INSTEAD OF THE DALAI LAMA initiating a Kalachakra ceremony, had things turned out differently, it might easily have been Pope John Paul II consecrating some Christian event in Ulaan Bataar. For when, in the 13th century, the Mongol rulers were toying with the idea of a state religion, Christianity, along with Islam, Taoism and Confucianism, was very much in the running. It so happened that Buddhism, that too its Tibetan Mahayana variation, found favour.
Contacts between Tibet and Mongolia began in 1207, just a year after Chinghis Khan assumed command of the Central Asian tribes and much before the Mongol conquest of China began. The envoys of Chinghis suddenly appeared in Tibet, which was then a much-fragmented country due to the incessant quarrels among the various schools of Buddhism, to demand submission to the warlord of the north. Tibet capitulated hastily, which was why it was the only country in central and northern Asia to be spared a Chingis Khan conquest.
Mongol interest in Tibet revived once again in 1239 when Chinghis Khan´s grandson, Prince Godan of Kokonor (in the present-day northeastern Tibet province of Amdo), sent raiding parties into Tibet. Later, Godan seems to have been so impressed by the accounts of lamaism he heard from his men that he summoned a Tibetan representative to his court. This was perceived as a dubious honour, for there was no knowing what lay in store in the Mongol court. After much dithering, it was the head of the Sakyapa school, the Sakya Pandita, who travelled to Kokonor in 1244. As it turned out, the Sakya Pandita hit it off with the great Khan and was appointed Regent of Tibet. He was succeeded in this post by his nephew Phakpa.
Phakpa, one of the most exceptional characters in Tibetan history, soon won the confidence of the first Mongol ruler of China, Kublai Khan, another of Chinghis Khan´s grandsons. Kublai Khan invested Phakpa with the title kuo-shih (instructor of the nation) in 1270 and gave him supreme authority over all of Tibet. Phakpa thus became the first lama sovereign of Tibet, although his status was more of the Mongol emperor´s vassal-ruler.