Hor is the Tibetan name for peoples of the north; in Kham it names the Tibetan-speaking valley people of the Garze plain and the Luhuo and Daofu valleys, between the Minyak country on the south-east and the Dege valleys on the north-west.
Garze (Ganzi) is a wide plain at about 3,400 m (recalled), with barley fields, winter villages and summer grass on the ridges. On 1 January 1200 there is no Hor state to draw: the later 'Hor states' are chiefdoms that take shape by the Mongol and Ming centuries. What stands there is a string of hereditary valley chiefs, each with a fortified house, a few villages, a monastery or two (none named for 1200) and a seat on the north road from the Minyak country to Dege.
Who he is
- Title
- Valley chiefs and clan headmen of the Hor (Horpa) of the Garze, Luhuo and Daofu valleys
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No chief is named for 1200. Wikipedia's Kham article names 'the Hor States' among the important polities of Kham and gives no date and no chief. The five Hor states of the later chronicles (Drango at Luhuo, Tawu at Daofu, Beri, Mazur and Chuwo: recalled, not read) are not dated to 1200 in anything we reached, and the Mongol-descent tradition that goes with them is a story of the later 13th century and after, so it is not yet.
What it holds
- Winter villages and barley terraces in the valleys of Garze, Luhuo and Daofu
- Summer pasture and yak herds on the ridges
- Tolls on the north road from Dartsedo to Dege and Chamdo (general pattern)
- Gold-washing in the streams (brief, for Kham; not documented here)
How it was acquired
By inheritance and custom; no grant or conquest is recorded.
Allies and rivals
The Minyak to the south-east; the Gyalrong across the ridge to the north-east; Nyarong to the south; Dege to the north-west. Feuds between valley chiefs are the rule in Kham (Wikipedia, Kham: authority 'shifted often'), but none is dated for the winter.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing valley chiefs. No dated event. Whether any Hor chief answered to a larger lord is not known.
Wealth
Barley, yaks, horses, wool, butter and hides, tolls on the road, gold dust (brief, for Kham). No figures.
Military
The chief's retinue and the village levy; fortified houses and towers (general pattern). No numbers.
Threats
- A quarrel with a neighbouring valley over pasture or a murder (nothing dated)
Places of note
- Garze (Ganzi): Plain and later centre of the Hor; not a town in 1200.
- Luhuo (Drango), approximate: Valley of the Drango chiefs of the later chronicles.
- Daofu (Tawu), approximate: Valley of the Tawu chiefs of the later chronicles.
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.
Evidence: One undated sentence in Wikipedia's Kham article; geography; the general pattern.
On the map: Ground is drawn in the province record Hor.
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, Kham (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (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.