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Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism

Type Object Region Tibet Time 1073–1500

The Sakya school, founded in 1073 at Sakya Monastery, is a major Tibetan Buddhist tradition known for uniting sutra and tantra, hereditary family abb…

Timeline

  1. 1073–1200Sakya Monastery · TibetKhön Könchok Gyalpo founded the monastery at Sakya, establishing the hereditary Khön family abbot tradition, integrating Indian esoteric Buddhism with local practice, and gradually developing into an important school of the later diffusion period.
  2. c. 1240–1270Liangzhou · GansuSakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen traveled to Liangzhou to negotiate peace with the Mongol court; subsequently Phagpa was honored by Kublai Khan as Imperial Preceptor, and the Sakya school gained Mongol imperial patronage and administrative authority over Tibet.
  3. c. 1271–1280Tibet · TibetPhagpa created the new Mongol script and returned to Tibet to oversee the allocation of the thirteen myriarchies; Sakya religious and secular leaders exercised local governance of Tibet under the Yuan Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, with the 1270s marking the political peak of Sakya.
  4. c. 1350–1500Sakya and Phagpa · TibetAfter the Phagpa regime replaced Sakya secular power, the Sakya school continued through its monasteries and scholarly traditions; teachings and rituals kept spreading in Tibetan and Mongolian regions, with political influence diminished but religious status maintained.

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