Ralung (monastery) in 1200, Tibet (centre)

Tsangpa Gyare is 38 in January 1200.

He was born into the Gya family of Tsang, who held Ralung, a valley monastery south of the Karo pass in what is now Gyantse County; he became the pupil of Lingchen Repa (Ling Repa Pema Dorje) and founded Longbol and Ralung. The name 'Drukpa' ('dragon') comes, by tradition, from nine dragons rising from the ground at Namphu, where he built a monastery; the Chinese page puts it in 1189 in the Langmu valley south-west of Lhasa, and puts Ralung in 1193 (the English page says 1180). The house is a family house: the main branch stays with his kin at Ralung 'until the seventeenth century', passing first to his nephew Onre Darma Senge, who is 23 in 1200.

Pupils: Nyo Lhanangpa (1164-1224) is in Bhutan already, but as the Drikung pupil of Jigten Sumgon; Tsangpa Gyare's own Bhutan mission, Phajo Drugom Zhigpo, arrives only in 1224 and learns on arrival that Tsangpa Gyare is dead. Gotsangpa (1189-1258) and Lorepa (1187-1250) are young men; their journeys to Tsari and the west belong to the next decades.

Who holds it

Name: Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (Gtsang pa rgya ras)
Title: Founder-abbot of Ralung and head of the Drukpa Kagyu
Since: 1180 on the Ralung page; 1193 on the Chinese Drukpa page
Born: 1161, into the Gya family at Kule in Tsang
Family: Gya (Rgya)
Confidence: medium

En Wikipedia (Tsangpa Gyare, Ralung Monastery): life 1161-1211; born into the Gya clan near Kule in Tsang, father Gya Zurpo Tsabpey, mother Marza Darkyi; pupil of Lingchen Repa; founded Longbol and Ralung; nephew Onre Darma Senge (1177-1237) is the first of the Middle Drukpa at Ralung.

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

Ralung and its glacier valley
Longbol and the Namphu monastery (Lhasa south-west)
Gya family estates in Tsang (not itemised)
The pilgrim and trade road over the Yak La and Karo La toward Bhutan (en Wikipedia: trade over the Yak La extended Ralung's influence south)

How it was acquired

Hereditary in the Gya family; Tsangpa Gyare took the site (1180 or 1193).

Allies and rivals

Teacher Lingchen Repa (pupil of Phagmo Drupa). Brother houses: Drikung (the Lhapa are Jigten Sumgon's line, which will fight the Drukpa in Bhutan after 1224), Taklung, Karma Kagyu. No quarrel in 1200.

How things stand that morning

A rising family-and-lineage house in the south of Tsang with a long road to Bhutan.

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 known in 1200. The conflict with the Lhapa is of 1224 and after.

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.

1211Tsangpa Gyare dies; Onre Darma Senge (1177-1237) takes the Ralung seat.Depends on: Natural death on its date. Stopped by: None.
1224Phajo Drugom Zhigpo (born 1184) leaves Ralung for Bhutan (the page says 1224, the brief about 1222).Depends on: The prophecy tradition and the road over the Himalayan passes. Stopped by: The road closed.
1616-1651Ngawang Namgyal, the last hereditary Ralung abbot, flees to Bhutan and builds the Drukpa state.Depends on: Seventeenth-century events; not in the game. Stopped by: No such flight.

Places of note

Ralung: The valley monastery; gazetteer township point

Where the sources disagree

Founding date of Ralung: 1180 (en Wikipedia), 1193 (zh Wikipedia). Both stated.
The brief gives Tsangpa Gyare as 1161-1211, which matches the pages.

Evidence: Life, family and founder-dates are on two pages in two languages; the dating of Ralung is not agreed. 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: The gazetteer point for Ralung is the township; the monastery is within a few km.

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.