Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen and Drogon Chogyal Phagpa

Drogön Chogyal Phagpa (), who lived from (26 March 1235 – 15 December 1280), was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

. He was also the first

Imperial Preceptor The Imperial Preceptor, or Dishi (; ), was a high title and powerful post in the Yuan dynasty. It was created by Kublai Khan as part of Mongol patronage of Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan administrative rule of Tibet. The title was originally cre ...

of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

and was concurrently named the director of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, serving during the reign of

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

. Historical tradition remembers him as the first vice-ruler of Tibet under the Yuan emperor as well as one of the Five Sakya patriarchs (). Although this is historically disputed, he played a very important political role.

Early life

Phagpa was born in Ngari (West Tibet) in 1235 as the son of Sönam Gyeltsen (, 1184–1239), a member of the Khön clan of Sakya (), which held hereditary power over the Sakya Monastery in Tsang, and his mother was Künga Kyi (). The ''Red Annals'' name his mother as Jomo Konchog Kyi. He was the nephew of Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), who began the relationship between Sakya and the Mongol conquerors after their first invasion of Tibet in 1240. In 1244, Sakya Pandita left Sakya to visit the royal camp of Godan Khan, son of

Ögedei Khan Ögedei Khan (also Ögedei Khagan or Ogodei; 11 December 1241) was the second Khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun. Born in 1186 AD, Öged ...

, to act as an intermediary between the Mongols and Tibetans. He brought with him his young nephews, the ten-year-old Phagpa and his brother, the six-year-old Chakna Dorje. On the way, they stopped in

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

, where Phagpa took the vows of a

śrāmaṇera A (Pali; ), is a novice male monk in a Buddhist context. A female novice nun is in , and in or . In Tibetan Buddhism, a female novice nun is known by the Tibetan language term , and a male novice monk is a .Jokhang in front of the statue of the Jowo offered by the

Princess Wencheng Princess Wencheng (; ) was a princess and member of a minor branch of the royal clan of the Tang dynasty, who married King Songtsen Gampo of the Tibetan Empire in 641. She is also known by the name Gyasa or "Chinese wife" in Tibet. Both Wencheng ...

, the Chinese wife of

Songtsen Gampo Songtsen Gampo (Classical , pronounced ) (; (601–683 CE, reign 614-648) was the 33rd Tibetan king of the Yarlung dynasty and the founder of the Tibetan Empire. The first of three Dharma Kings of Tibet, he formally introduced Buddhism to Tib ...

.Thomas Laird (2006) ''The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama'', pp. 114-117. Grove Press, New York. . Sakya Pandita preached sermons along his way and arrived at Godan's camp in Liangzhou in 1247, where Mongol troops were exterminating

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

by throwing them in a river. Sakya Pandita, horrified, gave religious instructions, in particular stressing that killing a sentient being is one of the worst acts according to Buddhism. He gave religious instruction to the prince and greatly impressed the court with his personality and powerful teachings. He is also said to have cured Godan of a serious illness. In return, Drogon Chogyel Phagpa was supposedly given "temporal authority over the 13 myriarchies 'Trikor Chuksum''of Central Tibet." Since the myriarchies had not yet emerged as a territorial unit, this cannot be entirely correct. Tibetan historians quote a letter that Sakya Pandita wrote to the local leaders of Tibet in 1249 where he stated that they henceforth must carry out the administration of their fiefs in consultation with the Sakya envoys and in accordance with Mongol law.

Entering the service of Kublai Khan

After the death of Sakya Pandita, the Mongol ruler

Möngke Khan Möngke Khan (also Möngke Khagan or Möngke; 11 January 120911 August 1259) was the fourth khagan of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251 to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reforms to im ...

dispatched new military campaigns against parts of Tibet in 1252–53. He furthermore shared the main Tibetan sects among the ruling clan. While he patronized the

Drikung Kagyu Drikung Kagyü or Drigung Kagyü ( Wylie: 'bri-gung bka'-brgyud) is one of the eight "minor" lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. "Major" here refers to those Kagyü lineages founded by the immediate disciples of Gampopa (1079-1153), ...

, Godan Khan protected Sakya and there were at least nine further appanages. Phagpa and his brother remained at the camp of Godan, learned

Middle Mongol Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the coll ...

. and took up Mongol dress. Möngke's brother Kublai, after a brief flirtation with

Chan Buddhism Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning " meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song ...

