Gombo Namgye

Gombo Namgye (1799 – 1865) (Tibetan: མགོན་པོ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ, Wylie: mgon po rnam rgyal), also known as Bulungwa (literally 'Blind Man'), was a Tibetan rebel leader from Nyarong who unified Nyarong, then all of Kham in a series of campaigns from the 1840s to the 1860s and warred against the Qing Dynasty and the Ganden Phodrang. While he was initially successful in evading his powerful enemies, he was eventually captured and killed, putting an end to his state of Nyarong.

Gombo Namgye was born in 1799 in Nyarong; his parents were from a lineage of local chieftains who ruled the middle of the Nyarong Valley; his father had refused to submit to Qing rule and had been killed for it. The region of Nyarong was poor due to its isolation and inaccessibility, and its inhabitants made their living by raiding caravans and bandit activity. Soon Namgye inherited the chieftainship from his parents, marking his entry into history.

By the end of the 1840's, Namgye had united the three chiefdoms of the Nyarong Valley, marking a break from its historical disunity. This was met with a Qing campaign into Nyarong, however, it was driven back. However, it soo became apparent that his ambitions were greater than this, as he soon attacked the Hor States, Derge, and Litang, as well as, in the words of Tibetan historian Yudru Tsomu, "harassing and plundering the domains of the Chakla king". To avoid Namgye's campaigns, especially due to his reputation for being merciless, states such as Golog, Nangchen, Serta, and Jyekundo, decided to submit to him. By the early 1860's, he was confident enough to impede trade linking Kham and Tibet. However, his most infamous and alarming act to both the Ganden Phodrang and Qing governments was threatening to take his forces to Lhasa and enter the Jokhang. There he would steal two of holiest statues of Tibetian Buddhism and take him to his homeland, where he would install them and force pilgrims to travel there. By 1860, he controlled almost all of Kham.

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