Tjalling Halbertsma is Director International of the Centre for East Asian Studies Groningen and professor of East Asian Studies, with a focus on modern day Mongolia. Halbertsma spent many years working in China and Mongolia, most recently as the first Dutch diplomat in Mongolia (based in Ulaanbaatar) for the Dutch Embassy in Beijing. In 2007, Halbertsma completed a PhD at the Sinological Institute of Leiden University on the Nestorian heritage which he rediscovered and documented in Inner Mongolia between 1999 and 2006.

Halbertsma has written extensively about Asia for various international newspapers, including South China Morning Post, Asian Art Newspaper and Dagblad Trouw, frequently appears as a commentator on radio and television, and is author of a number of books and travellogues on China and Mongolia.