, found Tibetan Buddhism more to his liking. In 1253 he asked Godan to give him Chögyal Phagpa, who was then 18. Kublai was subsequently converted to Buddhism by his efforts and Phagpa became his tantric guru in 1258. Under the influence of Kublai's wife Chabi, their mutual relation was defined so that Phagpa had a precedence in religious matters and Kublai in temporal affairs. When the prince received religious instruction from his lama, the latter sat on a higher seat, while Kublai sat higher than Phagpa when he conducted court business. Phagpa further strengthened his case by defeating his

Daoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

opponents in a great debate in Kublai's newly built city

Kaiping Kaiping (), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, in local dialect as Hoihen, is a county-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province, China. It is located in the western secti ...

in 1258. Shortly after,

took power in a succession struggle after the death of his brother Möngke in 1259. He thereby became the Khagan, the ruler of the Mongols; later on, he became the

Emperor of China Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandat ...

. Phagpa supported the new lord by presenting him as a

chakravartin A ''chakravarti'' (, ) is an ideal (or idealized) universal ruler, in the history, and religion of India. The concept is present in Indian subcontinent cultural traditions, narrative myths and lore. There are three types of chakravarti: ''c ...

or universal ruler. Kublai Khan in turn appointed Chögyal Phagpa as

in 1260, the year when he was proclaimed

khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...

. According to Mongol sources, Phagpa was the first one "to initiate the

political theology Political theology is a term which has been used in discussion of the ways in which Theology, theological concepts or ways of thinking relate to politics. The term is often used to denote religious thought about political principled questions. Scho ...

politics of the relationship between state and religion in the Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhist world" - that is to say, he developed the concept of the priest and patron relationship. With the support of Kublai Khan, Chögyal Phagpa established himself and the Sakya as the preeminent political power in Tibet.

Development of the Phagpa script

Kublai Khan commissioned Chögyal Phagpa to design a new

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

to unify the writing of the multilingual Yuan China. Phagpa modified the

Tibetan alphabet The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or ''abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins a ...

to create his ʼPhags pa script, which was completed in 1269. Kublai Khan decided to use the ʼPhags-pa script as the official writing system of the empire, including when he became Emperor of China in 1271, instead of

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

or the

Old Uyghur alphabet The Old Uyghur alphabet was a list of alphabets used by Turkic languages, Turkic script used for writing Old Uyghur, a variety of Old Turkic spoken in Turpan and Gansu that is the ancestor of the modern Western Yugur language. The term "Old Uyghu ...

formerly used for Mongolian. However, he encountered major resistances and difficulties when trying to promote this script and never achieved his original goal. As a result, only a small number of texts were written in this script, and the majority (including most official documents) were still written in Chinese ideograms or the Uyghur alphabet. The script fell into disuse after the collapse of the Yuan in 1368. The script was used for about a century and is thought to have influenced the development of

Hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

. Phagpa's diaries for 1271 mention a foreign friend of Kublai Khan, who was quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

, although, unfortunately, no name is given.

Creation of the Sakya-Yuan administrative system

The Sakya-Mongol alliance was strong, and the seat () of the Sakya became the capital of Tibet. According to later historiography,

(who founded of the

in 1271) granted the three ''cholka'' or regions of Tibet (

Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...

and

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

) to Phagpa as a reward for the initiation in the Buddhist faith. The donation would have taken place in 1253. However, this tradition has been qualified by recent research. As mentioned above, Kublai's brother and predecessor

divided Central Tibet into appanages obedient under various Mongol princes in 1251. In the next year he issued a decree saying that the main Buddhist precepts to be followed in Tibet were to be those of Sakya. In about 1260 the appanage system was withdrawn, and Phagpa, receiving the title State Preceptor (Guoshi), was acknowledged as the supreme head of the Buddhist clergy. In 1264, Kublai Khan established the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs. At about the same time, Phagpa was sent from the court to Tibet in order to persuade the local leaders to accept the imposition of Mongol administration. It was his first visit to his homeland since childhood. Phagpa received the new title of

