The eschatological and millennial narratives that proliferated in various versions in Tibet and Mongolia were the means of bringing together religious and socio-political realms within the historical periods characterized by social crises, and ominous political events. This is particularly true of the works written during the Qing colonial rule, when such narratives began to be widely disseminated during the political conflicts caused by Chinese invasions and Communist revolution in the early twentieth century. Considerations of the felicities of the distant epoch were curtailed by preoccupation with rebirth in Śambhala, which was deemed achievable in the foreseeable future.

Vesna Wallace graduated in Indology from the University of Zagreb and continued her studies in the USA. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2008 Vesna Wallace is Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Barbara. She is a specialist in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and noted scholar of the Kālacakra Tantra. She has been currently working with Buddhist texts from Mongolia.