Taklung (monastery) in 1200, Tibet (centre)

Taklung stands at the foot of Mount Chala in Pangdo township of the Phenpo valley, north of Lhasa.

Tashi Pel, a pupil of Phagmo Drupa who also trained in the Kadam teachings, founded it in 1178 or 1180 on a site earlier held by Potowa Rinchen Sel (en Wikipedia). By 1200 he is 57 and the head of a fast-growing house. In 1198 he was one of the two senior disciples who began the main hall at Densa Thil (Chinese Wikipedia, 丹萨替寺). The Chinese page on Taklung adds that the Drikung seized gifts that Tashi Pel had sent to Densa Thil, a quarrel that is the only sign of friction between the daughter houses we found; it is undated.

The page also compares the three leading teachers of the age: Kyobpa Jigten Sumgon the most powerful and Sakya Pandita the most learned. The great Taklung buildings (the main hall completed in 1228) and the spread to Kham (Riwoche, 1276) are later.

Who holds it

Name: Taklung Thangpa Tashi Pel (Stag lung thang pa bkra shis dpal)
Title: Founder-abbot of Taklung
Since: 1178 or 1180
Born: 1142
Confidence: high

En Wikipedia (Taklung Kagyu, Taklung Monastery): founded 1180 (the page also gives 1178), founder 1142-1210. Chinese Wikipedia (达隆寺): he led it about thirty years; his nephew Gonpo Rinchen (1191-1236) succeeded.

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

Taklung monastery and its hermitages in Phenpo
Estates and tenants in the Phenpo valley (the size is not known; the Chinese page speaks of the later growth under Gonpo Rinchen, not of 1200)
Branch houses: none yet outside Phenpo

How it was acquired

1178 or 1180; the site came from the Kadam hermitage of Potowa.

Allies and rivals

Kadam neighbours: Reting in the next valley. Brother house Drikung (a quarrel over gifts, undated). Sponsor, with another senior disciple, of the 1198 hall at Densa Thil.

How things stand that morning

Founder in full vigour (age 57), house in a building phase, linked by pupilage to Densa Thil and by site and training to the Kadam.

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

The Drikung quarrel over gifts to Densa Thil (undated).

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.

1203Sangye Yarjon, the third abbot, is born (died 1272).Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: None.
1210Tashi Pel dies, aged about 68; his nephew Gonpo Rinchen (born 1191) succeeds at about 20.Depends on: Natural death on its date (Chinese Wikipedia). Stopped by: A change in his circumstances in play.
1228The Taklung main hall is completed under Gonpo Rinchen.Depends on: Continued patronage in Phenpo. Stopped by: War or famine in the valley.

Places of note

Taklung: Monastery at the foot of Mount Chala, Pangdo township

Where the sources disagree

The English Wikipedia coordinates (30.133 N, 91.100 E) and its "120 km north of Lhasa" do not agree with each other; we use the coordinates, which fit Pangdo township in Lhunzhub County.
The Chinese page calls the founding year "the Iron-Rooster year" for 1180; 1180 is an Iron-Mouse year (1201 is the Iron-Bird). The year number is used, the animal name is not.

Evidence: Dates and succession are on two Wikipedia pages in two languages. Patrons and estates in 1200 are not given. 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: Small disc; the Taklung estates in Phenpo are not known.

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.