388 klaus sagaster
bKa’-brgyud-pa school.^40 Karma Paki came to Qubilai in 1255, but
the two do not seem to have been on very good terms with each other,
since the sources state that they did not become “object of offering and
almsgiver”. Already in 1256, Karma Paki accepted an invitation of
the Great Khan Möngke to come to Karakorum. He took Karakorum
as his place of residence and founded a great monastery. Möngke’s
death in 1259 was followed by a struggle over his succession. Karma
Paki sided with Aribuqa, Qubilai’s opponent who was in command
over Karakorum. Qubilai Khan (r. 1260–1294) triumphed, and had
Karma Paki arrested. Karma Paki was not condemned to death,
and released in 1264. Thereafter, he retreated to his Tibetan home
monastery mTshur-phu.
It is not clear what the reason may have been that Karma Paki’s
attitude towards Qubilai was, from the very start, a negative one. Pos-
sibly the rivalry with the Sa-skya-pa hierarch ’Phags-pa whose growing
in uence may have been viewed with anxiety by Karma Paki played
a role in this.
- The Mongols’ Attitude Towards Religions in General
The high degree of esteem which Qubilai held for ’Phags-pa’s abilities
is attested by the fact that he engaged him in an attempt to solve the
long-lasting con ict between Daoists and Buddhists that constituted a
serious threat to the internal peace in the Mongolian empire.^41
When inggis Khan set off on his great campaign to the West in
1219, he invited a famous Daoist sage: the Daoist master Qiu Chuji
(1148–1227), also called Changchun , head of the Quan-
zhendao school.^42 Despite his old age, Changchun accepted the
invitation and, in 1222, reached inggis Khan’s encampment, which
apparently lay south of the Hindukush and north of Kabul. inggis
Khan questioned him about the elixir of longevity and about the art
of ruling. He was so impressed with the wisdom of the master, that
already in 1223 he granted the monks of the Quanzhendao school
exemption from tax duties. We have good grounds to accept that inggis
(^40) On Karma Paki, see Douglas & White 1976, pp. 41–46; oyiúi 1998, pp.
175–182.
(^41) On the con ict between the Buddhist and the Daoists, see Franke 1948, pp.
308–309, 482; Thiel 1961; Waley 1963, pp. 29–33; Rossabi 1988, pp. 37–42.
(^42) Waley 1963; oyiúi 1998, pp. 183–184.