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ALEXA PÉTER Female-Hog year (about 1239) according to the Chinese sources.” At the age of ten,”’ he accompanied Sa skya Pandita to the court of Géden and stayed in Mongolia for the remainder of his life. In 1253, after the invitation of the khan, ‘Phags pa settled at Kubilai’s court and he gained a significant degree of influence and authority. ‘Phags pa had a unique position with regard to both Mongols and Tibetans and therefore particularly suited to form an alliance with Kubilai.** Kubilai nominated ‘Phags pa national and imperial preceptor’? and issued a document?’ which exempted the monks from taxation and from military and labour service. It was a confirmation of the privileges granted long before by Chingis Khan.*! According to another document,” ‘Phags pa was conferred the temporal sovereignty over the three regions? making up the whole of the Tibetan-speaking territories.” ‘Phags pa and Kubilai agreed on a new alliance — the so-called two laws (in Mongolian goyar yosun ‘two laws’, while Tibetan uses three phrases: gnyis lugs ‘two methods, khrims gnyis ‘two laws’, and gtsug lag gnyis ka ‘two-sciences’) — dividing 26 See Shotaro lida: Facets of Buddhism. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London — New York 1991, p. 67. At the age of three, ‘Phags pa recited the Sadhanasargara from memory and at eight recited the Jatakas. One year later, he expounded the Hevajratantra to an assembly of sages. See Shotaro lida: Facets of Buddhism, pp. 67-68. There are two known biographies of ‘Phags pa in Sa skya sources. One of them, a fairly detailed biography, can be found in the Sa skya pa’i chos kyi snying po Bi ru pa i gsung ngag lam ‘bras rin po che. This 17-volume work was collected and edited by ‘Jam dbyangs blo gter dbang po. The first 7 volumes contain rnam thars of the Sa skya lineages from the beginning to the present and volume Kha (known as Lam ‘bras bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar) has ‘Phags pa’s biography composed by Sher chen ye shes rgyal mtshan. The other rnam thar is a part of the Sa skya gdung rab chen po rin chen bang mdzod composed by ‘Jam mgon a myes zhabs kun dga’ bsod nams. There are some more brief biographies in works like the Lam ‘bras bla ma brgyud pa’i tshar snang ba by Bla ma dam pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan. Several Dge lugs pa authors (e.g. the Fifth Dalai lama) give ‘Phags pa rather extensive treatment in their chronicles. Sum pa mkhan po ye shes dpal ‘byor provides some information on ‘Phags pa in his Dpag bsam ljong bzang. Blo bzang tshe ‘phel gives fifteen pages on details of ‘Phags pa’s life in the Hor gyi chos byung. See Tashi Densapa: A short biography..., p. 7, Toth, Erzsébet: A mongöliai buddhizmus történetének tibeti nyelvű forräsai [Tibetan-language sources for the history of Buddhism in Mongolia]. In: Birtalan Ágnes — Yamaji Masanori (eds.): Orientalista Nap 2003. MTA Orientalisztikai Bizottság— ELTE Orientalisztikai Intezet, Budapest 2003, pp. 147-148. Historically, imperial preceptor (Chin. guo shi) appeared before national preceptor (Chin. di shi); functionally di shi supplanted guo shi as the highest clerical honour and marked a development in the relationship between throne and sangha. Guo shi originally functioned as a religious tutor to the emperor and his family. See Dunnel, Ruth: The Hsia Origins of the Yuan Institution of Imperial Preceptor. Asia Major third series, Vol. 5, No. 1. 1992, pp. 86-87. Known to Tibetans under the name: Decree in the Tibetan script (Tib. ja’sa bod yig ma). 31 See Petech, L.: Central Tibet..., p. 16. It was the Pearl document (Tib. ja" sa mu tig ma). Tibet was traditionally divided into three regions, called Chol kha gsum: Mnga’ ris and Dbus Gtsang in Central Tibet, A mdo and Khams in East-Tibet. 4 See Petech, L.: Central Tibet..., pp. 16-18. 170
