The Nyingma ('old school') has no great seat and no state: it is carried by lay and monastic families who hand the Dzogchen and tantra lineages from father to son, and by treasure-revealers who find hidden texts attributed to Padmasambhava and his circle.
In Ü and Tsang the best known lineage-holding family is the Zur of Ukpalung in Tsang (recalled, with the early masters Zurpoche Shakya Jungne, Zurchung Sherab Drakpa and their descendants in the eleventh and twelfth centuries); Nyang Ral Nyima Ozer, the first great terton, is dead in 1192 or an old man until 1204 depending on which life dates one takes. In Kham the Nyingma house of Katok was founded in 1159 (the Kham sheet's). We list the family and the terton here because the brief asks for them; we cannot name a head or a site for 1200.
Who he is
- Title
- Nyingma teaching families and treasure-revealers (terton)
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
The Wikipedia pages on the Nyingma give the school's shape and name Nyang Ral Nyima Ozer (dates differ: 1124-1192 on one account, 1136-1204 on another) as an early treasure-revealer. The family houses (Zur at Ukpalung, Rong, Kham's Katok) are from our recollection and unchecked.
Overlord
none: no one rules Tibet in 1200; the house answers to its own patrons and to the custom of the valleys
What it holds
- Lineages (Dzogchen, the Kabgye), texts and the treasure-revealing tradition
- Hermitages near Samye (recalled)
Allies and rivals
The Nyingma stand outside the Kagyu-Sakya-Kadam competition; no quarrel in 1200 is recorded.
How things stand that morning
Quiet, hereditary, learned; head not known.
Wealth
No source we could open gives figures; the usual base is estates and serfs, herds, pass tolls, trade in salt, wool, tea and barley, and the gifts of patrons.
Military
No standing army; the house or lord calls on retainers, tenants and kin. No troop numbers are given by any source we could open.
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.
- 1212-1270 (recalled)Guru Chowang, the next great terton, lives.Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: None.
Where the sources disagree
- Nyang Ral Nyima Ozer: 1124-1192 on one Wikipedia account and 1136-1204 on another; both stated.
Evidence: Two Wikipedia accounts of one terton and nothing else we could open. Treasury of Lives, the Blue Annals, the Red Annals, Petech, Sorensen and Hazod and Davidson could not be opened in this session (treasuryoflives.org and rigpawiki.org refused the fetch; the archive.org full texts were refused or cut off), so facts marked 'recalled' are from memory of those works and unchecked.
On the map: No map part; the sites are not pinned. The seat stands for Samye, which is the school's foundation story.
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
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.