Lhapa Kagyu of Bhutan (monastery) in 1200, Self-governing peoples

The Lhapa (Lha pa) are a branch of the Kagyu in the Drikung line of Jigten Sumgon.

On the Drikung page the founder, Nyo Lhanangpa, a pupil of Jigten Sumgon born in 1164, goes to Bhutan in 1194, so by 1200 a Tibetan lama has been preaching in the western valleys for six years. He is 36 in January 1200. The English pages on Bhutan and Monyul tell the story less clearly: they say the Lhapa were challenged in the twelfth century by Phajo Drugom Zhigpo (whose own mission is dated 1224 on the Phajo page and about 1222 in the brief, so it cannot be in the twelfth century), and that the Lhapa founder 'fled to Bhutan in the 14th century'.

We take the Drikung page's 1194 and treat the others as garbled. What a Lhapa house held in 1200 we cannot say: tradition ascribes the temple of Tango in the Thimphu valley to a Lhanangpa lama, but no page we opened gives it a date. There is no Bhutan and no state; the Mon (Monpa) valley communities remain the people of the land.

Who holds it

Name: Nyo Lhanangpa Sangye Onpo (Gnyos lha nang pa)
Title: Founder of the Lhapa Kagyu in Bhutan
Since: 1194 (en Wikipedia, Drikung Kagyu: he went to Bhutan that year)
Born: 1164 (died 1224)
Family: Nyo (Gnyos)
Confidence: medium

En Wikipedia (Drikung Kagyu) says Nyo Lhanangpa (1164-1224), a pupil of Jigten Sumgon, went to Bhutan in 1194 and founded the Lhapa Kagyu there. The History of Bhutan page (en) dates no Lhapa event and says only that the Lhapa subsect brought the first strategically built dzong and was challenged in the twelfth century by Phajo Drugom Zhigpo.

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

Hermitages and small temples in the Paro and Thimphu valleys (sites not pinned)
The right to preach and to be fed by the valley communities

How it was acquired

1194, a mission from Drikung.

Allies and rivals

Teacher: Jigten Sumgon of Drikung Til. The Drukpa (Phajo, 1224) later challenge the Lhapa; in 1200 no rival is on the ground.

How things stand that morning

A lone mission in the western valleys, six years old, with no state to oppose or protect it.

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.

Threats

None in 1200. The Drukpa rivalry is of 1224 and later.

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.

1224Phajo Drugom Zhigpo of Ralung (born 1184) reaches western Bhutan and begins the Drukpa rivalry with the Lhapa.Depends on: The tradition and the roads over the passes, and Tsangpa Gyare's blessing; the Phajo page gives 1224. Stopped by: A closed road or a different mission.
1224Nyo Lhanangpa dies.Depends on: Natural death on its date (en Wikipedia). Stopped by: A change in his circumstances in play.

Where the sources disagree

The Monyul and History of Bhutan pages put the Lhapa founder in the fourteenth century and the Drukpa challenge in the twelfth: both impossible beside the Drikung and Phajo pages. Not used.
The History of Bhutan page says 'by the 11th century all of Bhutan was occupied by Tibetan-Mongol military forces': Mongols are not in Tibet until 1206 at the earliest, so this is not used.

Evidence: One dated line (1194) on the Drikung page; the rest is tradition. 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: Seat is Thimphu as a stand-in for the western valleys; no part is drawn because no Lhapa site is pinned. Western Bhutan is the province record.

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.