The Treasury of Lives

Dharmapālarakṣita (d+harma pA la rak Shi ta) was born at Sakya Monastery (sa skya), in the Nedruk Temple (gnas drug lha khang) in 1268, the earth dragon year. His father was Chana Dorje (phyag na rdo rje, 1238-1267), the younger brother of Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen ('phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235-1280) with whom he traveled in Mongolia, and who died before he was born. His mother was a noble woman from Zhalu (zha lu) named Khandro Bum (mkha' 'gro 'bum). He was raised in the Shingkhang Labrang (shing khang bla brang) at Sakya Monastery.

According to legend, when he was still very young he pierced the ground with an arrow; when he pulled it out, water sprung from the hole he had made. It was also said that he could speak to protector deities as thought to ordinary people.

He received empowerments and instructions from his uncle Pakpa, following his return from China in 1276, and is said to have performed the funeral rites for him four years later. In 1281, at the age of thirteen he was enthroned as the Ninth Sakya Tridzin, the Throne-holder of Sakya Monastery.

The following year, at the age of fourteen he traveled to China at the invitation Khubilai Khan, who gave him the title of Imperial Preceptor (dishi 帝師), replacing his uncle Rinchen Gyeltsen (P1072rin chen rgyal mtshan, 1238-1279/1282). He was the third Sakya hierarch to hold the title. In China he built a reliquary stūpa in commemoration of his uncle. Khubilai gave him an imperial princess as a wife, the grand-daughter of Köden. He also had a wife from Zhalu, named Jowo Takki Bum (jo bo stag gi 'bum), with whom he had a child named alternately Ratnabhadra, Dharmabhadra, or Ratnapālarakṣita. The child died at the age of five.

He remained in China for six years, during which time he built a large stupa in honor of Pakpa and developed the Metok Rawa (me tog ra ba) residence of the Imperial Preceptor into a monastery. He passed away at the age of twenty on route back to Tibet, in a place in Kham or Amdo named Tre Maṇḍala (pre maN+Da la)