AHC/WI : Mongols doesn't adopt Tibetan Buddhism

From what I gathered, the adoption of Tibetan Buddhism weakened the military structure of the Mongols in the XVIth, with 40% of the male population being integrated to the clergy, allowing Qing takeover.

Whatever I'm wrong or not on this (I trust people to correct me there), how to have a plausible PoD and what would be its consequences?
 
Buddhism was used as a tool in the 15th-16th centuries to reunite various Mongol factions and tribes and to sanction imperial ambitions. Many families dedicated members of their families to monasteries out of piety and to escape to the exactions of the nobility leading eventually to as you say a huge proportion of the Mongolian population in the service of the monasteries. However, most of these were secular dependents or monks who didn't go through with their vows. They could still hold secular position and even go to war.
The Mongolien practice of Tibetan Buddhism of both the 2 major lineages that were practiced in the land was highly synchronistic with previous tribal religious practices. It melded well with preexisting beliefs.
I'm not sure how damaging Buddhism was to the Mongol military machine as much as their enemies and other forces were becoming stronger in comparison to them. Although Altan Khan was a highly successful war leader consolidating Mongol power and consistently defeating the Ming in the 16th c. ( and was the Mongol.leader who did so much to further Buddhism in Mongolia -- appointing the 1st Dalai Lama) his successors were both unable to consolidate the tribes successfully to the same degree and were contending with the Qing whose Manchu cavalry was every bit as good as the Mongols as well as being superior military innovators and having access to far more resources.

At the time of Altan, Buddhist prosletizers were very active in the land -- I don't see much in the way of competition with Islam and Christianity not very active there. The Tengrist shamans were too decentralized a force to deny the penetration of Tibetan Buddhism. But more importantly, the Mongol hierarchy was seeking to use Buddhism as a state religion to further their political aims.
 
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Based on what I know, Tibetan Buddhism was damaging to the birthrate of the Mongols, to the extent that the Population of both inner and outer Mongolia failed to grow during three centuries of Manchu rule.

Avoiding the religion, and you may have a higher birthrate, higher population growth and greater push for foreign conquest.
 
Based on what I know, Tibetan Buddhism was damaging to the birthrate of the Mongols, to the extent that the Population of both inner and outer Mongolia failed to grow during three centuries of Manchu rule.

Avoiding the religion, and you may have a higher birthrate, higher population growth and greater push for foreign conquest.

There's the theory that the warm climate during the 12 to 14th century led to longer and wetter grazing season in Central Asia, permitting larger herds to be bred. This coincided with the near-ASB Mongol success.

As a corollary, this means the Little Ice Age from the 16th to 18th centuries would have deeply restrained any ambitions of Mongol reconquest.

At the rate things are, maybe the 22th century will see the return of the Mongols...
 
Does it mean that the Mongols are going to stick with Tengirism ?

The Tibetans also had their own religion; Bon before they adopted Buddhism...
 
Based on what I know, Tibetan Buddhism was damaging to the birthrate of the Mongols, to the extent that the Population of both inner and outer Mongolia failed to grow during three centuries of Manchu rule.

I think it's a bit simplistic to blame Buddhism for this. For one, plenty of Buddhist populations grew during the period, no?

A more likely explanation is that the Mongols were hit by smallpox epidemics, which devastated their population. To their credit, the Qing were aware of this, and they would try to isolate Mongols who traveled to Beijing to make them less likely to get the disease. You also had to deal with the fact that once the Qing gained power, extracting tribute from China became much, much more difficult, so the Mongols had to rely on whatever the steppes provided.
 
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