Sakya (Tibetan Buddhist school) in the context of "Phagmodrupa dynasty"

Vajradhara (Sanskrit: वज्रधर, lit. 'Diamond-holder'; Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང, Wylie: rdo rje 'chang, THL: Dorje Chang; Chinese: 金剛總持; pinyin: Jīngāng Zǒngchí; Javanese: Kabajradharan; Japanese: 持金剛仏; Mongolian: Очирдар, romanized: Ochirdar; Vietnamese: Kim Cang Tổng Trì) is the ultimate primordial Buddha, or Adi-Buddha, according to the Sakya, Gelug and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also a name of Indra, because "Vajra" means diamond, as well as the thunderbolt, or anything hard more generally.

In the evolution of Indian Buddhism, Buddha Vajradhara gradually displaced Samantabhadra, who is the 'Primordial Buddha' in the Nyingma, or 'Ancient School.' However, the two are metaphysically equivalent. Achieving the 'state of Vajradhara' is synonymous with complete realisation.

The Imperial Preceptor, or Dishi (simplified Chinese: 帝师; traditional Chinese: 帝師; pinyin: Dìshī; lit. 'Teacher of the Emperor'; Tibetan: གོང་མའི་སློབ་དཔོན, Wylie: gong mavi slob dpon), was a high title and powerful post in the Yuan dynasty. It was created by Kublai Khan as part of Mongol patronage of Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan administrative rule of Tibet.

The title was originally created as the State Preceptor or Guoshi (simplified Chinese: 国师; traditional Chinese: 國師; pinyin: Guóshī; lit. 'Teacher of the State'; Tibetan: གོ་ཤྲི, Wylie: go shri) in 1260, the first year of Kublai Khan's enthronement. In that year he appointed the Sakya lama Drogön Chögyal Phagpa to this post and soon placed him in charge of all Buddhist clergy. In 1264, he founded the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs and appointed Phagpa as the first director of this important new agency. The lama was offered nominal rule over all Tibet and also supervised Mongol relations with the Buddhist clergy. In 1270, Phagpa became Imperial Preceptor (Dishi) when the title was renamed. As Imperial Preceptor, he was authorized to issue letters and proclamations to the temples and institutions of Tibet, and he advised the emperor regarding official appointments in Tibet. Kublai Khan dispatched the lama to Tibet in 1264 to help persuade his people to accept Mongol rule.

There were several Mongol invasions of Tibet. The earliest is the alleged plot to invade Tibet by Genghis Khan in 1206, which is considered anachronistic; there is no evidence of Mongol-Tibetan encounters prior to the military campaign in 1240. The first confirmed campaign is the invasion of Tibet by the Mongol general Doorda Darkhan in 1240, a campaign of 30,000 troops that resulted in 500 casualties. The campaign was smaller than the full-scale invasions used by the Mongols against large empires. The purpose of this attack is unclear, and is still in debate among Tibetologists. Then in the late 1240s Mongol prince Godan invited Sakya lama Sakya Pandita, who urged other leading Tibetan figures to submit to Mongol authority. This is generally considered to have marked the beginning of Mongol rule over Tibet, as well as the establishment of patron and priest relationship between Mongols and Tibetans. These relations were continued by Kublai Khan, who founded the Mongol Yuan dynasty and granted authority over whole Tibet to Drogon Chogyal Phagpa, nephew of Sakya Pandita. The Sakya-Mongol administrative system and Yuan administrative rule over the region lasted until the mid-14th century, when the Yuan dynasty began to crumble.

In the early 17th century, the Oirat Mongols again conquered the region and established the Khoshut Khanate. Since then the Mongols had intervened in Tibetan politics until the Qing conquest of Mongolia and Dzungaria.

Tibet under Yuan rule refers to the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty's rule over Tibet from approximately 1270 to 1354. During the Yuan dynasty, Tibet was administered by an organization that was structurally, militarily and administratively subordinate to the Yuan court. Tibet was conquered by the Mongols led by a general titled doord darkhan in 1240 and Mongol rule was established after Sakya Pandita obtained power over Tibet through the Mongols in 1244. This period and administration has been called the Sakya dynasty (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་, Wylie: sa skya, Chinese: 薩迦王朝; pinyin: Sàjiā Wángcháo) after the favored Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.

The region retained a degree of political autonomy under the Sakya lama, who was the de jure head of Tibet and a spiritual leader of the Mongol Empire under the priest and patron relationship. However, administrative and military rule of Tibet remained under the auspices of the Yuan government agency known as the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Xuanzheng Yuan), a top-level administrative department separate from other Yuan provinces, but still under the administration of the Yuan dynasty. Tibet retained nominal power over religious and political affairs, while the Yuan dynasty managed a structural and administrative rule over the region, reinforced by the rare military intervention. This existed as a "diarchic structure" under the Yuan emperor, with power primarily in favor of the Mongols. One of the department's purposes was to select a dpon-chen, the de facto administrator and imperial representative in Tibet, usually appointed by the lama and confirmed by the Yuan emperor in Dadu (modern-day Beijing).

The Rimé movement (Tibetan Wylie: ris med; approximate pronunciation "reemay") also written in some English sources as Rime, Ri-me, Rimay) is a movement or tendency in Tibetan Buddhism which promotes non-sectarianism and universalism. Teachers from all branches of Tibetan Buddhism – Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug, Jonang – and from Bon have been involved in the promoting of Rimé ideals.

According to Sam van Schaik, eclectic and non-sectarian tendencies existed in Tibetan Buddhism before the 19th century, and figures like Tsongkhapa, Longchenpa and Shabkar are widely known to have studied with teachers from different traditions. However, political divisions and religious sectarianism increased during a period of warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This was a time when the Gelug school was the politically dominant religion and Gelug lamas were also the political leaders of Tibet (see Ganden Phodrang).