The old capital of the Khasa kingdom, a high valley near Jumla where excavation has found palaces, temples, an underground pipe network for water and a ring of massive monolithic stone columns round the settlement (Wikipedia, which also credits Cambridge, a claim to be checked).
The Khas language, the ancestor of Nepali, took shape here: cliff and pillar inscriptions of the thirteenth century at Sinja and Dullu are among its earliest Devanagari writing, and caves across the Hima river hold votive Buddhist chaityas. In 1200 the king, who is not known by name, lives here.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known by name for 1200
- Title
- King of the Khasa
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
See the Khasa king record.
What the town holds
- the Sinja valley
- the palaces and temples
How things stand that morning
The seat of the king of the Khasa; nothing dated.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Council
The king's officers; none named.
Communities
Khas farmers and herders; Buddhist and Hindu priests; Masto (spirit) rites in stone shrines still practised.
Walls and castle
Palaces and temples within a ring of stone columns (excavated); dated later by Wikipedia to the twelfth to fourteenth century.
Trade and crafts
The salt and wool road; grain; stonework.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Excavated site; the date of the remains is loose.
On the map: Approximate.
Primary sources for Khasa kingdom
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.
- The Gopala Raja Chronicle, and the Nepalese colophons, Anonymous (chronicle); various scribes (colophons) (the chronicle about 1389; the colophons are contemporary notes of the 11th to 14th centuries). The Nepal valley in 1200 is known chiefly from dated manuscript colophons and short inscriptions, which name the reigning king with the Nepal era year, and from the Gopalarajavamsavali, a chronicle written about 1389 that lists the kings with regnal years.
- 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
- 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.