Markam chiefs

Who he is

Title

Valley chiefs and headmen of the lower Dzachu, Salween (Gyalmo Ngulchu) and Drichu gorges

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No chief is named for 1200; nothing but the road is documented.

What it holds

• Gorge villages and barley terraces
• The junction of the two tea roads at Markam (general pattern; no toll named)
• Pasture on the ridges

How it was acquired

By inheritance and custom.

Allies and rivals

Batang to the north-east; Chamdo to the north-west; the Gyalthang and Dechen Tibetans to the south; the Dali frontier beyond the Jinsha and the Salween.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing. No dated event.

Wealth

Tolls at the road junction, barley, herds; no figures.

Military

Retinues and levies; 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. 1253Uriyangkhadai's column marches from Lintao through Kham towards Dali and the Jinsha (Wikipedia, Dali Kingdom).Depends on: Kublai's south-western campaign. Stopped by: A Mongol failure at Lintao or Dali, or a campaign turned elsewhere.

Places of note

• Markam (Mangkang): Valley centre and junction of the roads.
• Zogang (Wangda): Valley centre.
• Baxoi (Pasho), approximate: Valley centre.

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.
• Wikipedia's Tea Horse Road page dates the Yunnan-Tibet branch to the late sixth century and describes the meeting at Markam as a fact of the road, not of a year; we use it for the road only.

Evidence: One Wikipedia paragraph on the roads; no political source.

On the map: Ground is drawn in the province record Markam.

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