The valley's merchants take the grain, cloth, sugar and cast copper of the Indian plain up the Kuti and Kyirong roads and bring down salt, wool, borax, gold dust and musk, and its artists, the lost-wax casters and repousse workers of Patan and the painters and carvers of the three towns, work for the Tibetan monasteries that buy their images and paint their walls.
They are not a single power with a seat: they are the households of the three towns, organised in guthi and guilds, whose ledgers, toll arrangements and credit make the king's tolls worth taking. Their quarrels with the Tibetan border lords over passage and with each other over the tolls are not recorded for 1200.
Who he is
- Name
- Not known by name
- Title
- Merchants (the caravan leaders and householders of the three towns) and the guilds of casters, carvers and painters
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Newar householders; the Tibetan trade of Newar merchants and artists runs from the eleventh century at least (Newar artists worked at Tholing and in Guge under Yeshe-O's successors; Newar masters are commissioned by Tibetan houses through the twelfth century).
- Confidence
- low
General reading (Slusser, Locke and the campaign board's notes), not checked against a document of 1200; no merchant is named in any source we could read for the 1190s.
What it holds
- houses, shops and warehouses in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur
- caravan stations at Banepa, Nuwakot and the passes
- the casting workshops of Patan
How things stand that morning
Active: the roads are open from about April to November and the trade is the reason the valley is rich. The caravans halt at Kathmandu.
Wealth
Salt, wool, borax, gold dust and musk down; rice, grain, cloth, sugar and cast copper up; images and paintings for Tibetan houses.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Threats
- snow and landslide on the Kuti road
- robbers on the tarai approach
- the Karnata and Muslim raiders on the plains roads
Places of note
- The caravan halt at Kathmandu: Where the India and Tibet roads cross.
Where the sources disagree
- The brief's 'Nepali silver mohar' is a later coin (the Malla coinage and the mohar come centuries after 1200); we give no coin.
Evidence: The existence of the trade is certain; the people in it are not named in any source read.
On the map: No ground.
Primary sources for Nepal valley
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.
- The Gopala Raja Chronicle, and the Nepalese colophons, Anonymous (chronicle); various scribes (colophons) (the chronicle about 1389; the colophons are contemporary notes of the 11th to 14th centuries). The Nepal valley in 1200 is known chiefly from dated manuscript colophons and short inscriptions, which name the reigning king with the Nepal era year, and from the Gopalarajavamsavali, a chronicle written about 1389 that lists the kings with regnal years.
- 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 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
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.