Tsongkha

Who holds it

Title

Tribal chiefs (camp-lords) and village headmen of the Tsongkha Tibetans

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No chief is named for 1200. See Tsongkha chiefs for the dated names of the Qingtang house, all earlier.

Overlord

Xia overlordship from Xining in tribute and horses (general pattern, not documented for these tribes); no Xia garrison on the lake side is known.

What it holds

• Pasture and winter camps round the lake and on the Gonghe plain
• Sheep, yaks and the famous Qinghai ponies (recalled)
• The road over the Riyue pass to the Xining market

How it was acquired

By inheritance and custom; the Qingtang theocracy fell in 1104 (Wikipedia, Tsongkha).

Allies and rivals

Xia at Xining (overlord, buyer); the Yellow River Tibetans to the south; the Tsaidam herders to the west; the Golog beyond the Yellow River.

How things stand that morning

Quiet. No dated incident for the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Horses, wool, hides, salt; tea and grain bought at Xining.

Military

Mounted levies under camp-lords; no numbers.

Threats

• Xia demands for horses and men (nothing dated)
• A quarrel with the Golog over pasture (nothing dated)

Customs

Tsowa (tribe) organisation under camp-lords (Wikipedia, Amdo, for Golok, Gome and Lutsang; assumed here). Meetings of chiefs are not recorded.

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.

1. by 1240The Mongols hold eastern Amdo (Wikipedia, Amdo).Depends on: The fall of Xia (1227) and Jin (1234). Stopped by: A Mongol failure.

Places of note

• Qinghai Lake (Kokonor): The lake.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry kokonor-tribes: 'a population and a horse market, not a polity', shaded indicatively. Agreed.

Evidence: The history to 1104 and the 1136 hand-over are documented; the 1190s are not.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

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