Daklha Gampo is the mountain-top monastery where Gampopa, the pupil of Milarepa who joined the Kadam monastic discipline to the Kagyu meditation, taught and died.
It stands on Daklha Gampo mountain in Gyaca (Jiacha) County of the Lhoka, about 4 km north-west of Ji township and east of the county seat, at 4,150 m (Chinese Wikipedia). Gampopa founded it in 1121, gave it to his nephew in 1150 and died in 1153. Every Dagpo Kagyu branch (Karma, Tsalpa, Barom, Phagdru) goes back to his pupils, which is why the house counts for more in the schools than in the countryside.
In 1200 it is the mother house of the Kagyu, in the hands of Gampopa's family line; who sits on the throne is not known.
Who holds it
- Title
- Throne-holder of Daklha Gampo (Dagpo)
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
The Chinese page (达拉岗布寺) says the founder, Dagpo Lhaje (Gampopa, 1079-1153), founded it in 1121, handed the abbacy to his nephew Gompa Chumu Ningpo (1116-1169) in 1150, and that the abbacy afterwards passed 'mostly to monks of his family' (16 generations of throne-holders up to the present). The holder of 1200 is not named.
Overlord
none: no one rules Tibet in 1200; the house answers to its own patrons and to the custom of the valleys
What it holds
- The mountain monastery and its hermitages
- The Dagpo family estates (not itemised)
- The standing of mother house to the four great and eight lesser Kagyu branches
How it was acquired
1121, founded by Gampopa; hereditary in his family after 1150.
Allies and rivals
Its pupils' houses: Phagmodru and Densa Thil, Karma at Tsurphu, Barom in Kham, Tsalpa at Lhasa. No dealing with any of them in 1200 is recorded.
How things stand that morning
A distant mother house, no fighting recorded, throne-holder not known.
Wealth
No source we could open gives figures; the usual base is estates and serfs, herds, pass tolls, trade in salt, wool, tea and barley, and the gifts of patrons.
Military
No standing army; the house or lord calls on retainers, tenants and kin. No troop numbers are given by any source we could open.
Places of note
- Daklha Gampo (county centre): Position approximate: the page puts it 4 km north-west of Ji township, east of Gyaca town
Where the sources disagree
- The Chinese page gives the founder as 'Dagpo Lhaje (1079-1153)' and the 1121 founding; the English Gampopa page agrees with the life dates. The monastery is drawn as a point at the county seat because the page gives no coordinates; the real site is within about 25 km of that point.
Evidence: One Chinese page with founding and succession dates; the Dagpo family of 1200 is not on it. Treasury of Lives, the Blue Annals, the Red Annals, Petech, Sorensen and Hazod and Davidson could not be opened in this session (treasuryoflives.org and rigpawiki.org refused the fetch; the archive.org full texts were refused or cut off), so facts marked 'recalled' are from memory of those works and unchecked.
On the map: Point only, at the county centre; the real site is not pinned.
Primary sources for Tibet (centre)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, Buton Rinchen Drub (Bu ston Rin chen grub) (1322). Optional background. Read online
- The Blue Annals, Go Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal ('Gos lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal) (1476 to 1478). The fullest Tibetan account of who mattered around 1200, written three centuries later from earlier biographies and lineage records, many now lost. Read online
- The collected works of Lama Zhang, and the early Kagyu lives, Lama Zhang (Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa) and his disciples; the biographers of Drigung, Taklung and Phagmodru (the 1160s to the early 13th century). The nearest contemporary witnesses to the lords of central Tibet in 1200. Read online
- The Sakya genealogy, and the works of the Sakya hierarch of 1200, Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan) and Sakya Pandita; the genealogy by Ngawang Kunga Sonam (the hierarchs' writings about 1170 to 1250; the genealogy 1629). Sakya in 1200 was ruled by Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founders, with his nephew Kunga Gyaltsen (later Sakya Pandita, born 1182) under his teaching. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Indo-Tibetica (the temples and inscriptions of western Tibet), with the Royal Genealogy of Ngari, Giuseppe Tucci (editor and translator); the genealogy by Ngawang Drakpa (Ngag dbang grags pa) (the inscriptions and temple records of the 11th to 15th centuries; Indo-Tibetica published 1932 to 1941; the genealogy about 1497). Guge, Purang and Ladakh in 1200 are among the least documented kingdoms in the atlas. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.