The old kings of Tibet were buried at Chongye in the Chongye valley (Qonggyai County), south of the Tsangpo, in tombs on and round Mura Ri: the Chinese page counts nine identifiable mounds in two rows, the western row with Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Detsen, the eastern with Tride Songtsen.
The line of kings fell in 842; their descendants split, one branch founding the western kingdoms of Ngari (the tiw sheet's), another sinking into the local nobility of the Yarlung valley. Who the royal kin of Chongye are on 1 January 1200 no source we could open says. We record the valley as the place a player would ask about, and the holder as not known; the later Yarlung Jowo family, who write the valley's history in 1376 and claim the kings' descent, is the nearest dated name and is 176 years too late.
Who he is
- Title
- Descendant families of the Yarlung kings at Chongye
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No page we opened names a family at Chongye in 1200. The Chinese page on the royal tombs lists the buried kings (nine identifiable tombs survive on Mura Ri; the histories count 35 generations) and says nothing about their descendants or about the site in the twelfth or thirteenth century. The nearest dated name we know is Yarlung Jowo Sakya Rinchen, who writes a history of the valley in 1376 (recalled).
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
- The tombs on Mura Ri and the Chongye valley (the tombs are mostly undisturbed, per the Chinese page)
- A claim to the memory of the kings; no known land
How it was acquired
By descent, if the later claim is true.
Allies and rivals
Next door: the Lang estate at Nedong and the temples of Tradruk and Samye. No dealing recorded.
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.
Places of note
- Chongye royal tombs: The tombs of Mura Ri, nine identifiable mounds (Chinese Wikipedia, 藏王墓)
Where the sources disagree
- The brief asks for 'the descendants of the Yarlung kings at Chongye': no source we could open names any; the Mongol-age and later claims are not used for 1200.
Evidence: A tomb page and recollection; nothing about people. 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: An eight-kilometre drawing round Chongye; the real holdings are not known.
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.