Khön Könchog Gyalpo (1034–1102) is the founder of the Sakya school. In 1073, on a slope of pale earth in Upper Tsang, he built Sakya Monastery — and from this the place-name, monastery-name, and school-name became one and the same.

His life seems especially quiet among the founders of Tibetan Buddhism: no legend of subduing demons, no tale of austerities, no record of miracles. He did only one thing — build the right monastery on the right land, then transmit the dharma.

And that, in the end, grew into a school that has lasted a thousand years.

The Khön were an ancient aristocracy of the Tibetan imperial era, who for generations took refuge in the dharma. Before Könchog Gyalpo, the family practiced the old Nyingma teachings — the body of teachings transmitted from the early propagation period.

The turning point came with his elder brother, Khön Röché Tsültim (昆·若喜饶次诚), a translator who went to India to study the New Translation tantras and, on returning to Tibet, became one of the important disseminators of the new tantras of his time.

Könchog Gyalpo was steeped in the Nyingma teachings from childhood within the family, but with the rise of the New Translation tantras in the later propagation period, he gradually realized: the old teachings are good, yet need new organization and a new transmission. So he made a decision that was not easy at the time — to leave the family's generational tradition and study the new translations.

The weight of this decision lies in its meaning as a kind of "betrayal" of the family tradition. Yet the Sakya he later built is precisely the school that transmits its lineage through the family — he betrayed the old teaching, but kept the family. This seemingly contradictory choice ultimately defined Sakya's character: both open and conservative.

Könchog Gyalpo's most important guru was Drogmi Lotsāwa (993–1074).

Drogmi was among the greatest translators of the later propagation period, who spent over ten years seeking the dharma in India and Nepal, and from the holder of the lineage of the Indian mahāsiddha Virūpa received the complete Path and Fruit (Lamdré).

Könchog Gyalpo entered his door and systematically studied the Path and Fruit and the Hevajra tantras. Legend has it Drogmi did not easily transmit the dharma at first, and tested him over a long period; Könchog Gyalpo served with family wealth as offering and with labor, and finally received the complete oral instructions.

This teacher-disciple connection is the true source of Sakya's lineage: Drogmi provided the content of the dharma; Könchog Gyalpo provided the institution to hold it. Without Drogmi, Sakya would have no Path and Fruit; without Könchog Gyalpo, the Path and Fruit might have been just another set of oral instructions scattered among the people.

In the lineage transmission of Tibetan Buddhism, such pairings are common — a translator masterful in doctrine, paired with a monastery-builder capable of institution. Kagyu has Marpa and Milarepa, Gelug has Atiśa and Tsongkhapa, Sakya has Drogmi and Könchog Gyalpo.

In 1073, Könchog Gyalpo sought a site for a monastery in the Phun Chhu valley of Upper Tsang.

Legend has it he came to a slope and saw earth of a pale, white color with an unusual luster, which he took as an auspicious omen shown by the local deity. He decided to build there, and named it directly after this earth — Sakya (ས་སྐྱ་), pale earth.

The plainness of this naming deserves note. The names of other Tibetan Buddhist schools mostly derive from doctrine (Nyingma = old, Gelug = virtuous discipline, Kagyu = oral transmission); only Sakya derives from a concrete patch of earth.

This is perhaps no accident. It shows Könchog Gyalpo cared not about giving his school a resounding name, but about finding a place where the dharma could stay for a long time.

After the monastery was built, the Path and Fruit spread there. His son Künga Nyingpo later became the actual founder of Sakya's doctrine; the sequence of the Five Patriarchs begins with him. Father built the monastery, son spread the dharma — thus the tradition of Sakya transmitting its lineage through the family was established.

Könchog Gyalpo passed away in 1102, aged sixty-eight. In life he could hardly have imagined how far the small monastery he built would go:

• A school — Sakya became one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
• A lineage — the Path and Fruit passed from him to his son, for nearly a thousand years without break.
• A family system — the Khön family transmits its lineage through blood, a unique institutional design in Tibetan Buddhism.
• A history — two centuries later, his descendant Pakpa became Imperial Preceptor to the Yuan emperor; Sakya once ruled all of Tibet.

But most fundamentally, it was the most plain thing he did: choose a land, build a monastery, place the dharma within it.

In the history of Tibetan Buddhism, founders come in various types: the mighty in miracles (Padmasambhava), the austerities-realized (Milarepa), the stunningly learned (Tsongkhapa). Könchog Gyalpo belongs to a fourth kind — the builder. He turned the dharma into a place where one could dwell.

A monastery's life often outlasts a person's. The builder passes; the monastery remains, and the dharma remains with it.

Q: Which Sakya patriarch was Khön Könchok Gyalpo?

A: He was the founder of the Sakya school. The usual "Five Sakya Patriarchs" are counted from his son, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo; if he is included, they are called the Six Sakya Patriarchs.

Q: Why did he turn to the new-translation tantras?

A: In the later spread of the Dharma, the new-translation tantras arrived in large numbers from India with a more complete system. Seeing that the earlier teachings needed fresh systematization, he abandoned the older Nyingma teachings and studied the Path and its Fruit under the translator Drokmi.

Q: What does "Sakya" mean?

A: In Tibetan it means "pale earth." In 1073 he built the monastery on a hillside of pale soil and named it after the place; both the monastery's and the school's names come from this.

Q: What was his relation to Phagpa?

A: Phagpa was his descendant (roughly five generations later). The Khön family transmits the lineage through blood kin, and Könchok Gyalpo was the founder of this familial lineage.

• Sakya Monastery, Tibet, 2006.jpg · Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) / CC BY-SA 2.5

Return to the upper level: The Patriarchs of Sakya.