Densa Thil

Who holds it

Title

Abbot of Densa Thil for Phagmodru

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (1110-1170) founded the hermitage in 1158 (en Wikipedia) or 1159 (zh). The one abbot the pages date is Chenga Drakpa Jungne (1175-1255) of the Lang clan, appointed in 1208 (zh Wikipedia, 丹萨替寺 and 帕木竹巴). En Wikipedia (Phagmo Drupa) says instead that Jigten Sumgon appointed him, with no date. Who sat in January 1200 is not given.

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 monastery of Densa Thil and its hermitages on the mountain
• The founder's stupa and the relics of the school
• The Phagmodru estate round Nedong, held with the Lang family (Chinese Wikipedia: "a large, wealthy holding built around the monastery")
• The right of the abbot to be named by the senior disciples (later the Lang family)

How it was acquired

1158 or 1159: the founder's hermitage. The Lang family's hold on the abbacy dates from 1208 (zh Wikipedia).

Allies and rivals

Daughter houses: Drikung (Jigten Sumgon, the founder's main disciple), Taklung (Tashi Pel), Drukpa (Tsangpa Gyare through Lingje Repa). The one friction we found: the Chinese page on Taklung says the Drikungpa seized gifts that Tashi Pel had sent to Densa Thil (undated; we place it in the years of the 1198 building, low confidence). The brief speaks of a Drikung and Phagmodru rivalry in the 1190s; we could not confirm fighting.

How things stand that morning

Building site and pilgrimage place; its abbacy is open or held by a person no source we opened names. The Lang family stand behind it. Nothing shows a war.

Wealth

Offerings of the daughter houses and their patrons, the Phagmodru estate, and the pilgrim trade of the Tsangpo crossing at Nedong. No figures.

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.

Threats

• A contest for the abbacy between the daughter houses (Drikung and Taklung) and the Lang clan, which the 1208 appointment settles in the Lang favour.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1208Chenga Drakpa Jungne (1175-1255) of the Lang clan becomes abbot; the abbacy then passes within the family.Depends on: The Lang family keeping the lay patronage; Drikung and Taklung accepting it (Chinese Wikipedia). Stopped by: A rival named by the daughter houses.
2. 1253-1322The Mongol-Sakya settlement makes Phagmodru one of the thirteen myriarchies; Changchub Gyaltsen (born 1302) becomes myriarch in 1322.Depends on: Mongol rule over Tibet, which does not exist in 1200. Stopped by: No Mongol conquest.
3. 1351-1354Tsetang monastery is founded (1351) and the Phagmodrupa overthrow Sakya (1354).Depends on: Collapse of the Yuan; far outside the game's horizon. Stopped by: Any other course of the Mongol world.

Places of note

• Phagmodru ferry and hermitage at Nedong: The founder's first hermitage in 1158/9 near the Tsangpo crossing, in Nedong valley (site not pinned).

Where the sources disagree

• en Wikipedia (Densatil) could not be opened; en Wikipedia (Phagmo Drupa) says Jigten Sumgon appointed Chenga Drakpa Jungne, zh Wikipedia says 1208 and Lang family. We use the dated one.
• The brief calls "Lang and Rlangs" two houses: they are one clan, the Lang (Rlangs).

Evidence: Only the Chinese pages give dates for the Densa Thil building (1198) and abbot (1208); they are late secondary pages. 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. Dates: 1200 is an Iron-Monkey year in the Tibetan cycle (the first sixty-year cycle began in 1027, a Fire-Hare year); 1 January 1200 falls in the closing weeks of the Earth-Sheep year (1199), before the Tibetan new year. Western years below are the ones the cited pages give; the Tibetan histories give animal-years and the conversions differ by a year or two.

On the map: Position is within about 10 km: the pages give only "north of Riigang village, Sangri County, 4,400 m". The Phagmodru estate itself is drawn on the Lang family record.

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