them into the area and by 1759 they had obtained control of this region. After the rebellion of Yakub Beg, Altishahr was incorporated into the administration of Xinjiang, which became a formal province in the Qing empire in 1884. Between 1761 and 1865, the Qing Empire appointed an imperial resident (Manchu: hebei amban; Chinese: zǒnglǐ huíjiāng shìwù cānzàn dàchén ) to Altishahr, which today forms part of southern Xinjiang. The imperial resident, who resided in Kashgar, Ush Turfan or Yarkand and exercised Qing authority over the region. The imperial resident was controlled with local imperial agents (Manchu: Baita icihiyara amban; Chinese: Bànshì dàchén ), who were sent to most important cities in the region, where they ruled in conjunction with the local officials (Uighur hakim beg, Chinese: ), who were given ranks in the Qing civil service and were ultimately accountable to the imperial agent. Urga In the holy city of Urga, an amban (Mongol: Хүрээний амбан ноён, Chinese: Kùlún bànshì dàchén) was stationed in order to assert Qing control over the Mongol dependencies. He controlled all temporal matters, and was specially charged with the control of the frontier town of Kiakhta and the trade conducted there with the Russians. Urga was also the residence of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, who was the spiritual head of the Mongol Khalkha tribes. The Khutuktu ranked third in degree of veneration among the dignitaries in the Tibetan Buddhism, after the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. He resided in a sacred quarter on the western side of the town and acted as a spiritual counterpart of the Qing amban. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the Manchu amban was expelled by Mongol forces, fleeing to China proper via Russia. Manchuria In the early Qing, the word amban was also used in the title of the military governors (昂邦章京, angbang-zhangjing, which is a transcription of the Manchu amban-jianggin; R.L. Edmonds translates the title in English as "military deputy-lieutenant governor") in the northeastern provinces of the Qing Empire, viz. Jilin and Heilongjiang. The first amban-jianggin appointed in the region was the Ninguta garrison commander Sarhuda, who became the amban-jianggin of Ninguta in June 1653. See also Qing dynasty in Inner Asia Lifan Yuan References Bibliography Ho, Dahpon David. "The Men Who Would Not Be Amban and the One Who Would: Four Frontline Officials and Qing Tibet Policy, 1905-1911." Modern China 34, no. 2 (2008):