The Tibetan end of the western road to the Nepal valley: up the Trisuli through its gorge, over the watershed at Rasuwa and down to Kyirong, the shorter and gentler of the two roads, which the campaign board says the caravans prefer.
Wikipedia's Gyirong County page says that up to 1960 one of the main Nepal-Tibet trade routes ran through it, that it was easily reached from Nepal and was used several times, undated, for military entrances into Tibet, that Atisha visited Kyirong in the eleventh century (unsourced), that it was one of Milarepa's favourite meditation places (Milarepa lived about 1052 to about 1135), and that the Phagpa temple held one of Tibet's holiest Avalokiteshvara images, the Arya Wati Sangpo (the page gives it no date; it was taken to India in 1959). The page also attributes a temple here to Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century, unsourced. In 1200 Kyirong is a valley town held by local lords and its monasteries, without a king above it: the Gungthang kings are of the 1250s onward.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known by name for 1200
- Title
- Lords and hierarchs of Kyirong
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia's Gyirong County page names no ruler before the Mangyul Gungthang kings and no one for 1200.
What the town holds
- the town and the Phagpa temple
- the toll on the Nepal road
- the monasteries of the Kyirong valley
How things stand that morning
Snow closes the pass in winter; no event is dated.
Wealth
Tolls and lodging on the salt, wool, borax, gold dust and musk going down and the rice, cloth and cast copper coming up.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Council
Local lords and the monasteries; none named.
Communities
Tibetan-speaking farmers and traders; Newar merchants who come up the road; monks and hermits.
Walls and castle
not known. The later dzong at Dzongka is not yet built (not checked).
Trade and crafts
Transshipment from porters and mules of the Nepal road to the Tibetan caravans.
Places of note
- Rasuwa (the pass): The watershed on the Trisuli road.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Wikipedia's county page and the campaign board; nothing dated to 1200.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Approximate.
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.