Masters · Sakya

The Sakya Trizin: Nine Centuries of the Khön Lineage, and Three Throne-Holders in Gelephu

The Sakya throne has passed through one family, the Khön, since a monastery was founded on a grey hillside in Tibet in 1073. Its holders taught Mongol emperors. Today the office rotates among the family's senior members — and from 1 to 4 November 2026 three who have held it will be together in Gelephu.

All three in Gelephu · 1–4 November 2026

Updated 1 October 2026 · 5 min read

Sakya means “grey earth”, after the pale hillside in Tsang, southern Tibet, where Khön Könchok Gyalpo founded a monastery in 1073. Trizin means “throne-holder”. The Sakya Trizin is the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the office has remained within one family, the Khön, for more than nine centuries.

The founders, and the emperors

The Sakya tradition reveres Five Founding Masters: Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, Sönam Tsemo, Drakpa Gyaltsen, Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), one of the great scholars of Tibetan history, and his nephew Chögyal Phagpa (1235–1280). Sakya Pandita travelled to the Mongol court; Phagpa became the teacher of Kublai Khan, who named him Imperial Preceptor, and devised a script for the Mongol empire. For a century afterwards the Sakya lamas stood at the centre of Tibetan religious and political life.

The 41st: Sakya Gongma Trichen

Ngawang Kunga, born in 1945, was designated as the next throne-holder as a child and enthroned in 1959, at fourteen. That year he went into exile, and in 1964 he re-established the Sakya seat at Rajpur, near Dehradun in India. He held the throne until 2017 — the longest tenure in the tradition’s history — and is revered today as His Holiness Sakya Gongma Trichen Rinpoche.

In April 2024 he made his first visit to Bhutan. The Dorji Lopon and the senior Lopons of the Zhung Dratshang received him at Punakha Dzong; he visited Paro, Thimphu and Bumthang, gave teachings, and was received by His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen.

The rotation

In 2014 the Khön family decided that the throne would rotate among its senior qualified members, drawn from its two branches, the Dolma Phodrang and the Phuntsok Phodrang. The first rotation took effect in 2017.

The 42nd Sakya Trizin, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, Gongma Trichen’s elder son, born in Dehradun in 1974, held the throne from 2017 to 2022.
The 43rd Sakya Trizin, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, his younger son, born in 1979, was enthroned in March 2022 and is the present throne-holder.
Khöndung Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche, of the Phuntsok Phodrang, born in Seattle in 1993, is to be enthroned as the 44th Sakya Trizin in the autumn of 2026 — the first throne-holder from his branch of the family under the rotation.

Sakya and Bhutan

Beyond Gongma Trichen’s 2024 visit, the Sakya-linked Dzongsar tradition has deep Bhutanese roots: Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, one of its leading teachers, was born in eastern Bhutan in 1961.

In Gelephu, 2026

The Sakya Dolma Phodrang — Sakya Gongma Trichen together with the 42nd and 43rd Sakya Trizins — offered one Jangchub Chorten to Project 108, Gongma Trichen describing the 108 chortens as enduring sources of blessing for generations. All three will be in Gelephu Mindfulness City from 1 to 4 November for the prayers and consecration. Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche offered a chorten of his own. The prayers and rituals in Gelephu are led by His Holiness the Je Khenpo, Bhutan’s Chief Abbot. The full list of masters is in Project 108 Masters.