Tag: Liangzhou

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Köden

Köden (Died between 1253-1260)

Köden was Ögödei Khan’s second son and primarily had his seat of power located in Liangzhou, which had been under the rule of the Xia Empire. According to historical records, Köden was likely the first member of the Mongol ruling house that came into contact with the Sa skya Sect of Tibetan Buddhism when he launched an attack on Tibet in 1240AD. Dor-ta, the general who led the army into Tibet, had intended to return to Liangzhou with the Bri gung abbot. The abbot was to give advice and instruct the Mongols on the Buddhist doctrine. However, the Bri gung abbot, for fear of his life, declined the invitation and instead suggested to Dor-ta that the Sa skya Pandita was perhaps a better choice for the job. As a result, Köden summoned the Sa skya Pandita in 1244 and the first historical meeting between a member of the Mongol ruling house and leader of a Tibetan Buddhist sect occurred in 1246. Later Tibetan histories claimed that Sa skya Pandita was given a new political role where he was incorporated into the Mongol bureaucracy as the representative of the new rulers in Tibet. During Köden’s contact with the Sa skya Pandita, the latter healed Köden from an illness which was said to have been one of the reasons he was by-passed as a candidate to the position of Khan. However, in another little known work of ‘Phags pa, the first Imperial Preceptor under Kubilai Khan, he mentioned that Köden had received special blessings from the Sa skya Pandita and was able to “speedily produce a son”. As a reward for the Pandita’s act, Köden gave him the local temple Sprul pa’i sde (白塔寺 Baitasi or White Stupa Temple) where the Sa skya Pandita was later buried in 1251.

After the death of Güyüg Khan, a series of power struggles came into play with Möngke Khan emerging victorious. The members of the new Mongol ruling house took over patronage of the different Tibetan sects. The Sa skya sect was still left in the care of Köden while Khubilai, Möngke’s younger brother was given the Tshal pa sect. However, on his way back from an attack in Sichuan around 1252-53, Kubilai requested that Koöen hand over Phags pa, the Sa Skya Pandita’s nephew and had a personal audience with him. Kubilai was impressed with the wisdom of ‘Phags pa and consequently honored him with the title of Imperial Preceptor some years later. Köden’s influence and authority over the Sa skya sect was thus transferred to Kubilai Khan.


Sources:

Luciano Petech. 1983. Tibetan Relations with Sung China and the Mongols, In China among equals: The Middle Kingdom and its neighbors, 10th – 14th Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 173-204
Drashi Rinchen, Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan Royal Court, In Tibetan Studies, pp 1-26.
Chris Beckwith, 1987, Tibetan Science at the Court of the Great Khans, In Tibetan Society Vol. 7. pp 5-11.

Entry by ShiQi Wu, 1/30/07

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Sa-skya Pandita

Sa-skya Pandita / Pandit from Sakya (1182-1251)

Künga Gyeltsen was a son of Pelchen Öpo, the eldest son of the first of the five Sakya superiors, Sachen Künga Nyingpo. When he was a teenager, he left Sakya and studied under various teachers of the major Indian Buddhist philosophical and doctrinal trends. In 1204, when the Kashmiri master Shakyashribhadra brought Indian scholars to Tibet, Sakya Pandita learned directly from knowledgeable Indians and went back to Sakya with Suhatashri, one of the scholars. After his uncle and a teacher, Drakpa Gyeltsen, died in 1216, Sakya Pandita became a leader of the religious tradition of Sakya.

Koden was a grand son of Genghis Khan. After he led an unsuccessful campaign in Sichuan, he turned his attention to Tibet. He summoned Sakya Pandita in 1244 with a letter with courteous tone, but threatening contents. Sakya Pandita went to Liangzhou (凉州=武威), with two of his nephews, Pakpa Lodrö Gyeltsen and Chakna Dorjé. Sakya Pandita and Koden agreed on the main points of their future relationships in 1247. Sakya Pandita sent letters to Ü, Tsang and Ngari, and advised them to submit and allow the Mongols to exact taxes and to levy troops. Sakya Pandita spent rest of his life in Liangzhou, and passed away in 1251. He was honored by both Tibetans and Mongolian peoples.


