the later spread of buddhism in tibet 373
while the Sa-skya-pas were directly responsible for the administration
of the Tibetan districts. Sa-skya-pas were appointed direct representa-
tives of the Mongol court and had to be consulted by local rulers in
all important matters.
The Sa-skya-pa relations to the Mongol empire were further enforced
later when ’Phags-pa Blo-gros rgyal-mtshan (1235–1280)—nephew and
successor of Sa-skya Paita—was invited to the court of Qubilai Khan,
the founder of the Sino-Mongolian Yuan dynasty. ’Phags-pa managed
to establish a “patron-priest relationship” (yon-mchod) with Qubilai by
bestowing on him the initiations of the Hevajra-tantra. ’Phags-pa in turn
was granted the title “imperial instructor” (dishi ). This not only
bestowed further privileges on the Sa-skya-pa, but also established the
regular transference of enormous nancial resources to Tibetan religious
institutions.^67 Tibetan and later Mongol sources present the activities
of Sa-skya Paita and ’Phags-pa as the rst persons responsible for
the conversion of the Mongols to Buddhism. However, the actual
impact of the Sa-skya-pa Lamas on the religion of the members of
the Mongol imperial family—not to speak about Mongol people out-
side the court—was hardly as successful as these sources would have
us believe.
Meanwhile representatives of other Tibetan schools had also estab-
lished connections to the Mongol empire. The most important rivals to
the Sa-skya-pa’s in uence on the Mongols rose from the ’Bri-gung-pa
and the Karma-bKa’-brgyud schools. Karma Pak i (1204–1283), the
2nd Karma-pa, was invited by Kublai in 1255. But his stay at the Yuan
court was short, apparently due to intriguing Sa-skya-pa of cials who
feared for their political in uence.^68 He then travelled to Karakorum
where he served as a religious instructor to Möngke Khan and his fam-
ily. Also the ’Bri-gung-pa became related to Möngke Khan and thus
established a counterbalance to the Sa-skya-pa dominance in Tibet. The
rivalries between these two schools intensi ed later on and in 1290 led
to the destruction of the ’Bri-gung monastery by a Sa-skya-pa army
supported by Yuan cavalry.
Roughly at the same time when Tibet fell into political dependence
on the Mongol empire, efforts were undertaken to gather and systemise
the various collections of Buddhist texts transmitted in the different
(^67) Cf. Schuh 1977, p. XXVI.
(^68) Cf. Schuh 1977, p. XXI.