Litang chiefs

Who he is

Title

Plain chiefs and herd-lords of Litang, with the abbot of Pamphuk

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No chief is named. Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193) built Pamphuk monastery at Litang at the age of 60 (Wikipedia, Dusum Khyenpa), which is about 1170. Who headed it in 1200 is not known. The Litang chiefs and the Hor-Litang lines of the Ming and after are not yet.

What it holds

• Pasture on the plain and the herds of yaks and horses
• A few valley villages with barley
• Pamphuk monastery and the Bon temple (no estates documented)
• Tolls on the road from Dartsedo to Batang (general pattern)

How it was acquired

By custom; Pamphuk by Dusum Khyenpa's own foundation about 1170.

Allies and rivals

Nyarong to the north; Batang to the west; the Minyak of Muya to the east; the Karma Kagyu at Karma Gon and Tsurphu (Pamphuk's mother house).

How things stand that morning

Self-governing. No dated event. Head of Pamphuk not known.

Wealth

Herds, wool, butter, hides, tolls on the road. No figures.

Military

Herdsmen with their chiefs; 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. 1272The Yuan sets up Litang Zhou (Wikipedia, Litang County).Depends on: The Mongol conquest of Dali and the Kham road in the 1250s, and a Yuan state to give the title. Stopped by: A Mongol failure at Dali or in Kham in the 1250s, or no Yuan state.

Places of note

• Litang plain: The plain and later town.
• Pamphuk (Panphuk) monastery, approximate: Dusum Khyenpa's foundation of about 1170; exact site not pinned.

Where the sources disagree

• The gazetteer's 'Litang' is missing; every Litang point carries coordinates. Wikipedia's county coordinates (29.994 N, 100.269 E) are for the county government, which may lie a few kilometres from the old plain.

Evidence: Pamphuk's founding from one Wikipedia sentence of Dusum Khyenpa's life; the Bon origin of Litang's temple from the county page; nothing political.

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.

• 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