The Sakya tradition arose from a particular meeting of place, family, and teaching. Its name, “Sakya” or “pale/grey earth,” comes from the distinctive soil where Sakya Monastery was founded in the Tsang region of central Tibet. This monastery was established in 1073 by Khön Könchok Gyalpo, a member of the ancient Khön noble family, which had long-standing ties to Buddhist practice. From the outset, the lineage was closely bound to this hereditary family, and the monastery became both its spiritual and institutional heart. In this way, the school’s origin is not merely an institutional founding but the crystallization of a family’s spiritual inheritance in a specific sacred landscape.

The early centuries of Sakya were shaped above all by the “Five Great Masters” or “Five Patriarchs”: Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, Sonam Tsemo, Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen, and Chögyal Phagpa. These masters received and systematized a wide range of sutra and tantra teachings, with particular emphasis on the Lamdré, “the Path and its Fruit,” based on the Hevajra Tantra. Under their guidance, the school developed a distinctive synthesis: rigorous philosophical and logical study on the one hand, and profound tantric contemplative practice on the other. This integration of view and method, of analysis and meditation, became the hallmark of Sakya’s inner life.

In the wider Tibetan and Inner Asian world, the Sakya school came to play a pivotal historical role. Through Sakya Pandita’s relationship with the Mongol prince Godan Khan, and later Chögyal Phagpa’s role as imperial preceptor to Kublai Khan, a formal priest–patron relationship was established. Under Mongol protection, Sakya hierarchs governed much of Tibet for a period, and the school’s influence spread through new monasteries and the transmission of its scholastic and tantric systems. When Mongol power waned and other regional forces rose, Sakya’s political authority diminished, yet its spiritual and intellectual legacy remained deeply woven into Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Over time, important sub-lineages such as the Ngor and Tsar branches emerged within the broader Sakya fold, further refining monastic discipline and ritual detail while preserving the core Lamdré orientation. The position of Sakya Trizin, “Throne Holder of Sakya,” continued to embody the union of family lineage and doctrinal continuity, ensuring that the school’s characteristic blend of sutra and tantra, scholarship and practice, remained unbroken. Through these historical currents, the Sakya tradition has stood as a testament to how a single family lineage, rooted in a specific place, can become a vehicle for a vast and subtle vision of the Buddhist path.