article on Buddhism in Viet Nam, that describes its percieved Mongolian invasion:

“At that time, the Mongolian became a super power in the world stage. By then, half of the world already felt into the Mongolian hands: Central Asia, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Iran… then China. After dominating China, Mongolian look into Vietnam. Then 30,000 troops of Mongolian cavalry -very well known at that time- crossed the border and attacked Vietnam the first time on January 17, 1258. Emperor TRAN THAI TONG -the one who wanted to be a Buddhist monk – now commanded the Vietnamese army to fight back. It took about 2 weeks, the Mongolian was defeated.

Angry over the defeat, the Mongolian took the revenge. The second invasion was well prepared, began on August 1284, with 200,000 strong troops under the command of a Mongolian prince. This time, the commander of Vietnamese army was Emperor TRAN NHAN TONG, also a devout Buddhist. The second invasion was not luckier than the first time. After 6 months that both sides had engaged into the fierce battles, the Mongolian was defeated and there was only a few thousands survived to back home.

For Mongolian, especially Emperor Koubilai, the defeat was so unbelievable and unbearable. It’s too shameful for the Mongolian empire, therefore, only two months after the defeat, Koubilai giving the order to mobilize all of his best units, ready to take the revenge. On December 25, 1287, 500,000 Mongolian troops under the command of the same Prince, one more time, crossed the border to invade Viet Nam the third time. Again, Emperor TRAN NHAN TONG led the Vietnamese army to fight back and defeat the Mongolian. This time it took for only 4 months. Like last time, there were only few thousands Mongolian survived to comeback. After the third try, the Mongolian quitting the idea to invade Vietnam. Vietnam then began enjoying the peaceful time for about two centuries.”

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  • Guest
    ROFL , a bunch of idiot people. Like Mongolians people are idiot. ROFL .I can't stop LAUGH looking to your comments ,especially Crytal and Admin. ROFL
  • Le
    @ Bat: The king-later emperor you mentioned was javanese. Can't remember the name but he's pretty well known...
    One more things: the vietnamese records about the mongol- yuan invasions is very different with the Yuan ones( the most quoted by western historian!). For example, in the 1st expedition, Yuan souces:the mongol forces mafches very fast towards thanglong capital, sacked it and retreated( Note:the main goal of the beginning is to etablish bases in the south to launch attacks on chinese (Nan)Song Dynasty ...Viet sources added: They retreated(fled!) even faster than they came(cause of scorched-earth and guerrilla attacks-nothing to do in Thang long, just lost soldiers), and didn't mind looting and killing on the way home like before, that's why people called them with the sarcastic name: "Bouddhas (invaders)"
    I don't know what sources is more exact, but anyway, the steppe warriors have their faces to save.:P
  • bsimpson
    To Crystal:

    The Vietnamese are a very practical people. Accepting nominal suzerainty for them meant avoiding endless wars with the Mongols. They did the same with the Chinese, i.e., they entered into nominal tributary relationships with various Chinese dynasties despite decisively defeating them on a number of occasions.

    You should do more reading to learn about the strategies the Vietnamese employed to crush numerically superior Mongol invaders. It's quite a David-and-Goliath story.
  • crystal
    South-Eastern Vassals: After the Vietnamese captured Mongol envoys sent to ask a route to attack Southern China, the Mongol forces invaded the Tran Dynasty in 1257. The Mongols routed city defenders and massacred inhabitants of capital Thanh Long (Hanoi). King Than Tong agreed to pay tributes to Mongke Khan to spare his country. When Kublai Khan demanded full submission of the Dynasty where Mongol darughachis were well received before,[151] the relationship between two states was broken out in 1264. After series of invasions in 1278-1288, the king of Dai Viet or Tran Dynasty accepted Mongol suzerainty. By the time, each side had suffered from heavy losses because of large but ineffective wars

    Source of the material: Rene Grousset - Empires of Steppes

    So unfortunately no matter how much the Vietnamese wish that it wasn't like that the history remains true. Dai Viet was a vassal state to the Mongolian Empire, which means they were DEFEATED. And the shear number of how many troops the Mongols had is a total joke.
  • crystal
    to Curious.
    There was no Vietnam invasion, it's as simple as that.
  • Curious
    What about Mongolians perspective on the Vietnam invasion?
  • mende
    I don't believe in what is said here by this Tam Ha Le Cong Da. Yeah from the Vietnamese perspective he/she wanted it that way, but I heard that Mongols have invaded Vietnam, not easily though, and could not stay there longer because of the terrible weather and other conditions and were eventually kicked out by courageous Vietnamese. The fact that the Mongols had tried 3rd time with 500000 troops proves that it is a pure fiction. Mongols never had such a big army according to the historical sources and books.
  • Crystal, you are totally right. Somehow the referal to the source got lost in the posting. The text above comes from this Buddhism Today article by Tam Ha Le Cong Da. I have added the link to the main article as well. Unfortunately there are no sources mentioned in this article. I did come across a - assumingly outdated - picture of the author.
    Thanks for pointing this out
  • Crystal
    ok, who in this world wrote this? There is no name... and the person who wrote this should cite the sources he or she used. Without the citations this looks like a load of crap to me. The facts given here are so vague that it feels like reading a children's book. I would suggest to research more and cite all the resources you've used before writing something like that.
  • Bat
    What about the part, where Vietnamese surrendered, and also one of the Vietnamese emperors betrayed the Yuan forces after he defeated his enemy while joining forces with the Yuan?
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