Lhasa is, on 1 January 1200, a pilgrim town on the north bank of the Kyichu, built round the Jokhang and Ramoche temples, a few kilometres below the ruined Red Hill (Marpo Ri) where the kings' palace stood; there is no Potala of the Dalai Lamas (1645) and no great monasteries of the Gelug (all fifteenth century).
The settlement is made of the keepers' and pilgrims' houses, lodgings for visitors from Ü, Tsang, Kham and Nepal, and the fields along the river. Nobody the pages name rules it. The nearest organised house is the Tsalpa Kagyu monastery of Tsel Gungthang (about 10 km east), with Yerpa upstream and the Kyichu valley houses of Drikung, Taklung, Tsurphu and Reting a day or two away; the Mongol-age Tsel myriarchy that held the east Lhasa valley is a recollection and not a 1200 fact.
WHO HOLDS LHASA: not known. If a player writes 'we hold Lhasa', the plain reading is that they are the temple keepers' patron, with no army, no walls and no tax of their own.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lord or custodian of Lhasa
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No source we could open names a lord of Lhasa in 1200. En Wikipedia (Lhasa) says only that after the ninth century 'the centre of political power was not situated in Lhasa' and that its religious importance grew.
Overlord
none: no one rules Tibet in 1200; the house answers to its own patrons and to the custom of the valleys
What the town holds
Allies and rivals
Tsel Gungthang (east), Yerpa (north-east), Nyethang (west). No quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
A pilgrimage town without a lord on any page we could open; no wall, no garrison, no fortress.
Wealth
Pilgrim offerings and lodging, the barley and butter of the valley, and the trade that follows pilgrims. No source gives figures.
Threats
- None known in 1199-1200.
Council
none known; the temple keepers are the only named category and none is named
Communities
Tibetan pilgrims, traders and monks; Muslim traders (en Wikipedia, Lhasa: Islam has been present in Lhasa since the eleventh century); Newar merchants and artists (inferred)
Fairs and markets
the pilgrim feasts of the temples; no fair is dated (the Great Prayer of Tsongkhapa is of 1409)
Walls and castle
none known; the Red Hill palace of the kings is a ruin and the Potala is of 1645
Trade and crafts
barley, butter, wool, salt and the goods that pilgrims carry; Newar metalwork and painting are traded up the Nepal road (inferred from the brief; not attested for Lhasa in 1200)
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.
- 1240Dorda Darkhan's Mongol column burns Reting and Gyal Lhakhang north of Lhasa.Depends on: A Mongol army reaching Tibet (Chinese and French Wikipedia on Reting). Stopped by: No Mongol rise.
Places of note
- Jokhang: The temple
- Ramoche: The second temple
Where the sources disagree
- The en Wikipedia Jokhang page's coordinates (91 02 51 E) put the temple about 9 km west of the Lhasa page's coordinates (91 07 03 E); we use the gazetteer's 29.65 N, 91.10 E for the town and 29.653 N, 91.131 E for the Jokhang.
Evidence: Two Wikipedia pages with little on the period; the brief's question 'who holds Lhasa' has no sourced answer. 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. Dates: 1200 is an Iron-Monkey year in the Tibetan cycle (the first sixty-year cycle began in 1027, a Fire-Hare year); 1 January 1200 falls in the closing weeks of the Earth-Sheep year (1199), before the Tibetan new year. Western years below are the ones the cited pages give; the Tibetan histories give animal-years and the conversions differ by a year or two.
On the map: The drawn land is the 10 km seeds disc of the tierra; the true limits of any lordship of Lhasa 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.