SAKYA PAṆḌITA (SA SKYA PAṆḌITA) (1182–1251). The religious culture of Tibet came to be characterized, from the thirteenth century on, by a remarkable emphasis not just upon Buddhist thought and practice, but also upon a broad range of Indian learning sometimes only indirectly related to the study of Indian Buddhism per se. The broadening of Tibetan cultural horizons that this entailed may be traced directly to the considerable influence of the renowned monastic scholar Sa skya Paṇḍita.

His Life

Sa skya Paṇḍita (the "paṇḍit from Sa skya"), whose proper name was Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (Kunga Gyaltsen), was born in 1182 as the son of Dpal chen 'od po, a scion of the...