Sakya Pandita

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Thangka of Sakya Pandita, Eastern Tibet, 18th century.

Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (T. sa skya paṇḍita kun dga’ rgyal mtshan ས་སྐྱ་པཎ་ཌི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན) (1182 – 1251) was a scholar and spiritual leader in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

The Princeton Dictionary states:

Although associated primarily with the Sakya sect, Sakya Paṇḍita is traditionally considered one of the greatest savants and religious luminaries in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. He authored a number of seminal philosophical treatises, and beyond his role as scholar and logician, played an instrumental role in forging a relationship with the Mongol court.[1]

The name Sakya Paṇḍita is an honorific title, meaning “Scholar of Sakya,” often abbreviated as Sapan.[1]

He was the fourth of the five patriarchs of the Sakya school.

Biography

File:Sakya Pandita, Kunga Gyaltsen Pal Zangpo.jpg
Sakya Pandita.

John Davenport states:

As a scholar, translator, teacher, author, and statesman of wide-ranging and unparalleled talents, Sakya Pandita was a unique figure in Tibetan political-religious history. By the time of his birth in 1182, more than 300 years after the death of Lang Darma in 842, Tibet was in a state of decentralized control, divided into many smaller hegemonies often at odds with each other. By the 12th century, Buddhism had made a recovery after the persecutions of Lang Darma and many of these smaller hegemonies were established around monastic communities and centers of learning. One such location was Sakya, situated on a tributary of the Tsangpo River to the southwest of Lhasa and directly north of the border between Nepal and Sikkim. This was the birthplace of Sakya Pandita.
The history of Sakya is woven around the history of the Khon ('khon) clan who originate in legend with the descent to earth in Tibet to the northwest of Sakya of three brothers of the God of Clear Light. The Khon people enter Tibetan recorded history in the eighth century prior to the time of Lang Darma when a prominent member of the clan, Khon Palpoche, became a minister of King Trisong Detsen when Tibet was expansive and powerful. A subsequent descendant, Sakya Pandita's great grandfather, Konchog Gyalpo, is credited with establishing the first monastery at Sakya, an event that was indirectly foretold in a prediction of the famous Indian Pandita Atisha, when he passed through the area in 1042. One of Konchog Gyalpo's sons, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, formulated the distinctive Sakya religious doctrine, and brought into being the Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism. One of his four sons, Palchen Ohpa, was Sakya Pandita's father while another Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen, was his uncle and first spiritual teacher.
As the eldest of two sons, Sakya Pandita was destined to carry on the family heritage of religious scholarship, set by his uncles and grandfather, while his younger brother carried on the family name. According to the hagiographic style of Tibetan biographical sources, as a toddler, Sakya Pandita is said to have drawn Indian letters in the dirt while playing, and then carefully avoided crawling over them. His early education began at ages five to six under the tutelage of his father and uncle. At age 17, he had two auspicious dreams that presaged the major contribution he was to make to Tibetan scholarship in the area of logic and epistemology. The following year, 1200, he began four years of travel to other parts of Tibet to further his education, and it is during this period that his studies of logic commenced in earnest. Some of his earliest writings date back to this time.
The renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet that began in the 10th century was marked by an interchange of scholars between India and Tibet that continued for about three centuries. Tibetans such as Rinchen Zangpo would journey to India to learn Sanskrit and Buddhist teachings while Indian pandits such as Atisha would come to Tibet for long periods to teach. Sakya Pandita's life spanned the end of this period of fertile interchange. One year after the death of his father in 1203, he met one of the later Indian pandits to visit to Tibet, the Kashmiri Śakyaśribhadra (1127-1225), who was to become one of his most formative teachers. He studied for nine years with Śakyaśribhadra and the other Indian scholars traveling with him, receiving full ordination from him in 1208. It was during this time that he acquired the mastery of Sanskrit and other subjects that was to earn him the title "Pandita," and enable him to translate several texts from Sanskrit to Tibetan.
