12 ann heirman and stephan peter bumbacher
Buddhist teachings was the Indian master Atia (d. 1054) who visited
many places in Tibet and promoted a mixture of traditional Mahyna
doctrine and tantric practices, as well as a synthesis of monastic and
tantric lifestyles. More and more schools came into being that sought
their identity in a lineage of transmission going back to a founding
teacher who had acquired his oral instructions directly from a tantric
deity. At the end of the thirteenth century, Buddhism was rmly estab-
lished in Tibet, mainly as a result of the many alliances with aristocratic
families. Monastic leaders even began to play a role in Tibetan and
foreign policy. This was certainly the case for the famous leader of the
Sa-skya School, Sa-skya Pa ita, who in 1244 was summoned to the
Mongolian court.
Tibetan Buddhism did in fact not remain limited to Tibet, but
expanded to regions as far away as the Mongolian grasslands. It was
in fact the astonishing Mongolian expansion that brought the Mongol
empire in contact with the Buddhist Uighurs and Tanguts, and with
the Buddhist environments of Tibet and China. The rst contact with
Buddhism was probably established when inggis Khan conquered
the Naiman region in the western part of Mongolia in the beginning
of the thirteenth century. The spiritual advisor to the Naiman leader
was Tatatunga, a Buddhist Uighur. He also introduced the Uighur-
Mongolian script. Tibetan Buddhism reached Mongolia through the
Xixia empire in Northwestern China, the empire of the Tanguts who
were related to the Tibetans. However, many Tangut monasteries were
not just replicas of Tibetan ones. The Tanguts had also created their
own form of Buddhism based on Tibetan, Central Asian and Chinese
elements. The Xixia Empire (ca. 982–1227) was the rst eastern empire
to fall under the attacks of the Mongol forces. In 1234, it was followed
by the Jin dynasty, the dynasty of the Jurchen who occupied the northern
part of China, and in 1279 by the Chinese Southern Song dynasty, that
reigned over the southern regions of China. As a consequence, Chinese
Buddhist schools, too, found their way to the Mongolian region. The
most in uential relationship, however, was to be the one with Tibet.
In 1244, the head of the Tibetan Sa-skya-pa School, Sa-skya Pa ita,
was invited to the Mongolian court and empowered with leadership
over Tibet, under the control of the Mongols. After Sa-skya Pa ita’s
death in 1251, his nephew ’Phags-pa took over the leadership. He
was later appointed by Khubilai Khan as his personal spiritual advi-
sor. Tantric Buddhism was thus given a political as well as religious
role. It was to protect the state and its leaders. As discussed in Klaus