362 sven bretfeld
doctrinal system by a series of great Sa-skya-pa scholars. Among them
Kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan (1182–1251) deserves particularly to be men-
tioned. He is popularly known as Sa-skya Paita (or in the short form
Sa-Pa), the “Scholar of Sa-skya”, due to his vast learning. After he
was appointed as the Sa-skya-khri-chen in 1216, a life of immense liter-
ary productivity followed. In his numerous works he turned to various
branches of traditional Buddhist learning like epistemology, the theory
of religious debating and the classi cation of the “three vows” as well
as poetic and musical theory, astrology and medicine. His reputation
as a universally learned scholar was one of the reasons that in 1244
he was summoned to the court of Köden Khan to negotiate the sur-
render of the Tibetan country to the world’s new political power, the
Mongol empire.
4.2. bKa’-brgyud-paThe bKa’-brgyud-pas, the “ones (following) the transmission of the
teachings”, are strictly speaking not one school but a multitude of several
traditions^45 with different founders, allocations and, to a certain degree,
own school identities. What justi es speaking of them as a unity, is the
fact that all these traditions trace their origins back to the tantric master
Mar-pa (1012–1096) and his main pupil, the famous yogin Mi-la-ras-pa
(1040–1123). To be exact, the disciples of Mi-la-ras-pa’s pupil sGam-
po-pa (1079–1153) were the ones who founded different communities
and thus started the branches of the bKa’-brgyud-pa. Accordingly, all
branches of the bKa’-brgyud-pa look back to a shared transmission
lineage up to sGam-po-pa.
These three “fathers” of the bKa’-brgyud-pas are interesting also
from a sociological perspective, since they represent three different life-
styles that can be found among tantric practitioners up to the present
day: Mar-pa was a tantric master who lived the life of a householder
and had a wife and children; Mi-la-ras-pa was a roaming yogin living in
the solitude of mountain caves, while sGam-po-pa was a tantric monk
in accordance with the bKa’-gdams-pa model and dwelt in a settled
monastic community together with his pupils.
Mar-pa is presented as having been a student of ’Brog-mi in his
youth. But in contrast to the Sa-skya founder dKon-mchog rgyal-po,
(^45) Traditionally 4 major and 8 minor branches are differentiated.