Sources:

Matthew T. Kapstein, “The Tibetans.” (Massachusetts, 2006)
Luciano Petech, “Tibetan Relations with Sung China and the Mongols” in “China among equals: the Middle Kingdom and its neighbors, 10th-14th centuries.” (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983)
Hankyu Kim, “The Historical Relationship Between China and Tibet.” (Seoul, 2003)

Entry by Seul ki Park, 2/07

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Liangzhou

Liangzhou 涼州 (currently: Wuwei 武威, Gansu Province) Tib. Ling chu gser khab/ Byang ngos

This initially Chinese prefectural seat on the Silk Road corridor between the Tibetan and Mongol inhabited regions of Inner Asia was a critical zone of contact between different ethnic and political polities across the centuries. Tibetans first attacked Liangzhou as part of the Tibetan Empire’s expansion into Inner Asia in 701, and finally captured the city from the Tang Dynasty in 764, only to lose it to the Uyghurs in 808. However, with brief exceptions, from the early ninth to the early eleventh centuries Liangzhou remained in the hands of the Tibetans, one of the last remnant outposts of their once vast Inner Asian empire.

Liangzhou Tibetans maintained good relations with the Song Dynasty from 906 to 1015, often winning titles from the court. However, after a brief period of rule by Uyghur’s from 1015 to 1030, Liangzhou became an important regional city in the rising Mi nyag or Xia Empire. Given its culturally Tibetan history, this city remained an important site for Mi nyag Tibetan contact. In the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, it was home to two imperial preceptors (dishi 帝師)–the Tibetan Gtsang po pa Dkon mchog seng ge (?-1218/1219) and Ti shri ras pa Sangs rgyas ras chen (1164/1165-1236)–in the Karma and ‘Ba’ rom pa Kagyü traditions respectively. The long-term presence of Kagyü monasteries in this region thus must date to this period.

With the collapse of the Mi nyag/Xia Empire to Mongol onslaught in 1227, in 1239 Liangzhou became the headquarters of Köden, son of Ögödei Khan. It was from this seat of power that the first Mongol invasion of Tibet was launched in 1240, under the direction of a Tangut named Doorda Darqan. Köden summoned Sa skya Pandita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) to Liangzhou in 1244, and he arrived in 1246 with his two nephew’s ‘Phags pa (1235-1280) and Phyag na rdo rje. Although these Sa skya representatives stayed only a short while in Liangzhou, they had a lasting influence on the region. In return for healing Köden from an illness, Sa skya Pandita was given the local temple Sprul pa’i sde (Huanhua si 幻化寺, also known as the White Stupa Temple (Baitasi白塔寺), located in Dahe xiang 大河鄉. He died and was buried there in 1251. In all, the Sa skya controlled four monasteries spread around the city in the cardinal directions: this temple in the east, in the west Pad mo’i sde (Lianhua si蓮花寺), in the north Byang rgya mtsho sde (Haizang si海藏寺, this is the only one to survive to the present), in the south Dbang sde (Guanding si/ Jinta si 灌頂寺/金塔寺). Shortly after his uncle died, ‘Phags pa left in 1253 to serve at the court of Qubilai (not yet khan at this time). Around 1256, Karma Pakshi (1206-1283), the second Black Hat Karmapa, also passed through Liangzhou on his way from visiting Qubilai in the south heading north to the court of Möngke Khan in Mongolia. The Kagyü influence in this region, which was quite strong until the visit of the fifth Dalai Lama in 1652 (on his way to the Qing court in Beijing), no doubt benefited from this visit. Although Köden died by 1260 at the latest, his family remained in Liangzhou as the rulers of Hexi (河西) for the duration of Mongol rule.

    Sources:

Christopher Beckwith. 1987. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia, Princeton: Princeton University Press
Patricia Berger. 1994. Preserving the Nation: The Political Uses of Tantric Art in China. In Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 85-1850. Lawrence: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. pp. 89-125
Ruth Dunnel. The Hsia Origins of the Yüan Institution of Imperial Preceptor. Asia Major. Third Series, Vol. 5, part 1, 1992, pp. 85-111
Heather Karmay, Early Sino-Tibetan Art. Aris and Phillips. 1975: 35-42
Luciano Petech. 1983. Tibetan Relations with Sung China and the Mongols. In China among equals: the Middle Kingdom and its neighbors, 10th-14th centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 173-204
Wangqian Duanzhi and Jiang Zengli, Sapan yu Liangzhou si da fo si, xerox, pp. 9-13.

Entry by Gray Tuttle, 1/21/07