Chamdo is the meeting of the Dzachu (upper Mekong) and the Ngomchu, a junction town of the high east, 3,240 m by Wikipedia, on the main road from Lhasa to Kham and China.
In 1200 there is no town to speak of: farming villages, fortified houses and grass on the slopes. Karma Gon, about 80 km north-north-west on the east bank of the Dzachu (31.83 N, 96.91 E), is the Karma Kagyu's first great house of Kham, founded by Dusum Khyenpa about 1184 to 1185 (see Karma Gon). Lhatog is the valley to the north-east and Riwoche lies beyond (recalled; the Taklung house of Riwoche is later than 1200, 1276 by our recall).
The lay patrons of Karma Gon are not named in any source we could reach.
Who he is
- Title
- Valley lords and clan chiefs of the Chamdo and Lhatog country, patrons of Karma Gon
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No lord is named. Wikipedia's Chamdo page has no history before 1950 and does not mention Karma Gon, Lhatog or Jampaling; its Kham article names Chamdo and Lhatok among the important polities of Kham without a date. The Gelug Jampa Ling of Chamdo is of 1437 (recalled) and is not yet.
What it holds
- Farming villages and fortified houses on the Dzachu and Ngomchu
- Pasture on the slopes
- The patron's rights over Karma Gon (gifts, protection; no patron named)
- Tolls at the confluence and on the Lhasa road (general pattern)
How it was acquired
By inheritance and custom.
Allies and rivals
Karma Gon and the Karma Kagyu (Tsurphu, Pamphuk); the Dege valleys to the east; Markam to the south; Dingqing and the Changthang edge to the west.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing valley lords. No dated event.
Wealth
Barley, herds, tolls on the main road; no figures.
Military
Retinues and levies; no numbers.
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.
- 1253Uriyangkhadai's western column marches from Lintao through Kham into Dali (Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom).Depends on: Kublai's campaign in the south-west, and a Mongol state that has taken Lintao. Stopped by: A Mongol failure at Lintao or Dali, or a Mongol campaign turned elsewhere.
Places of note
- Chamdo (Qamdo): Confluence of the Dzachu and Ngomchu; later prefecture seat.
- Karma Gon: Karma Kagyu house on the east bank of the Dzachu.
Where the sources disagree
- Wikipedia's Kham article, the only page we could read on the point, lists the polities of Kham without dates or chiefs and says Kham had no single ruler, 'a mix of kingdoms, tribes, and chiefdoms whose authority shifted often'. Everything below that is not tied to a named source is the general pattern of a Khampa valley, marked as such.
- The gazetteer lacks Chamdo/Changdu; Wikipedia's coordinates of the municipal government (31.143 N, 97.170 E) are used.
Evidence: Place and Karma Gon from Wikipedia; no lord of the valley is documented.
On the map: Ground is drawn in the province record Chamdo, Lhatog.
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
- Wikipedia, Chamdo (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Karma Gon Monastery (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Dusum Khyenpa (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Kham (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom (read this session)
- Author's recall of the secondary literature (Petech, Tucci, Stein, Davidson, Smith, Kapstein, Dunnell): not re-read this session, so marked 'recalled' in the text
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.