Karma Phuntsok Namgyal

Karma Phuntsok Namgyal (Tibetan: ཀར་མ་ཕུན་ཚོགས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: Kar-ma Phun-tshogs Rnam-rgyal) (1587 – March 1620) was a king of Tibet who ruled from 1618 to 1620. He belonged to the Tsangpa Dynasty that held power in Tsang (West Central Tibet) since 1565 and was the foremost political and military power in Tibet until 1642.

The family background of Karma Phuntsok Namgyal is somewhat unclear. According to a religious biography, he was the son of Karma Thutob Namgyal, ruler of Upper Tsang, and a lady from Yargyab. Other sources make him the son of either of the rulers Karma Tseten or Karma Tensung. The law code issued by his son Karma Tenkyong vaguely says that Karma Thutob Namgyal and his brothers had Karma Phuntsok Namgyal as their son, suggesting the Tibetan practice of polyandry. The same text asserts that he was 25 years old in 1611, which in the Tibetan system would indicate 1587 as his year of birth. According to some texts his predecessor Karma Tensung died in the iron-pig year 1611. However, another source mentions Karma Phuntsok Namgyal as a Tsangpa leader by 1603. As such he would have directed the military attack into Ü (East Central Tibet) in 1605. According to still another text his first major feat was an incident in 1607 when he led his troops in an attack that dispersed a Mongol force that had been called in by the lord of Kyishö near Lhasa. At his accession he held control over the bulk of Tsang, Toh in western Tibet, and some parts of Ü. In 1612–13 he led an expedition to Ngari (West Tibet), where Mangyül Gungthang was subjugated. Latö Lho and Latö Chang (in western Tsang) suffered the same fate. The agility of Karma Phuntsok Namgyal was demonstrated by his swift turn from the western campaign to invade Ü in the east in 1613. The troops from Tsang resolutely worsted the Phagmodrupa king Mipham Wanggyur Gyalpo who created trouble in the Yarlung Valley. After these feats the writ of the king of Tsang ran all the way from Latö and Nyangtö in the west to Ü in the east. Among the new acquisitions were Lopa (south of Ü), Dagpo (in the far south-east), Phanyul (to the north of Lhasa), and Neu (south-east of Lhasa). The new dependencies were nevertheless far from secured, and he had to take up arms from time to time.

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