Sakya

Who holds it

Name

Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan)

Title

Throne-holder of Sakya and head of the Khon house

Since

1182, on the death of his elder brother Sonam Tsemo (recalled; the Chinese page on Sakya monastery says he led it for 57 years, which does not fit)

Born

1147 (the brief; Wikipedia)

Family

Khon ('Khon)

Confidence

medium

The brief and en Wikipedia (Sakya) give Drakpa Gyaltsen as the third of the five patriarchs, 1147-1216. That he is the house head in January 1200 follows from Sonam Tsemo dying in 1182 and Sakya Pandita succeeding only in 1216 (Wikipedia, Sakya Pandita).

Overlord

none: no one rules Tibet in 1200; the house answers to its own patrons and to the custom of the valleys

What it holds

• The Sakya valley and the North Monastery (Sakya Khopu, 1073, grown into the Lhakhang Sha, Gu Rong and Ui Nyingma halls)
• The Khon household (the palace of the head, bla brang, within the North Monastery)
• Estates, tenants and the gifts of disciples: not itemised by any source we could open
• The Lamdre teaching lineage and the right to confer it

How it was acquired

1073: the Khon founder took the site by patronage (the Chinese page says it was an act of patronage and not a formal land grant). Headship by inheritance within the family since.

Allies and rivals

No war or feud involving Sakya is attested before the 1260s. Its heads taught and were taught across the schools: Sonam Tsemo is listed among the Sangphu scholars (Wikipedia, Kadam). Neighbours in Tsang: Shalu (the Chetsun family) and Narthang (Kadam). The Drikung, Taklung and Phagmodru houses of Ü are far away (about 250 km by road) and have no known dealings with Sakya in 1200.

How things stand that morning

A respected family monastery with a famous lineage and a layman at its head; one of many houses in Tsang, with no authority beyond its own estates and disciples. The household has three generations living: Drakpa Gyaltsen (52), Palchen Opoche (about 49) and the boys, Sakya Pandita (17) and his brother Zangtsa Sonam Gyaltsen (about 15; recalled).

Wealth

Estates and tenants round Sakya, offerings of disciples and patrons, and the standing to receive large gifts for the Lamdre initiations. No figure is given by any source we could open.

Military

None known. The later Sakya regime had a chief administrator (dpon chen) and Mongol backing from the 1260s; neither exists in 1200.

Threats

• The succession: the line rests on the sons of Palchen Opoche, and Drakpa Gyaltsen has no son recorded in any source we opened.
• Nothing external: no source we opened shows a threat to Sakya in 1199-1200.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1203Palchen Opoche dies (born 1150).Depends on: A natural death on its date (Wikipedia, Sakya Pandita). Stopped by: Only a change in his circumstances in play.
2. 1204 (recalled, not checked)The Kashmiri scholar Shakyashribhadra reaches Tibet; Sakya Pandita visits him as a young monk.Depends on: Invitation from Tropu Lotsawa and a safe road through Nepal (recalled). Stopped by: A closed road or the loss of the invitation.
3. 1208Sakya Pandita is ordained as a full monk by Shakyashribhadra.Depends on: The scholar being in Tibet (Wikipedia, Sakya Pandita). Stopped by: Shakyashribhadra not arriving.
4. 1216Drakpa Gyaltsen dies and Sakya Pandita becomes head of the house.Depends on: Natural death on its date (Wikipedia, Sakya Pandita). Stopped by: A different succession decided by the family.
5. 1240-1253Dorda Darkhan's raid of 1240, Godan's summons of 1244, Sakya Pandita at Liangzhou 1246-1247, viceroy 1249, death 28 November or December 1251; Phagpa follows.Depends on: The Mongol conquest of the Tangut and Jin lands first (1227 and 1234) and a Mongol prince choosing Tibet. Stopped by: Any change in the Mongol conquests; none of this exists on 1 January 1200.

Places of note

• Sakya North Monastery: The 1073 foundation on the grey earth below Ponpori; Sachen's Lhakhang Sha and Gu Rong halls

Where the sources disagree

• The brief says Drakpa Gyaltsen is the "house head" and Sakya Pandita "about 17": both agree with the pages we read.
• Chinese Wikipedia (Sakya monastery) says Drakpa Gyaltsen led the monastery for 57 years; with 1147-1216 and a head from 1182 that is 34 years. Not used.

Evidence: The family dates (Sachen 1092-1158, Sonam Tsemo 1142-1182, Drakpa Gyaltsen 1147-1216, Palchen Opoche 1150-1203, Sakya Pandita 1182-1251, founding 1073) agree between the brief and the Wikipedia pages in English and Chinese. What the household held and who served it in 1200 is not in any source we opened. Treasury of Lives, the Blue Annals, the Red Annals, Petech, Sorensen and Hazod and Davidson could not be opened in this session (treasuryoflives.org and rigpawiki.org refused the fetch; the archive.org full texts were refused or cut off), so facts marked 'recalled' are from memory of those works and unchecked. Dates: 1200 is an Iron-Monkey year in the Tibetan cycle (the first sixty-year cycle began in 1027, a Fire-Hare year); 1 January 1200 falls in the closing weeks of the Earth-Sheep year (1199), before the Tibetan new year. Western years below are the ones the cited pages give; the Tibetan histories give animal-years and the conversions differ by a year or two.

On the map: The drawing is a 10 km disc of land round the monastery. The Khon estates beyond the valley are not known.

Primary sources for Tibet (centre)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, Buton Rinchen Drub (Bu ston Rin chen grub) (1322). Optional background. Read online
• The Blue Annals, Go Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal ('Gos lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal) (1476 to 1478). The fullest Tibetan account of who mattered around 1200, written three centuries later from earlier biographies and lineage records, many now lost. Read online
• The collected works of Lama Zhang, and the early Kagyu lives, Lama Zhang (Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa) and his disciples; the biographers of Drigung, Taklung and Phagmodru (the 1160s to the early 13th century). The nearest contemporary witnesses to the lords of central Tibet in 1200. Read online
• The Sakya genealogy, and the works of the Sakya hierarch of 1200, Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan) and Sakya Pandita; the genealogy by Ngawang Kunga Sonam (the hierarchs' writings about 1170 to 1250; the genealogy 1629). Sakya in 1200 was ruled by Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founders, with his nephew Kunga Gyaltsen (later Sakya Pandita, born 1182) under his teaching. Read online
• History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
• Indo-Tibetica (the temples and inscriptions of western Tibet), with the Royal Genealogy of Ngari, Giuseppe Tucci (editor and translator); the genealogy by Ngawang Drakpa (Ngag dbang grags pa) (the inscriptions and temple records of the 11th to 15th centuries; Indo-Tibetica published 1932 to 1941; the genealogy about 1497). Guge, Purang and Ladakh in 1200 are among the least documented kingdoms in the atlas. Read online