Tibetan was as strange as Chinese to the
Mongols. But the Mongol Court had already been favourably impressed by
Tibetan Lamas and the Emperor probably had a just feeling that the
intellectual calibre of the Mongols and Tibetans was similar and also
that it was politic to conciliate the uncanny spiritual potentates who
ruled in a land which it was difficult to invade. At any rate he
summoned the abbot of Sakya to China in 1261 and was initiated by him
into the mysteries of Lamaism.[936]

It is said that before Pagspa's birth the God Ganesa showed his
father all the land of Tibet and told him that it would be the kingdom
of his son. In later life when he had difficulties at the Chinese
Court Mahakala appeared and helped him, and the mystery which he
imparted to Khubilai is called the Hevajravasita.[937] These
legends indicate that there was a large proportion of Sivaism in the
religion first taught to the Mongols, larger perhaps than in the
present Lamaism of Lhasa.

The Mongol historian Sanang Setsen relates[938] that Pagspa took a
higher seat than the Emperor when instructing him and on other
occasions sat on the same level. This sounds improbable, but it is
clear that he enjoyed great power and dignity. In China he received
the title of Kuo-Shih or instructor of the nation and was made the
head of all Buddhists, Lamaists and other. In Tibet he was recognized
as head of the Church and tributary sovereign, though it would appear
that the Emperor named a lay council to assist him in the government
and also had a commissioner in each of the three provinces. This was a
good political bargain and laid the foundations of Chinese influence
in a country which he could hardly have subdued by force.

Pagspa was charged by the Emperor to provide the Mongols with an
alphabet as well as a religion. For this purpose he used a square
form of the Tibetan letters,[939] written not in horizontal but in
vertical lines. But the experiment was not successful. The characters
were neither easy to write nor graceful, and after Pagspa's death his
invention fell into disuse and was replaced by an enlarged and
modified form of the Uigur alphabet. This had already been employed
for writing Mongol by Sakya Pandita and its definitive form for that
purpose was elaborated by the Lama Chos-kyi-hod-zer in the reign of
Khubilai's successor. This alphabet is of Aramaic origin, and had
already been utilized by Buddhists for writing religious works, so