Senge

Tibetan name
Wylie transliteration : sam gha
Chinese name
Simplified : 桑哥
Pinyin : Sānggē

Senge (Sangha, also Sang-ko (i.e. various transcriptions of the Sanskrit word for a religious community), † August 17, 1291 ) was originally a Tibetan- Uighur monk student, especially by Dam-pa Kun-dga'-grags (1230-1303 ) whose talent (languages etc.) Phagspa noticed. His actual spiritual rank is unknown. He served Phagspa as a kind of chamberlain . When he returned to Tibet four years before his death, Senge (as the holder of the relevant offices in Kublai's administration) gradually became the religious head of the Yuan Empire (around 1275). Initially, however, he was hardly active in secular affairs and only put down a rebellion in Tibet around 1280.

After Ahmad Fanakati's assassination in 1282 (found in all Marco Polo novels) and the execution of his allied minister Lu Shih-jung in 1285, he became chancellor on the right in the central administration of the Yuan Empire (December 11, 1287), in addition to the others Offices. He thus held one of the highest positions in the state. As a minister, Senge protected the interests of foreigners from western regions, especially the Muslims in China, and introduced new paper money whose value was only 1/5 of the old one (1287). His main job in the new office was to control the finances and prosecute unlikely officials in the central administration.

His politics earned him the disapproval of pro-Chinese circles, for example that of the Mongol General and Vice Minister An-t'ung (alias Hantum Noyan) or that of the painter Chao Mengfu . Senge and his deputy in southern China, Yanglianzhenja (a Tibetan monk, in office since 1277) are due to clique formation, excessive demands for money, financial speculation, murders, "repulsive sexual appetites" and, above all, the looting of the Song princely graves (1278/85) in described negatively in Chinese history.

Senge was executed in 1291. According to Raschid ed Din Kublai Khan, he had allegedly withheld pearls and jewels and also refused to give them back. His followers were also punished.

The fact that Muslims such as Abd al-Rahman, Ahmad Fanakati and Buddhists such as Senge, Yanglianzhenja, among others , did so much damage during the Yuan Dynasty had a negative effect on China's friendliness towards foreigners during the Ming period . It should be noted that the lamas were protected and privileged by Mongolian law, that is, one was neither allowed to raise one's hand against them nor speak against them.

Remarks

↑ The relationship between the two apparently deteriorated and Dam-pa was allowed to return to Tibet. Later, in 1289, Senge ordered him to the capital and then exiled him to Guangdong , from which he returned after Senge's fall.
↑ In 1284 it was the Buddhist Affair Department, responsible for the Buddhist Church and Tibet's civil and military affairs, and the Religious Merit Bureau, which oversaw the Buddhist clergy in China. There was also an honorary title.

literature

Igor de Rachewiltz, Hok-lam Chan, Hsiao Ch'i-ch'ing, Peter W. Geier, among others: In the Service of the Khan - Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period, Wiesbaden 1993
Morris Rossabi: Khubilai Khan: his life and times. Berkeley, London, New York 1988

personal data
SURNAME	Senge
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	religious head of the Chinese Yuan Empire
DATE OF BIRTH	13th Century
DATE OF DEATH	17th August 1291

[1] The relationship between the two apparently deteriorated and Dam-pa was allowed to return to Tibet. Later, in 1289, Senge ordered him to the capital and then exiled him to Guangdong , from which he returned after Senge's fall.

[2] In 1284 it was the Buddhist Affair Department, responsible for the Buddhist Church and Tibet's civil and military affairs, and the Religious Merit Bureau, which oversaw the Buddhist clergy in China. There was also an honorary title.