Other lordship · The Tibetan lands: houses, monasteries and clan chiefs, with no king · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Dege valley chiefs

Dege is the upper Drichu (Yangtze), a country of deep gorges, wooded slopes and small farming basins.

Katok, founded in 1159, is the oldest great monastery of the region, in Baiyu about 17 km south of Horpo (Wikipedia, Kathok Monastery). Wikipedia's Kham article names Dege, Lingtsang and Nangchen as major independent polities, undated, and puts Kagyu and Sakya monasteries on the northern plains, including Gonjo and Lingtsang, also undated. The later Dege kings (the Gonchen foundation of 1448 and the line before it) are not yet, and nothing dates a Dege king in 1200.

What stands there is a patchwork of valley chiefs, the Nyingma house of Katok on the Baiyu side, and Kagyu and Sakya temples whose dates we cannot give.

Who he is

Title
Valley chiefs and clan heads of the upper Yangtze (Drichu), with the lay patrons of Katok
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

No chief is named for 1200, and neither Wikipedia's Katok article nor Rigpa Wiki's Katok page names a patron family. Wikipedia's Derge article calls the line of the Derge kings '1300-year' and gives no start date, so that claim cannot be used for 1200. The Dege Gonchen of 1448 (the brief) and the kingdom built on it are not yet.

What it holds

  • Farming basins and fortified houses on the Drichu and its side rivers
  • Summer pasture on the ridges
  • The patron's rights over Katok: gifts, protection, a place in its feasts (general pattern; no patron named)

How it was acquired

By inheritance and custom.

Allies and rivals

Katok (Nyingma teachers and patrons); the Hor to the south-east; the Yushu herders and Nangchen to the north-west; the Chamdo valleys to the west.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing valley chiefs. No dated event.

Wealth

Barley, herds, wool, timber, tolls on the road to Chamdo; gold dust (brief, for Kham). No figures.

Military

Retinues and village 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.

  1. 1270A Sakya lama, a student of Sakya Pandita, founds a monastery in Kham (Wikipedia, Kham).Depends on: The Sakya link with the Mongols after Sakya Pandita's journey of 1244, and a student of his reaching Kham. Stopped by: A break between Sakya and the Mongols, or the lama's death before he reaches Kham.

Places of note

  • Dege (Derge): Valley centre; later royal seat.
  • Baiyu (Palyul), approximate: Valley of Katok.
  • Gonjo (Gongjue), approximate: Valley with Kagyu and Sakya temples, undated.

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's 'Dege' resolves to another Dege; every Dege point in this file carries coordinates (31.81 N, 98.58 E).

Evidence: Katok's founding and place from two sources; the chiefs only as the general pattern.

On the map: Ground is drawn in the province record Khams (Dege, Litang, Batang).

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, Derge (read this session)
  2. Wikipedia, Kham (read this session)
  3. Wikipedia, Kathok Monastery (read this session)
  4. Rigpa Wiki, Katok Monastery (read this session)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.