(Dishi) in 1270, partly as a reward for his invention of the Phagpa script. As such, he was expected to stay close to the emperor and had a paramount influence over the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs. His decrees carried the weight of the imperial court which gave him a strong authority over Tibetan affairs. However, Phagpa mostly resided in Lintao in Gansu and apparently had desultory contacts with the emperor. He vacated the post by 1274 and returned to Sakya, leaving the title to his brother, Rinchen Gyaltsen. Kublai Khan made Phagpa's other brother Chakna Dorje viceroy of Tibet in 1264. However, he died in 1267 and no new viceroy was appointed for many years. His untimely death was followed by a rebellion led by the Drikung Kagyu, the main opponents of the Sakya. Kublai Khan sent a punitive force to Tibet, which suppressed the uprising by 1268. Temporal administration of Tibet was actually in the hands of officials from Sakya known as '' dpon-chen'' or ''pönchen''. Their functions were defined as follows: "He governs by order of the lama and by the mandate of the emperor. He protects the two laws (religious and civil) and keeps the realm tranquil and the religion flourishing." A ''dpon-chen'' with responsibility for Central Tibet was stationed in Sakya from c. 1264. An implemented Mongol rule began about 1268-69 when a census was carried out and a Mongol administrative structure was set up. By this time Central Tibet was divided into 13 ''trikor'', usually rendered in English as "myriarchies", each under a local lord called ''tripon''. Meanwhile, other Sakya ''dpon-chen'' resided in Gongyo in Doto (Kham) and Lingtsang in Doma (Amdo). The ''dpon-chen'' of Ü-Tsang in this period were: * Shakya Zangpo (c. 1264–1270) * Kunga Zangpo (c. 1270–1275) * Zhangtsun (c. 1275-?) * Chukpo Gangkarwa (?-1280)

Last years and death

Phagpa and his successors as Sakya lamas were not literally viceroys under the Yuan although they were at the center of the Yuan administrative system in Tibet. Moreover, after Phagpa the offices of Imperial Preceptor and

Sakya Trizin Sakya Trizin ( "Sakya Throne-Holder") is the traditional title of the head of the Sakya (Tibetan Buddhist school), Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.''Holy Biographies of the Great Founders of the Glorious Sakya Order'', translated by Venerable ...

were kept strictly separate. While the later chronicles depict Phagpa and his successors as ruling over the 13 myriarchies and in an extended sense over the three ''cholka'', the authority of the Sakya Trizin was restricted to spiritual affairs. Given the paramount importance of the Buddhist religious hierarchy in Tibet, this still gave him an amount of influence. Phagpa spent his last years in Tibet, where he was busy strengthening Sakya-Yuan authority over the still-restless country. He convened a general conference of the Buddhist hierarchs in 1277 with both spiritual and political leanings. He died in the Lhakhang palace in Sakya on 15 December 1280. There was an unsubstantiated rumour that he had been poisoned by the former ''pönchen'' Kunga Zangpo, whom he had dismissed some years previously for highhanded conduct. This led to an armed intervention by an army of Mongols and Amdo Tibetans in the next year, resulting in the execution of Kunga Zangpo and the strengthening of Mongol military presence in Tibet. The system lasted until about the middle of the 14th century. During the reign of the 14th

, Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen, the myriarch Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen of the Phagmodrupa dynasty began to expand his power in the central province of Ü, marking the "beginning of the end of the period of Sakya power in Central Tibet."Sandra Penny-Dimri (1995) "The Lineage of His Holiness Sakya Trizin Ngawang-Kunga", ''The Tibet Journal'', Vol. XX No. 4, Winter 1995, pp. 71-73.

Cultural references

Phagpa is played by

James Hong James Hong (born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. Known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time, he has worked in over 400 productions in U.S. media since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1950s. ...

in the 1982 miniseries

. In the series he is erroneously depicted as alive at the time of the departure of Marco Polo from China in 1293.

Translations

Chogyal Phagpa: The Emperor's Guru (Sakya Kongma Series Book 5). Translated by Christopher Wilkinson (CreateSpace, 2014). Advice to Kublai Khan: Letters by the Tibetan Monk Chogyal Phagpa to Kublai Khan and his Court. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson (CreateSpace, 2015). At the Court of Kublai Khan: Writings of the Tibetan Monk Chogyal Phagpa. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson (CreateSpace, 2016).

Footnotes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phagpa, Drogon Chogyal Sakya Trizins Imperial Preceptors Creators of writing systems Tibetan Buddhists from Tibet Yuan dynasty people Mongolia–Tibet relations 1235 births 1280 deaths 13th-century educators 13th-century Tibetan people 13th-century lamas