On 1 January 1200 he is a young man of seventeen (nine months short of eighteen if the 1 April birth date is right) in his uncle's household, studying the sutras and tantras under Drakpa Gyaltsen and the Sanskrit that make his name; whether he has already taken the novice vows and the name Kunga Gyaltsen the page does not say.
He holds nothing and rules nothing. He is a character with a very long fuse: the Kashmiri scholar Shakyashribhadra reaches Tibet around 1204 and ordains him in 1208, he writes the works that make him 'Pandita' (learned one) after that, he becomes head of Sakya at 34 in 1216, and in the 1240s he is the man the Mongol prince Godan summons. Everything past 1 January 1200 depends on Tibet staying as it is: no Mongol conquest of the Tangut (1227) and the Jin (1234), no Mongol prince with a taste for Tibet, no Shakyashribhadra on the road.
A player who removes any of those leaves Sakya Pandita a famous scholar and nothing more.
Who he is
- Name
- Palden Dondup (Dpal ldan don grub), who takes the religious name Kunga Gyaltsen (Kun dga' rgyal mtshan) and is called Sakya Pandita
- Title
- Student in the Khon household, future head of Sakya
- Since
- born 1182 (1 April on the page's lead)
- Born
- 1182 (died 28 November on the page's text, 28 December on its lead, 1251)
- Family
- Khon ('Khon)
- Confidence
- high
Wikipedia (Sakya Pandita): born Palden Dondup at Sakya in 1182, son of Palchen Opoche and Machig Nyitri Cham; instructed in sutras and tantras by his uncle Drakpa Gyaltsen, whose principal disciple he became; initiated as a novice (sramanera) by his master and given the name Kunga Gyaltsen, at an age the page does not give; ordained a full monk by the Kashmiri scholar Shakyashribhadra in 1208; abbot-ruler of Sakya on his uncle's death in 1216; summoned by Godan in 1244 and dead in 1251.
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
- Nothing in his own right
- A place in the Sakya household as the second of Palchen Opoche's sons
How it was acquired
Born into the Khon house.
Allies and rivals
Teacher and uncle: Drakpa Gyaltsen. Father: Palchen Opoche. Brother: Zangtsa Sonam Gyaltsen. The Kashmiri scholar Shakyashribhadra is a future teacher (from about 1204).
How things stand that morning
A student at Sakya.
Wealth
No source we could open gives figures; the usual base is estates and serfs, herds, pass tolls, trade in salt, wool, tea and barley, and the gifts of patrons.
Military
No standing army; the house or lord calls on retainers, tenants and kin. No troop numbers are given by any source we could open.
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.
- c. 1204 (recalled)Shakyashribhadra reaches Tibet; Sakya Pandita meets him as a young man.Depends on: A safe road from Kashmir and Nepal and an invitation from Tibetan patrons. Stopped by: A closed road; the scholar's death.
- 1208Sakya Pandita is ordained as a full monk by Shakyashribhadra.Depends on: The scholar being in Tibet. Stopped by: The scholar not arriving.
- 1216Becomes head of Sakya on Drakpa Gyaltsen's death.Depends on: Natural death on its date. Stopped by: A different choice of the family.
- 1244-1251Summoned by the Mongol prince Godan (1244), leaves with his nephews Phagpa (aged ten) and Chana Dorje (aged six), reaches Liangzhou in 1246, meets Godan in early 1247, and dies there on 28 November or 28 December 1251 (the page gives both).Depends on: Mongol conquest of the Tangut and Jin lands and a Mongol interest in Tibet. Stopped by: Any change in the Mongol conquests; none of this exists on 1 January 1200.
Places of note
- Sakya Pandita's household: Inside the North Monastery establishment
Where the sources disagree
- The brief's 'about 17' agrees with the page (born 1182).
Evidence: Birth, ordination, headship and death are on the Wikipedia page and agree with the brief; his education in 1200 is from the same page in outline only. 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.
On the map: Point only.
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
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.