The Tsalpa (Tshal pa) is one of the four great Kagyu branches that descend from Gampopa's pupils (the others are Karma, Barom and Phagdru).
Its founder Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa (1123-1193) set up Tsel Gungthang on the Kyichu east of Lhasa; the usual date is 1175 (recalled, not on the page). He died in 1193, so on 1 January 1200 the house is in the hands of his disciples and kin, none of whom we can name. It is the nearest organised religious power to Lhasa and, in the Mongol age, the Tsel were one of the thirteen myriarchies and held the east Lhasa valley (recalled).
Its later fame is as the family of Tsalpa Kunga Dorje, author of the Red Annals of 1346 (recalled). None of that is a 1200 fact. In 1200 Tsel is a young monastery with a rich lay backing and a prestigious dead founder.
Who holds it
- Title
- Head of the Tsalpa Kagyu at Tsel Gungthang
- Since
- after 1193
- Confidence
- low
En Wikipedia (Kagyu) names the founder, Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa (1123-1193), as founder of the Tsalpa branch and of Tsel Gungtang monastery; the page gives no founding year. Who succeeded him is not on any page we could open.
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 Tsel Gungthang
- Lay estates in the east Lhasa valley (recalled for the Mongol age, not for 1200)
- Branch hermitages and the Tsalpa lineage
How it was acquired
1175 by Zhang Tsalpa (recalled).
Allies and rivals
Tsalpa traces itself to Gampopa like Phagdru, Karma and Barom. Close neighbours: Yerpa, Ramoche and the Jokhang, Drikung and Taklung up the valleys. No quarrel is recorded.
How things stand that morning
Newly leaderless after the founder's death in 1193; head 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.
Threats
- A contest for the headship after 1193 is possible but not reported.
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.
- 1260s-1350s (recalled)The Tsel myriarchy of the Mongol-Sakya order; Tsalpa Kunga Dorje writes the Red Annals in 1346.Depends on: Mongol rule over Tibet. Stopped by: No Mongol conquest of Tibet.
Places of note
- Tsel Gungthang: Monastery east of Lhasa, position approximate
Where the sources disagree
- No page in English or Chinese loaded for this house (titles tried: Tsal Gungtang Monastery, 蔡贡塘寺, 蔡公堂寺). The position, 29.66 N, 91.27 E, is from our notes and may be 10 km out.
Evidence: One line on the Kagyu page. Everything else is recollection. 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 and extent approximate.
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.