Khams (Dege, Litang, Batang)

Who holds it

Title

Valley chiefs; no lord above them

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Kham had no single ruler: 'a mix of kingdoms, tribes, and chiefdoms whose authority shifted often' (Wikipedia, Kham). No chief of Dege, Litang or Batang is named for 1200; the Dege Gonchen is of 1448, the Litang prefecture of the Yuan of 1272, the Batang Mushi chief of 1568-1639.

Overlord

None. The answer to the assignment's question, whether Kham has any lord above the valley chiefs, is no: none that any source we could reach shows.

What it holds

• Barley basins and fortified houses
• Summer pasture
• Tolls on the road from Dartsedo to Chamdo

How it was acquired

By inheritance.

Allies and rivals

Katok and the Karma Kagyu houses as teachers and patrons; neighbours' feuds.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing valley chiefs; no dated event.

Wealth

Barley, herds, wool, timber, tolls.

Military

Retinues and levies; no numbers.

Customs

Dual system of secular chiefs and Buddhist houses (Wikipedia, Kham).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Wikipedia's Kham article names the polities but dates nothing.

On the map: No source gives a boundary for 1200; the drawing follows the modern counties and valleys and the neighbouring sheets' anchors.

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