Bumin Khan

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Bumin Khan (death: 552 AD) was the founder of the Kokturk state.

He is mentioned as "Tumen" (土門) in the ancient Chinese sources. His name means "smoke cloud." Little is known about his life, and most of the information comes from legends in which he gathers a group of Turkic people living in a legendary place called Ergenekon located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains.

In 542 he put down a revolt of the Tiele tribes against their overlords the Avars (Rouran, Ruan-Ruan). In return he asked and was refused the hand of an Avar princess. His next move was to successfully establish contact with the Wei state in China. Records show in 545 a diplomatic mission lead by the Sogdian envoy An Nopantuo made an alliance sealed by Bumen's marriage to the princess Wei Chang'le (長樂公主). The beginning of formal diplomatic relations with China gave him the credibility to unite the turkic tribes behind him and crush the Avars. With their defeat he proclaimed the Turkic Empire(Gökturk Khanate) under his new title Il-Khağan (great-king, 伊利可汗) at the sacred Mt. Ötüuken. This empire expanded, in less than one century, to wide territories in Central Asia. He died in the same year he founded his state.


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