Gungsrong Gungtsen

Who is Gungsrong Gungtsen?

Gungsrong Gungtsen, Gungsong Gungsten, or Kungsong Kungtsen was the only known son of Songtsän Gampo, the first Tibetan emperor.

Songtsän Gampo is said to have had five wives, the Nepalese princess, Khri b'Tsun, or "Royal Lady", and the Chinese Princess Wencheng, both devout Buddhists, are the best known, but he also married daughters of the King of Zhang-zhung and the King of Minyak, as well as one each from the Ruyong and Mong clans.

Gungsrong Gungtsen was born to Mangza Tricham, Princess of Mang, who came from Tolung - a valley to the west of Lhasa.

It seems most unlikely that Songtsän Gampo handed over power to his son after his marriage to Princess Wencheng in 641, as she was married to the ruling monarch and there is no mention of such an event in the Chinese or Tibetan Annals. If Gungsrong Gungtsen was married and had a son before 641, he was most probably born sometime before 625.

He is traditionally said to have been born at a nine-storied palace known as the "Celestial Auspicious Mansion of Draglha", built by the Nepalese Princess Bhrikuti Devi to the south of Lhasa. It is said that a shrine and a stupa were then built by his father on a rocky mountain near Yerpa which resembled a seated image of Tara.