kingdom · China, Tibet and Mongolia

Nangchen

1300 CE – 1932 CE (approx.) · capital Nangchen

A kingdom of nomad and farming clans in the upper Mekong and Yangtze valleys of Kham, famous for its many Kagyu monasteries.

Origins

Nangchen, in today's Yushu region of southern Qinghai, emerged as a principality under a hereditary royal family in the Mongol period. Tradition credits its kings with receiving recognition from the Sakya lama Phagpa in the 13th century, and their house ruled a federation of local tribes from the royal seat at Nangchen.

Rule and society

The king presided over some twenty-five tribes, mostly yak-herding nomads with some farming villages, each under its own chief. The kingdom was a stronghold of the Drukpa, Barom and Drigung Kagyu traditions, with dozens of monasteries. From the 18th century it was nominally under Qing supervision from Xining, while maintaining close religious ties with Lhasa.

Decline and legacy

In the Sino-Tibetan fighting of 1932 the Muslim warlords of Qinghai took effective control, and Nangchen's autonomy ended. The royal family kept some local standing until the 1950s, when the People's Republic of China abolished the old order.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

  • Nangchen was a vassal of Qing Empire1725 CE – 1912 CE

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Nangchen. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nangchen
MLA
“Nangchen.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nangchen. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Nangchen.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nangchen.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Nangchen’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/nangchen (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