| The Sakyapa order
of Tibetan Buddhism began with the founding of the Sakya monastery by Konchok
Gyalpo in the Tsang district of Southern Tibet in
1073.1 The name of this original
monastery, Sakya, which means “tawny soil” (the color of this region’s
earth), became the name of the sect. The order’s first 5 abbots, known
as the Five Venerable Masters all lived between 1090 and 1280, one of which
may have been the specific subject for the piece in Ackland’s exhibit.
The Sakya monastery, and the entire order exhibited a “bureaucratic social organization”2 during the first years of its existence that even served to impress the Mongol invaders of the thirteenth century. When Godan Khan, one such Mongol, invaded the region in 1240 he was so taken with the Sakyapa order that he conferred control of much of Southern and Central Tibet to the leaders of the Sakya monastery. This active role the Sakyapa order played in consolidating Mongol rule, as well as the compatibility of the Sakyapa’s esoteric beliefs with other sects, helped to speed the growth of Tibetan Buddhism across the area. The power of the Sakyapa order began to decline after the collapse of its patron Mongol dynasty in 1368. After the Sakyapa order attempted to use force against the Pagmogrupa order, in an effort to retain power, they were completely defeated in Central Tibet by the mid-fourteenth century.3 The Sakya monastery itself remained a vital center of scholarship and artistic creativity producing a number of works for centuries after this defeat. A portion of the original monastery stands today, although it is a trifling reminder of the strength and expanse of the Sakya influence on Tibet, its religions, and its art. -Preston Findlay
2ibid. Pg 206 3Reynolds, Valrae. From the Sacred Realm. (1999) Pg 28 |