Charles Bawden was the first writer to chronicle in English the history of Mongolia from the colonial period to modern times, linking the story of Ghengis Khan's Mongol Empire with the present-day Mongolian People's Republic. Bawden shows how a feeling of cultural unity amongst the Mongolian people, buttressed by their acceptance of Tibetan style lamaism (the 'Yellow Faith') served to ensure their survival as a distinct entity even after their integration into the Manchu empire of China in the sixteenth century. In more recent times the Soviet Union has sought to preserve the existence of Mongolia as a buffer state on its border with China and has presided over the transformation of a society of nomadic herdsman into a centrally-controlled socialist state.