Lang clan

Who he is

Title

Head of the Lang clan, patron of Phagmodru and Densa Thil

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

Chinese Wikipedia (丹萨替寺, 帕木竹巴) and English Wikipedia (Phagmodrupa dynasty, Phagmo Drupa) name only Chenga Drakpa Jungne (1175-1255) of the Lang clan, who becomes abbot of Densa Thil in 1208; the lay head of the clan in 1199-1200 is not named.

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

• The Phagmodru estate round Nedong
• The patronage of Densa Thil and the right, from 1208, to the abbacy
• The Nedong ferry of the Tsangpo (the 'sow's ferry', Phagmodru) and the road along the river

How it was acquired

Not pinned; the family patronised Phagmo Drupa's hermitage from 1158 or 1159.

Allies and rivals

Rivals for the founder's mantle: Drikung (Jigten Sumgon) and Taklung (Tashi Pel). Allies: the Densa Thil monks. No other house is named.

How things stand that morning

Rich clan of the Yarlung valley, in dispute over the Densa Thil inheritance, abbot's seat open or held by an unnamed person.

Wealth

The estate round Nedong (fields and tenants), ferry dues at the Tsangpo crossing, and the gifts of the daughter houses. No figures.

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

• The daughter houses' claim to Densa Thil, which the 1208 appointment settles in the clan's favour.

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. 1208Chenga Drakpa Jungne becomes abbot of Densa Thil and the abbacy then passes within the Lang clan.Depends on: The clan keeping the lay patronage and the daughter houses accepting it. Stopped by: A rival named by Drikung or Taklung.
2. 1322-1354Changchub Gyaltsen (born 1302) becomes myriarch of Phagmodru and overthrows Sakya in 1354.Depends on: Mongol rule over Tibet and its collapse; far outside the game's horizon. Stopped by: No Mongol conquest.

Places of note

• Nedong: The clan's seat and the ferry (site of the 1158 hermitage not pinned)

Where the sources disagree

• The brief lists 'Lang and Rlangs' as two houses; they are one.

Evidence: Two Chinese pages and two English pages agree on the shape; the clan in 1200 is nowhere described. 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. Dates: 1200 is an Iron-Monkey year in the Tibetan cycle (the first sixty-year cycle began in 1027, a Fire-Hare year); 1 January 1200 falls in the closing weeks of the Earth-Sheep year (1199), before the Tibetan new year. Western years below are the ones the cited pages give; the Tibetan histories give animal-years and the conversions differ by a year or two.

On the map: Ten-kilometre drawing round Nedong; the estate may be larger or smaller.

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