The Gya are a family of Tsang whose son Tsangpa Gyare founded the Drukpa Kagyu and made Ralung, a glacier valley monastery south of the Karo pass in Gyantse County, the seat of the line.
The Drukpa headship stays in the Gya kin: the hierarch's nephew Onre Darma Senge (born 1177, so 23 in January 1200) is the chosen heir and takes the throne in 1211, and the Ralung seat then passes inside the family until the seventeenth century. This is a lord record for the family; the monastery and its drawing are in the religious record Ralung. Tsangpa Gyare is 38; Gotsangpa (born 1189) and Lorepa (born 1187) are boys or youths, and their journeys belong to later decades.
Who he is
- Name
- Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (Gtsang pa rgya ras)
- Title
- Head of the Gya clan and of the Drukpa
- Since
- 1180 or 1193
- Born
- 1161 (died 1211)
- Family
- Gya (Rgya)
- Confidence
- medium
En Wikipedia (Tsangpa Gyare, Ralung Monastery): born into the Gya clan near Kule in Tsang; father Gya Zurpo Tsabpey, mother Marza Darkyi; his nephew Onre Darma Senge (1177-1237) is the first of the Middle Drukpa of Ralung.
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
- Ralung and its valley (see Ralung)
- The Gya family estates near Kule in Tsang (not itemised)
- The Longbol and Namphu monasteries (Namphu is where tradition has nine dragons rise from the ground)
How it was acquired
Hereditary; Tsangpa Gyare took Ralung in 1180 (en) or 1193 (zh).
Allies and rivals
Teacher Lingchen Repa, himself a pupil of Phagmo Drupa. Heir: Onre Darma Senge. The Drukpa meet the Lhapa of Bhutan only after 1224.
How things stand that morning
A rising family house; the hierarch in his prime and the nephew trained as heir.
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
- None in 1200.
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.
- 1211Tsangpa Gyare dies; Onre Darma Senge (1177-1237) takes the Ralung throne.Depends on: Natural death on its date. Stopped by: None.
- 1224Phajo Drugom Zhigpo leaves Ralung for Bhutan.Depends on: The Phajo page's date and the roads over the passes. Stopped by: A closed road.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Life, clan and nephew are on two Wikipedia pages in two languages. 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.
On the map: No map part; Ralung is drawn on Ralung.
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, Tsangpa Gyare
- Wikipedia, Ralung Monastery
- Chinese Wikipedia, 竹巴噶举
- Wikipedia, Phajo Drugom Zhigpo
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.