Tibet and the Himalaya

The realms

1. The Nepal valley under its kingKingdom of the Newar towns

   The Nepal valley is a kingdom of three old Newar towns, Yambu (Kathmandu), Yala (Patan) and Khwopa (Bhaktapur), with the Shaiva shrine town of Deopatan beside them, a ring of small rim towns (Sankhu, Banepa, Panauti, Nala, Bungamati) and two hill outposts that

2. The Khasa kingdom of the KarnaliKingdom of the hill country

   The Khasa kingdom is a hill and pasture state of Khas-speaking people in the valleys of the upper Karnali, ruled from the Sinja valley near Jumla, where excavation has found palaces, temples, a pipe system for water and a ring of great stone columns.

3. Guge, Purang and Maryul: the royal houses of the westKingdoms of the far west, in fragments

   In the west the old Tibetan royal house lives on as a ring of small kingdoms and lordships, each strongest in its own valley.

4. The Tibetan lands: houses, monasteries and clan chiefs, with no kingnone

   Central Tibet on 1 January 1200 is a country of valleys and passes held by monasteries, their patron families and their hierarchs.

5. Self-governing peoples of Tibet and the HimalayaNone named for 1199-1200 in the sources readSelf-governing peoples

   Much of this sheet answers to no king and to no house that the sources name.

Primary sources for Tibet and the Himalaya

• 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.
• History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, Buton Rinchen Drub (Bu ston Rin chen grub) (1322). Optional background.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.

The whole sources library

How these entries are made

Every entry describes one morning, 1 January 1200, and keeps later events in a dated "what the year holds" list with the conditions each depended on. Each entry names its sources, rates its confidence and says where the sources disagree. Published 4 November 2026. Corrections are welcome.