Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo
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Biographical details
In 1158 Dorje Gyalpo built a hermitage at Phagmo Drupa ("Sow's Ferry Crossing") in a juniper forest in Nêdong (Tibetan: སྣེ་གདོང, Wylie: sne gdong) above the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river valley. Later, as his fame spread and disciples gathered, this site developed into the major monastic seat of Dentsa Thel (Tibetan: གདན་ས་ཐེལ, Wylie: gdan sa thel) which was the center of the Phagmo Drupa or Phagdru Kagyu (Tibetan: ཕག་གྲུ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད) school of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the "four great" Dagpo Kagyu schools.
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The Phagmodrupas
After the death of Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo, his main disciple Jigten Sumgon appointed Chenga Drakpa Jungne as abbot Dentsa Thel. In 1253, when Kublai Khan gave the Sakyapas temporal power in Tibet, Dorje Pel (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ, Wylie: rdo rje dpal) the brother of Chenga Drakpa Jungne was appointed as the hereditary Tripon (myriarch) of the surrounding area of Nêdong. From that time on the Tripon who as a monk, assumed the seat of the local government of Nêdong and also ruled as abbot at Dentsa Thel. Brothers of the Tripon married to perpetuate the family line, succession going from uncle to nephew. As the Tripons of Nêdong were abbots of the monastery founded by Phagmo Drupa, and hierarchs of the Phagdru Kagyu tradition they became known as Phagdru (short of Phagmo Drupa) Tripon.
In 1322 Changchub Gyaltsen (1302–1364) became the Phagdru Myriarch of Nêdong. After he fought with a neighboring myriarchy, the then Sakya ruler of Tibet Ponchen Gyalwa Zangpo dismissed him as myriarch. He later managed to regain his position and eventually overthrew the Sakya rulers – becoming ruler of all of Central Tibet by 1354 (before the Ming dynasty was established in China in 1368). Power remained in the hands of the Phagmodru family until 1434.