In 1216 Sakya Pandita's uncle passed away, leaving him to be the heir of the Sakya tradition and a religious teacher in his own right, thus marking the start of a 28 year period that was to be his most productive as a scholar. His composition's number over one hundred, with his primary interest being Buddhist logic and epistemology. His longest, most detailed work was A Treasury of Logic and Epistemology composed in 1219, which, along with its autocommentary, summarizes the logical epistemology traditions of Dignaga and Dharmakirti, the first attempt to do so. The Sakya Lekshé was his sixth longest book, a popular text for a wide audience that offers practical guidance for daily living. Though undated, recent scholarship suggests that it may have been composed shortly after A Treasury of Logic and Epistemology. The range of his writing achievements is wide indeed, with compositions in such diverse areas as the Sanskrit language arts (grammar, prosody, poetics, synonymy, and lexicography), tantric works, commentaries, and biographies. His contributions to the development of Buddhist studies in Tibet are substantial, but have been overshadowed by his achievements as a statesman later in life.
The beginning of the 13th century marked the rise of Mongol empire under the leadership of Genghis Khan. When Mongol troops took over Hsi-hsia, the Tangut Empire to the northeast of Tibet, the Tibetans sent tribute to the Mongol and avoided being invaded. After the death of Genghis Khan [...] the Tibetans ceased sending their tribute. In 1240 the Mongol army [under the direction of Genghis Khan's grandson Prince Godan] then did invade, pressing far south close to Lhasa, burning and killing as they proceeded. Having been identified as a learned lama, Sakya Pandita was summoned to the Mongol court by a letter from Godan in 1244. Earlier in his life, a prophecy had informed him that he would be invited by a "border race who wear hats like falcons and shoes like a hog's snout" to propagate the Dharma. In 1244 he departed Tibet accompanied by his two young nephews, Lama Drogon Phakpa, and Chakna Dorji, and arrived in Mongolia three years later to spend what was to be the remainder of his life in service to the Mongol court, eventually passing away there (near the modern Chinese city of Lanzhou) in 1251.
File:Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen and Drogon Chogyal Phagpa.jpg
Sakya Pandita and Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (aka. Drogon Phakpa).
In general, Sakya Pandita's role in Mongolia was twofold. He was charged with the religious task of teaching Buddhism to Prince Godan and helping him spread the Buddhist teachings in Mongolia, and with the temporal task of serving as "the Mongols' agent for achieving the submission of Tibet." The first role had an enduring effect in that Buddhism remains the religion of Mongolia to this day. His second role was more complex. Initially, Sakya Pandita was in a position of a vassal to a powerful lord wherein he essentially had to reconfirm Mongol authority over Tibet, which had earlier been achieved by Genghis Khan. However, this reconfirmation was achieved without the presence of Mongolian troops or administrators in Tibet. A letter from Sakya Pandita to Tibetan leaders written shortly before his death spells out the terms of the relationship between Tibet and Mongolia. In it, he dwells at length on the piety of Godan and the importance of using this unique opportunity to spread Buddhism in Mongolia. But he also discusses the power differential between the two countries and how necessary it was for Tibetans to pay tribute to the Mongol's to ensure their peaceful survival.
This unique, religious and temporal relationship between Godan and the Sakya Pandita continued into the next generation where it was formalized into the well-known chö-yön (priest-patron, mchod yon) relationship that evolved between Sakya Pandita's nephew, Phakpa, and Godan's successor, Kublai Khan. Eventually, as Mongol power weakened in the 14th century, the special relationship between the Mongol court and the Sakya sect in Tibet disappeared as power shifted to the noble house of Pamo Dru (phag mo dru) after their military defeated Sakya in 1350. The chö-yön relationship may have worked to a degree between Kublai and Phakpa due to their close personal relationship, but once they were gone it was no longer viable, despite later Tibetan efforts to appeal to it as an instrument of foreign policy, especially in its relations with China.
In summary, it can be said that Sakya Pandita's life exemplified the ideal he explores in the Sakya Lekshé, namely that people should strive to integrate the spiritual and the secular aspects of their lives. This ideal comes from a rich heritage of traditional Indian literature that was a formative influence on Sakya Pandita's intellectual and spiritual development.[2]

