The De ther rgya mtsho reports, in describing the region of mDo smad, that the place name Tsha kho found in rGyal mo (tsha ba) roṅ means the Kho Clan of Tsha ba roṅ, Kho being an abbreviation of Kho ʼphan. In the present author's view, this is the Kho Clan incorporated in the ʼPhan po Rlaṅs Clan of Sum pa; in earlier times it was, under the name Pai-kou 白狗, subject to the Pai-lan 白蘭 (rLaṅs), later to be absorbed by the latter through marital relations. ʼKho was transcribed by the modern Chinese with kuo 戈, while later Tibetan literature spelled it also 'sGo, mGo or ʼGo.' The ʼPhan po rLaṅs Clan, including the Kho/sGo, had another clan with which it was historically closely related: the sBraṅ Clan that now inhabits rGyal mo roṅ. The original homes of the latter to the South and West are at present known as Ta Chin Chʻuan 大金川, Hsiao Chin Chʻuan 小金川 and gSer po. In Tibetan, Ta/Hsiao Chin Chʻuan is spelled Gyim shod. These circumstances suggest that the name sBraṅ may be a Tibetan corruption of suvarṇa (gotra), as Gyim/Chin and gSer both mean 'gold'. The first indication of the relationship between the clans sBraṅ and rLaṅs is found in the 'Tung Nü Kuo Chuan' 東女国伝 in the Hsin T'ang Shu and the Chiu T'ang Shu, where Pin-chiu 賓就, Kao-pa 高覇 and K'ang-yen Ch'uan 康延川 are identified with ʼPhan che'u, Kho pa and Gyim shod. Thus succession from the Tung Nü Kuo (Eastern Kingdom of Women) down to rGyal mo roṅ (the Kingdom of the Queen's Valley) can be traced without interruption. A problem left to future studies is the claim of the sBraṅ Clan that it arrived in mDo smad after having been expelled from Central Tibet and that it is related to the Ancient Tibetan Kings, being one in gduṅ brgyud and being Shang po at the same time.
