Derge

Derge was a Tibetan polity in Kham, ruled by the Gar clan, which traced its descent from the minister Gar Tongtsen.

The rulers moved their seat to Derge in the fifteenth century. Allied with the Khoshut Khanate, they defeated Bön Beri in 1639. The Qing recognised Derge’s ruler as a tusi in 1728; in 1729 Tenpa Tsering founded a printing house whose woodblocks made Derge a centre of Tibetan learning. A family feud began its decline in 1799.