The Treasury of Lives

Four Teachers of the Lamdre Lineage Sakya Pandita, Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen, Shangton Konshok Pel, Drakphukpa

Sakya Lotsawa Jampai Dorje, the twenty-third Sakya Tridzin.

A receipt dated September 9, 1965 documenting the dispersal of funds to the Sakya Trizin and the Sakya Settlement at Dehra Dun, by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa on behalf of the Tibet Society of United Kingdom.

Sakya Drakshar monastery was in existence by at least the 1430s when the Fourth Ngor Khenchen, Kunga Wangchuk, took novice vows here.

Sakya Monastery, a major monastery in central Tibet, is the seat of the Sakya tradition. Its first temple was founded in 1073 by Khon Konchok Gyelpo. His descendents of the Khon family, the patriarchs of the Sakya tradition, greatly expanded the complex over the centuries. During the Yuan Dynasty it was the seat of political power in Tibet. The monastery continues to be led by Khon family in the person of the Sakya Tridzin. In the fourteenth century four sons of the Eleventh Sakya Tridzin, Zangpo Pel, established four labrang, or dynastic houses at Sakya: the Zhitok, the Rinchen Gang, the Lhakhang and the Ducho. The Ducho is the sole remaining labrang at Sakya. It was divided in the eighteenth century into two palaces by two sons the Thirty-second Sakya Tridzin, Wangdu Nyingpo: the Drolma Podrang, established by Pema Dudul Wangchuk, and the Puntsok Podrang, established by Kunga Rinchen.

Sakya Mendrong was an important school of medicine founded in the twefth century. It was presumably located near Sakya. The curriculum was was based on the Drangti medical tradition.

Sakya Monastery is a Sakya dharma center in Seattle, Washington. It was established in 1974 as Sakya Tegchen Choling by Dezhung Rinpoche and Sakya Dagchen Rinpoche, and moved to its current location, a former Presbyterian church, in 1984. 

Jetsun Sakya Center in New York City was established by Dezhung Rinpoche in 1977.

Sakya Centre is the Indian seat of the Sakya Trizin. It was established in 1964 by the Firty-First Sakya Trizin. 

The Sakya (sa skya) tradition was founded by Khon Konchok Gyelpo in 1073, a date marked by his founding of Sakya temple in the Sakya valley in Tsang. Konchok Gyelpo’s son Sachen Kunga Nyingpo combined his Khon family’s lineage of Yangdak and Vajrakīla, which his ancestor Khon Lui Wangpo received during the Imperial era, with new teachings. These include the Sakya Lojong teachings obtained in a vision of Manjuśrī, and the Lamdre teachings that are based on the Hevajra tantra. The Sakya Lamdre teachings were transmitted by the Indian Mahāsiddha Virupa to Drokmi Lotsāwa who brought them to Tibet and taught them to Seton Kunrik, who passed them to to Zhangton Chobar, who transmitted them to Sachen. Sachen also received Cakrasaṃvara, Vajrabhairava, the Vajrayoginī of Nāropa, and Pañjaranātha Mahākāla from Mel Lotsāwa Lodro Drakpa. Sachen’s two sons, Sonam Tsemo and Drakpa Gyeltsen were the next to lead the temple. Drakpa Gyeltsen’s nephew, Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyeltsen, one of the greatest scholars of his day, was the fourth in the lineage. The fifth was Sakya Paṇḍita’s nephew, Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen, who traveled with his uncle when the Mongolian leader Godem Khan summoned him. In 1253 Pakpa met Qubilai Khan, who three years later conquered China and initiated the Yuan Dynasty. Borrowing from Tangut-Kagyu alliance of the previous century, Qubilai and Pakpa entered into a relationship of “patron and priest,” with Pakpa being made guoshi, or Imperial Preceptor. With Mongolian support, the Sakya Khon family ruled Tibet until the rise of the Pakmodru Dynasty in the middle of the fourteenth century. Three branches of the Sakya tradition are the main branch based at Sakya Monastery; the Ngor (ngor), founded by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo and based at Ngor Evam Choden monastery; and Tsar (tshar), established by Tsarchen Losel Gyatso and based at Dar Drangmoche. The Ngor tradition became influential in the dissemination of the Sakya tantric teachings, and the Tsarpa in the esoteric transmission known as the Lobshe, which contrasts to the more widely taught Tsokshe, both being teaching traditions of Lamdre. A third branch is the Dzongpa, which is based at Gongkar Chode in Lhoka. There are several independent institutions that share Sakya doctrinal tradition, including Jonang (jo nang), Bodong (bo dong), and Bulug / Zhalu (bu lugs / zhwa lu), and which are frequently considered part of the Sakya tradition.