Guge

Guge (; ) was an ancient dynastic kingdom in Western Tibet. The kingdom was centered in present-day Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. At various points in history after the 10th century AD, the kingdom held sway over a vast area including south-eastern Zanskar, upper Kinnaur district, and Spiti Valley, either by conquest or as tributaries. The ruins of the former capital of the Guge kingdom are located at Tsaparang in the Sutlej valley, not far from Mount Kailash and west from Lhasa. Timeline of the Era of Fragmentation and Purang-Guge Kingdom Guge was founded in the 10th century. Its capitals were located at Tholing and Tsaparang. Kyide Nyimagon, a great-grandson of Langdarma, the last monarch of the Tibetan Empire, fled to Ngari (West Tibet) from the insecure conditions in Ü-Tsang in 910. He established a kingdom around 912, annexing Purang and Guge. He established his capital in Guge. Nyimagon later divided his lands into three parts. The king's eldest son Palgyigon became ruler of Maryul (Ladakh), his second son Trashigon (bKra shis mgon) received Guge-Purang, and the third son Detsukgon received Zanskar. Trashigon was succeeded by his son Srong nge or Yeshe-Ö (Ye shes 'Od) (947–1024 or (959–1036), who was a renowned Buddhist figure. In his time a Tibetan lotsawa from Guge called Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055), after having studied in India, returned to his homeland as a monk to promote Buddhism. Together with the zeal of Yeshe-Ö, this marked the beginning of a new diffusion of Buddhist teachings in western Tibet. In 988 Yeshe-Ö took religious vows and left kingship to his younger brother Khor re. According to later historiography, the Turkic Karluks (Gar log) took the Yeshe-Ö prisoner in a war. The episode has a prominent place in Tibetan history writing. The Karluks offered to set him free if he renounced Buddhism, which he refused to do. They then demanded his weight in gold to release him.