Drogön Chögyal Phagpa

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Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (also written Dongon Choegyal Phakpa, Dromtön Chögyal Pagpa, etc.) (1235-1280) was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1244 Sakya Pandita left for Prince Godan's royal camp with two of his young nephews, the ten year-old Phagpa and six year-old Chhana, who later published a collection of Sakya Pandita'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, was given "temporal authority over the 13 myriarchies [Trikor Chuksum] 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.

Chögyal Phagpa converted Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Mongols and emperor of China, to Buddhism. Kublai Khan in turn appointed Chögyal Phagpa as his Imperial Preceptor in 1260. With the support of Kublai Khan, Chögyal Phagpa established himself and his sect as the preeminent political power in Tibet.

Kublai Khan commissioned Chögyal Phagpa to design a new writing system to unify the writing of the multilingual Mongolian Empire. Chögyal Phagpa in turn modified the traditional Tibetan script and gave birth to a new set of characters called Phagspa script which was completed in 1268. The script was used for 110 years and is thought to have influenced the development of modern Korean script. However, it fell into disuse after the collapse of the Mongol Empire and the associated Yuan Dynasty in 1368.

Pagspa's diaries for 1271 mention a foreign friend of Kublai Khan, who was quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even Marco Polo, although, unfortunately, no name is given.

Footnotes

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Last updated on Tuesday January 22, 2008 at 15:18:30 PST (GMT -0800)
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