Sakya

Sakya takes its name from the pale earth of the hills in western Tsang. Here Khön Könchok Gyalpo founded a monastery in 1073, giving his family and a major school of Tibetan Buddhism the name Sakya. The fortified southern monastery, built across the river under the direction of Chögyal Phagpa in 1268, became a great religious and political centre. Its halls housed scriptures, images and paintings as well as the seat of the Sakya hierarchs.

Sakya's rulers gained authority over Tibet through their relationship with the Mongol court. Phagpa served Kublai Khan as religious preceptor and devised a script intended for the languages of the empire. At the start of the fourteenth century the Sakya administration still governed much of Tibet under Yuan patronage, but its power was challenged by rising regional families. In 1354 Jangchub Gyaltsen of Phagmodru captured Sakya, ending its pre-eminence as the Mongols' governing centre in central Tibet. The monastery and its scholarly tradition nevertheless endured beyond the fall of its political supremacy.