Nyarong chiefs

Who he is

Title

Valley chiefs and headmen of the Nyarong, with the lamas of the Nyingma and Bon houses

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No chief or lama is named for 1200. Wikipedia's Kham article says Nyingma and Bon monasteries already stood in Kham in the imperial era (before the 840s), 'especially in Nyarong Valley'. The Nyarong chief Gompo Namgyal, whom the same article covers from 1837, is 640 years later.

What it holds

• Terraced villages and fortified houses along the Yalong and its side valleys
• Summer grass on the ridges
• Tolls on the track between the Hor country and Litang (general pattern)

How it was acquired

By inheritance and custom.

Allies and rivals

The Hor to the north; the Minyak to the east; the Litang plain to the west; the Dege valleys over the ridge to the north-west.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing valley chiefs. No dated event.

Wealth

Barley, herds, wool, tolls; gold dust (brief, for Kham). No figures.

Military

Chief's retinue and village levy; no numbers.

Places of note

• Xinlong (Nyarong), county seat: Valley centre (Wikipedia's county coordinates); not a town in 1200.

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.

Evidence: Geography and one undated sentence about the imperial-era Nyingma and Bon houses.

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

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