Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen

Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen (Tibetan: ཏའི་སི་ཏུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན, Wylie: ta'i si tu byang chub rgyal mtshan; Chinese: 大司徒絳曲堅贊) (1302 – 21 November 1364) was a key figure in Tibetan History. He was the founder of the Phagmodrupa Dynasty which replaced the old Mongol-backed Sakya regime, ending the Yuan rule of Tibet. He ruled most of Tibet as desi (regent) from 1354 to 1364 (alt. 1371, 1373 or 1374), and as a law-giver, politician and religious patron, he created a heritage that lasted for centuries.

The Phagmodru hermitage, situated on the northern bank of the Tsangpo River, was founded by Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (1110–1170) who initiated a sub-sect of the Kagyu school of Buddhism. After his death a monastery called Thel arose at the place in the late 12th century. It is presently in ruins. The monastery was ruled by members of the noble Lang Family whose pedigree went back to ancient times. During the Sakya period, when regents called ponchen (dpon-chen) ruled Tibet under Mongol (Yuan) overlordship, Central Tibet was divided into thirteen myriarchies. One was Phagmodru with the palace of Nêdong as its center; it was headed by a lord of the Lang Family who bore the title tripon (myriarch). Phagmodru was allied to the Ilkhanate in Persia for a while, but its position was severely weakened by intervention by Kublai Khan, the Great Khan who founded the Yuan dynasty. Changchub Gyaltsen was born into the Lang lineage in 1302 as the son of Rinchen Kyab and his second wife Tramon Bumkyi. At the age of nine he was ordained as a monk and was introduced to the Buddhist teachings by the lama Lhakangpa. Changchub Gyaltsen was in particular devoted to the worship of the deity Hayagriva. At fourteen years of age he went to the Sakya monastery. While he initially wished to pursue a clerical career, his tutor persuaded him that he would make an excellent administrator.

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