From ’Ba’ rom to Ris med: A Genealogy of the Kingdom of Nang chen research-article Lucia Galli Central Asiatic Journal, Jahrgang 62 (2019), Ausgabe 1, Seite 91 - 118 The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the genealogy of the royal lines who ruled the kingdom of Nang chen (present-day Nangqên County, Qinghai province) from the early fourteenth century up to the Chinese Communist takeover in the 1950s. The chronological reconstruction of these lineages – being of historical value in itself, due to the understudied status of Nang chen in Western scholarship – corroborates our understanding of the nineteenth-century phenomenon of non-sectarianism (ris med), presenting it as the re-emergence of earlier tendencies and concepts. From the fourteenth century onwards, the eclectic and inclusive approach adopted by local royal courts gradually turned Nang chen from a ’Ba’ rom bKa’ brgyud stronghold into a lodestone capable of attracting some of the most important spiritual figures of the time, thus successfully integrating the kingdom into a wider geopolitical network and setting the basis for the activities of later ris med masters.