Influence

Sakya Pandita was known for "his deep understanding of the Sanskrit language and Indian culture."[3]

In his great knowledge of Indian Buddhism, Sakya Pandita had an eye for what he saw as Tibetan aberrations. Naturally conservative, he was suspicious of teachers who promised enlightenment without the need to pass through all of the stages of Buddhist practice. Tibet's scholastic tradition – and Tibetan Buddhism is very much a scholastic tradition – owes much to Sakya Pandita, and his works are still on Tibetan monastic curricula today.[3]

The Princeton Dictionary states:

Although associated primarily with the Sakya sect, Sakya Paṇḍita is traditionally considered one of the greatest savants and religious luminaries in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. He authored a number of seminal philosophical treatises, and beyond his role as scholar and logician, played an instrumental role in forging a relationship with the Mongol court.[1]

Critiques of views of other lamas

Sakya Pandita wrote critiques of the views of other Tibetan lamas. According to José Cabezón, he was concerned with refuting what he considered to be false views and practices in Tibet.[4] In his Treasury of Valid Reasoning (Rigs gter), he critiques Chapa Chökyi Sengé's (1109-1169) interpretation of Dharmakirti's thought.[4]

Sakya Pandita is also known as a critic of a certain kind of Mahamudra theory and practice called White Panacea (dkar po chig thub) or “self-sufficient white remedy.” According to Cabezón, this is the doctrine that "the realization of the nature of mind is sufficient in and of itself to bring about spontaneously and instantaneously the simultaneous consummation of all virtuous qualities, including Buddhahood itself."[4]

Sakya Pandita focused his critique on Gampopa (1079–1153), and his disciple, Zhang Tshal pa (1123–93).[4] His critique was influential on numerous later figures, including the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–82), Jamyang Shepe Dorje Ngawang Tsondrü (1648–1722) and the Second Belmang, Konchok Gyeltsen (1764–1853).[4]

Works

Major works

Sakya Pandita's five most famous works are:[1][5]

Other works

Other works include:[6]

  • Treatise on Music (Rol-mo'i btsan-bcos)
    Translated into English by Ricardo Canzio, it presents Sakya Pandita's views on the principles of Tibetan music and chant, metrical composition, and performance instructions.[7]
    His Treatise on Music provides valuable historical information about liturgical music theory and performance practice.[7][8]
  • sgra'i bstan bcos
  • tshad ma'i bstan bcos sde bdun gyi snying po rig pa'i gter 'grel pa dang bcas pa
  • bzo'i bstan bcos
  • sku gzugs kyi bstan bcos
  • sa brtag pa
  • bstan pa rin po che'i rtsis
  • yan lag brgyad pa'i bsdus don
  • phyogs bcu'i sangs rgyas byang chub sems dpa' la zhu ba'i 'phrin yig dang skyes bu dam pa rnams la springs yig sogs 'phrin yig dang zhus lan mang ba
  • grub mtha' rnam 'byed
  • pha rol phyin pa'i gzhung lugs spyi'i tshogs chos chen mo
  • bdag med ma'i bstod pa'i 'grel pa
  • rdo rje theg pa'i man ngag rten 'brel lnga'i yi ge
  • lam sbas bshad dang bla ma'i rnal 'byor
  • sems bskyed chen mo lung sbyor
  • chos nyams su blang ba'i rim pa
  • theg pa chen po'i lam gyi rnam gzhag mdor bsdus
  • bsngo ba'i yon bshad
  • bdag nyid kyi rnam thar nga brgyad ma'i rtsa 'grel
  • sdeb sbyor me tog gi chun po
  • snyan ngag mkhas pa'i kha rgyan
  • mngon brjod tshig gi gter
  • zlos gar rab dga'i 'jug pa
  • byis pa bde blag tu 'jug pa'i 'grel pa
  • bstod pa rgyud gsum 'khor lo'i 'grel pa
  • sangs rgyas la bstod pa sogs bstod pa mang po mdzad

Translations of Indian texts

Translations include:[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Sa skya Paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan.
  2. ↑ Sakya Pandita 2000, Introduction.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 van Schaik 2011, Chapter 4.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cabezón & Geshe Lobsang Dargyay 2007, pp. 27-28.
  5. ↑ Jackson 1997, p. 2.
  6. ↑ Sakya Pandita, Wikipedia
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Canzio, Ricardo Oscar (1979). Sakya Pandita's "Treatise on Music" And Its Relevance to Present-day Tibetan Liturgy (PDF) (PhD). University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 December 2020. 
  8. ↑ Snellgrove, David L.; Richardson, Hugh (2015). A cultural history of Tibet (4th ed.). Bangkok: Orchid Press. pp. 281, 287. 
  9. ↑ Rhoton, Jared Douglas (2001) A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes: Essential Distinctions among the Individual Liberation, Great Vehicle, and Tantric System. New York; State University of New York Press, p. 13.

Sources

Further reading

Print publications:

  • David P. Jackson, 'Commentaries on the Writings of Sa skya Pandita: A Bibliographical Sketch' in The Tibet Journal, Vol.VIII, No.3, Autumn 1983
  • blo bzang chos kyi nyi ma (2009). The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought. Simon and Schuster. 
  • Migmar Tsering, 'Sakya Pandita: Glimpses of His Three Major Works' in The Tibet Journal, VOL.XIII,1, Spring 1988
  • Penny-Dimri, Sandra (1995). "The Lineage of His Holiness Sakya Trizin Ngawang-Kunga". The Tibet Journal. 20 (4). 
  • Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen, A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes: Essential Distinctions among the Individual Liberation, Great Vehicle, and Tantric Systems, translated by Jared Rhoton, New York: SUNY, 2002, ISBN 978-0791452868
  • Sakya Pandita, "Illuminations, A Guide To Essential Buddhist Practices", translated by Geshe Wangyal and Brian Cutillo, Novato, Wisdom Publications, 1988, ISBN 978-0932156051

Web publications:

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