Sakya Pandita

Sakya Pandita

Qoijê Sa'gya Paṇḍita Günga Gyaicain (Tibetan: ཆོས་རྗེ་ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: chos-rje sa-skya paN+Di-ta kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan/ (EWTS), ZYPY: Qöjê Sa'gya “Bantida” Günga Gyäcän; alt. Choeje Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltse), also known as Günga Gyaimcain Bai Sangbo (Tibetan: ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།, Wylie: kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan dpal bzang-po/, ZYPY: Günga Gyämcän Bä Sangbo; alt. Kunga Gyaltshan Pal Zangpo; 1182–1251) was a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar and the fourth of the Five Venerable Supreme Sakya Masters of Tibet. Günga Gyaicain is generally known simply as Sa'gya Paṇḍita, a title given to him in recognition of his scholarly achievements and knowledge of Sanskrit. He is held in the tradition to have been an emanation of the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the embodiment of the wisdom of all the Buddhas.

He became known as a great scholar in Tibet, Mongolia, Coastal China and India and was proficient in the five great sciences of Buddhist philosophy, medicine, grammar, dialectics and sacred Sanskrit literature as well as the minor sciences of rhetoric, synonymies, poetry, dancing and astrology. He is considered in Tibet to be the fourth "Great Forefather" and sixth Sakya Trizin, and one of the most important figures among the Sakya lineage.

He was born at Sa'gya of the noble family of Jam-yan-gon. His father was Palchen of Öpochey. Sa'gya Paṇḍita was the nephew, and became the principal disciple of Jetsun Dakpa Gyeltsen or Drakpa Gyaltsen (1147–1216).

After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, the Tibetans stopped sending tribute. As a result, in 1240, the grandson of Genghis Khan and second son of Ögedei Khan, Prince Godan invaded Tibet killing some 500 monks and destroying and looting monasteries, villages and towns. Prince Godan asked his commanders to search for an outstanding Buddhist lama and, as Sa'gya Paṇḍita was considered the most religious, Godan sent a letter of "invitation" and presents to him.

In 1244 he left for Prince Godan's royal camp with two of his young nephews, the ten year-old Pagba and six year-old Chhana, who later published a collection of Sa'gya Paṇḍita's writings. As he continually preached sermons along his way he did not arrive at Prince Godan's camp until 1247 where he gave religious instruction to the prince and greatly impressed the court with his personality and powerful teachings. He is also said to have cured Prince Godan of a serious illness and, with the help of his nephew, Phagpa, he adapted the Uighur script so that the Buddhist Scriptures could be translated into Mongolian which, until that time, was an unwritten language. In return, he was given "temporal authority over the 13 myriarchies of Central Tibet."

Thus began a strong alliance and the capital of Sakya, gDan-sa, became the capital of Tibet. This lasted until about the middle of the 14th century. During the reign of the 14th Sakya Trizin, Sonam Gylatsen, the Central Tibetan province of U was taken by the Myriarch, marking the "beginning of the end of the period of Sakya power in Central Tibet."

Sakya Pandita died in 1251, at the age of seventy in the city of Gyu-ma. As he did not marry he chose his brother's son Chogyal Phagpa as his heir and nominated him before his death as his religious authority by giving him his conch shell and begging bowl. After his death Phakpa continued his mission. The conch is one of the Ashtamangala and the begging bowl was a particular symbol of Buddha Shakyamuni and the Shramana Traditions.

In the lineage of the Tibetan Panchen Lamas there were considered to be four Indian and three Tibetan mindstream emanations of Amitabha Buddha before Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, who is recognised as the 1st Panchen Lama. The lineage starts with Subhuti, one of the original disciples of Gautama Buddha. Sakya Pandita is considered to be the second Tibetan emanation of Amitabha Buddha in this line.