Town · The Tibetan lands: houses, monasteries and clan chiefs, with no king · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Nedong

Nedong lies at the mouth of the Yarlung valley on the Tsangpo, where the hermit Phagmo Drupa built his first hermitage in 1158 or 1159 (Phagmodru, 'the sow's ferry').

In 1200 it is the estate and ferry of the Lang clan, and the base from which the clan carries on the patronage of Densa Thil on the hills north of the river. The fortress of Nedong (Nedong Dzong), the Tsetang monastery of 1351 and the capital of the Phagmodrupa princes are fourteenth-century; on 1 January 1200 there is no dzong, only a family estate, a ferry and a hermitage. The modern town of Tsetang belongs to the same ground and is not a 1200 settlement as such.

Who holds it

Title
Head of the Lang clan at Nedong
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

No source we could open names the holder for the winter of 1199-1200.

Lord in 1200

The Lang clan (see Lang clan)

Overlord

none: no one rules Tibet in 1200; the house answers to its own patrons and to the custom of the valleys

How things stand that morning

The Lang clan's estate and ferry; no dzong, no walls.

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.

Council

none known; the place is governed by its lord or house, and no source we could open names a headman or judge

Communities

Tibetan; no other community is attested here

Fairs and markets

none known; pilgrims and caravans meet at the feasts of the temples, but no fair is dated

Walls and castle

none known; the dzong (fort) as an institution of the district lord belongs to the fourteenth century

Trade and crafts

the Tsangpo ferry dues and the road up the Yarlung valley; no source gives figures

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. 1351-1354Tsetang monastery is founded (1351) and the Phagmodrupa overthrow Sakya (1354).Depends on: A Mongol-Yuan collapse. Stopped by: No such collapse.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The Phagmodru pages (en and zh) and the gazetteer's Naidong point. 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.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo
  2. Chinese Wikipedia, 丹萨替寺
  3. Chinese Wikipedia, 帕木竹巴
  4. Wikipedia, Phagmodrupa dynasty

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.