Lords of Mangyul

Who he is

Name

Not known by name

Title

Local lords (dpon) and hierarchs of Mangyul

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

The Gungthang royal house is first attested with Bumdegon (1253-1280; the kingdom dated about 1265 under Sakya overlordship, Wikipedia, Mangyul Gungthang); nobody is attested as its king in 1200.

Confidence

low

Wikipedia's Mangyul Gungthang page names only Bumdegon and the later capital at Dzongkar. It does not mention Kyirong, Kuti, Nyalam, Dingri or Mustang. For 1200 we could find no lord.

What it holds

• Kyirong and its shrine of the Arya Avalokiteshvara (the Phagpa Wati statue)
• Kuti (Nyalam) and the Bhote Kosi gorge head
• Dingri and its plain
• tolls and the right to lodge caravans

Allies and rivals

The Newar merchants and the thakkura houses on the Nepal side; the Sakya, Kagyu and Drikung hierarchs; Guge-Purang to the west.

How things stand that morning

No king and no state. The Gungthang kingdom is later.

Wealth

Tolls on the salt, wool, borax, gold dust and musk down and the rice, cloth and copper up; pasture and barley.

Military

No army is recorded and no number is known.

Threats

• a Sakya or Drikung patron claiming the passes
• a dispute with the Nepal valley over tolls

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. 1253 to 1265 (later)The Gungthang royal house is established under Bumdegon with Sakya overlordship.Depends on: The rise of Sakya in the 1240s and after. Stopped by: Given only as a later event.

Places of note

• Kyirong (Gyirong): Town and pass on the Trisuli road.
• Nyalam (Kuti): Town and pass on the Bhote Kosi road.
• Dingri (Langkor): Plain of Padampa Sangye's monastery.

Where the sources disagree

• The brief assigns 'Gungthang' to the realm tibet; we write Mangyul as a country of lords and hierarchs, with no Gungthang king, because the first is of the 1250s.

Evidence: One Wikipedia page and the later religious histories; nothing dated to 1200 was found.

On the map: The country is drawn from the later Mangyul Gungthang; the 1200 lords' holdings are not documented.

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