Oldal 168 [168]
OCR
A COMPENDIUM OF BUDDHISM WRITTEN FOR KUBILAI S SON Alexa Péter Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of East Asian Studies, Budapest My paper is about a small but important Tibetan treatise, The Explanation of the Knowable (Tib. Shes bya rab gsal) which influenced the subsequent Tibetan and Mongolian historical and cosmological works. It was written in 1278 by ‘Phags pa Lama (12351280), the excellent teacher and polymath of his time. He entered into an alliance with Kubilai Khan (1215-1294), the grandson of Genghis Khan (1162-1227) and wrote The Explanation of the Knowable for Kubilai’s son, Jingim (1243-1286). The Empire of Kubilai Khan The intensive contacts in the Tibeto—Mongol relations go back to 1227 when Chingis Khan destroyed the Tangut Empire and the Mongolian Empire and Tibet became neighbouring countries. In 1240, Prince Göden (1206—1251),' the governor of the Kokonor region, sent an army to Central Tibet. They destroyed the Rva sgreng monastery’ and killed five hundred monks.* Mongols learnt that Tibet had been divided for centuries and that all political power, economic strength and cultural influence were centered around the numerous monasteries belonging to various Buddhist sects. The leader of the Mongolian army sent a message to Göden and enumerated the foremost sects* which could confer about the circumstances in Tibet. Göden selected the Sa skya pa sect because they had more than a century of history and both the ecclesiastical and the secular power (Tib. gdung rgyud and chos rgyud, respectively) were represented by two branches of the Sa skya family. In 1244 Géden summoned Sa skya Pandita (1182-1251), the chief of the Sa skya dukedom, to present a report. He set out with his two nephews, ‘Phags pa Lama and ! He was the son of Ogddei Khan (1186-1241) and grandson of Chingis Khan. It is about sixty miles north of Lhasa. 3 See Sagaster, Klaus: The History of Buddhism among the Mongols. In: The Spread of Buddhism. Ed. Ann Heirman — Stephan Peter Bumbacher. Brill, Leiden — Boston 2007, p. 383. Bka’ gdams pa, Bka’ brgyud pa, Sa skya pa. 166
