Tsongkha chiefs

Who he is

Title

Tribal chiefs of the Tsongkha Tibetans round the Kokonor and the upper Huangshui

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Nearest dated names, all earlier: Gusiluo (997-1065, enthroned at Kuozhou 1008, moved to Qingtang 1032); Dongzhan (reigned 1065-1083); Aligu (1086-1096, unpopular); Xiazheng (to about 1102); Longza, renamed Zhao Huaide by the Song (prince and military governor 1108). The North China sheet cites Wikipedia for a last lord Zhao Huai'en who fled to the Southern Song in 1134; we could not read it. No chief is named for 1200.

Overlord

Xia overlordship from Xining (tribute and levies, not pinned); the chiefs rule their own valleys.

What it holds

• Pasture and winter camps round the Kokonor (Qinghai Lake), Haiyan, Gangca and the Gonghe basin
• The upper Huangshui above Huangyuan
• The Sun and Moon pass road and its tolls (shared with Xia; not pinned)
• Herds of horses (the 'Qinghai steeds' famous since Tuyuhun times: recalled)

How it was acquired

By inheritance from the Qingtang house and by tribal custom; no grant is recorded.

Allies and rivals

Xia at Xining (overlord, tribute); the Song-era Fan of the Tao valley and the Jin's Tibetan tribes at Hezhou (kin; North China sheet); the Golog and the Tsaidam herders to the south and west.

How things stand that morning

Quiet under loose Xia overlordship. No chief, quarrel or revolt is known for the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Horses, mules and yaks, wool and hides, salt from the Chaka lake, tolls on the lake road; tea and grain bought at Xining.

Military

Mounted tribal levies under their own chiefs; no numbers.

Threats

• Xia demands for horses and men (nothing dated)
• A quarrel with the Golog over pasture (nothing dated)

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. by 1240Mongol rule reaches eastern Amdo (Wikipedia, Amdo).Depends on: The fall of Xia (1227) and of the Jin (1234). Stopped by: A Mongol failure against the Xia and the Jin, or a player's act that halts the conquest.

Places of note

• Huangyuan (the Tibetan frontier above Xining): Old Tibetan frontier town; marks the Xia-Tibetan line in the Tarim sheet's anchors.
• Qinghai Lake (Kokonor): The lake; summer pastures and the horse country.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry kokonor-tribes: 'a population and a horse market, not a polity' and 'shaded indicatively'. Agreed; the campaign board's 36.9 N, 100.4 E point is on the lake.
• The Tarim sheet anchors Huangyuan, Haiyan, the Kokonor tribes, Menyuan, the upper Heihe at Qilian and Tianjun as tibet; we follow it.

Evidence: History to 1109 is documented (Tsongkha article); the 1136 hand-over is documented; what the tribes did in the 1190s is not.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

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

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