Short summary of Herbert Franke: “Tibetans in Yuan China”, from  Herbert Franke, China Under Mongol Rule, reprint of studies, pp. 276-328.

 

Tibetan monks were often conceived of as arrogant and insolent while the monks themselves were probably convinced that they acted selfless when traveling all the way from China to Tibet. In order to bring the teaching of Buddha to the subjects of the Mongols.

 

The monks enjoyed privileges which the Chinese considered to be excessive, while the monks regarded them as innate rights that the Buddhist clergy had received from the secular Mongol ruler.

 

Outside of activities related to religious practices Tibetans did not hold positions of importance in the Yuan administration or in the intellectual life of the time. During this period China in return also had little control over Tibet, a country that had little to offer to China: the tea was mediocre, and the amounts of gold and silver that Tibet exported were minimal.

Comments about the peaceful nature of the Tibetan people: Khubilai Khan is said to have stated that Tibetans of the time “were fond of fighting”. Marco Polo claimed that “… Otherwise, the people are idolators and thoroughly wicked, for they do not think it sinful to steal and act badly. They are the greatest criminals and thieves on earth”. [Franke quotes a French edition of Marco Polo’s memoirs: La Description du Monde. Paris 1955, p. 164.]

The Mongols extended their postal station network to the Tibetan borderlands and well into Tibet. The system was mostly used by Tibetan monks who traveled between Tibet and China, after the border region between Tibet and China had been conquered by Ögödei, Köden.

 

First encounters between Tibetan clergy and Mongol princes

In 1244 Köden wrote a letter to the head of the Sakya sect in which he invited the monk to visit him in order to pray for his deceased parents. This official letter was a ‘disguised request for Tibetan surrender’ (Franke, p. 305). In return Köden offered his protection to the Tibetan clergy. This contact of the first generation was continued by Khubilai Khan and the missionary and Tibetan politician ‘Pagspa in 1253. Khubilai, who at this time was still a prince, wanted to secure peaceful relations with the Tibetans while he attacked the Southern Kingdom of Nanzhao (in today’s Yunnan province).

‘Pagspa eventually developed a theory for a theocratic reign of the Mongol rulers. He dated the birthdate of Chinggis Khan by counting the years that had passed between  Buddha’s attaining of nirvana and Chinggis’ birth – a traditional method used in Tibet exclusively for personalities that were considered as important for the salvation of humankind. Chinggis and his son Khubilai were thus seen as Buddhist universal emperors or Cakravartinrajas.

 

RELIGION                                                                  STATE

Lord of religion                                                  secular ruler = ruler of the wheel

Lama = Buddha                                                   Cakravartin

Buddha = highest teacher in the present

Kalpa (era)

 

                                                                                    Chenggis Khan

                                                                                                ▼       

‘Pagspa                                                                        Khubilai Khan

(enjoyed posthumous honors similar to those of                    ▼

Confucius)                                                                    Hongwu           Incarnation of

                                                                                                 ▼       Bodhisattva

Halima (5th Karmapa)                                                   Yongle             Manjusri

                                                                                                 ▼

                                                                                                  •

                                                                                                  •

                                                                                                  •

                                                                                                  •                                

                                                                                     Kangxi

                                                                                                 ▼      

                                                                                     Yongzheng

                                                                                                 ▼

                                                                                    Qianlong

 

Spiritual salvation                                                          secular salvation

= deliverance from suffering                                          = worldly welfare

 

For the administration of Yuan-Tibetan contacts a new office was founded: the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, which was named after the reception hall for Tibetan envoys in the Tang Dynasty.

 

Under the Yuan, the Buddhist clergy was exempted from taxes and used the postal service excessively. Tibetan monks were reported to harass the Chinese population and the personnel of the postal stations. Other reasons for an uneasy relation between the Tibetan clergy and the Han population were:

 

  1. The monks pardoned prisoners on the occasion of Buddhist and Chinese festivals and declared this to be meritorious.

  1. Whoever attacked Tibetan monks was punished cruelly by the clergy.

  1. Tantric sexual practices were uncommon in Chinese Buddhism.

  1. Human sacrifices were uncommon in Chinese Buddhism.

  1. A member of the lamaist clergy destroyed the imperial tombs of the Song emperors because they had partly been built on the former sites of Buddhist temples.