PHAG-MO-GRU FAMILY

Tibetan family that in the 14th century liberated Tibet from Mongol control. The Phag-mo-gru had begun to extend its power over the surrounding countryside in the 13th century at a time when the country was being governed by a series of lamas from the Sa-skya monastery, residing at the Mongol (Yan) court in China. The death of the emperor Kublai Khan in 1294 marked the beginning of the decline of Mongol power; the Phag-mo-gru, under its great leader Byang-chub rgyal-mtshan (1302-64), moved in and soon began to actively dispute the Sa-skya Lama's authority. By 1358 Byang-chub rgyal-mtshan had liberated all of central Tibet, eradicating Mongol control over the country. Byang-chub rgyal-mtshan and the Phag-mo-gru leaders who succeeded him assumed the title of Gong-ma, restored the Tibetan ethos as the ruling ideology, and divided the nation into districts governed by centrally appointed officials. During the next 100 years in which the Phag-mo-gru was dominant, a semblance of central authority was reestablished in the country. In the mid-15th century, however, the Phag-mo-gru rule was gradually usurped by the powerful Rin-spung family, who had previously been ministers to the Gong-ma.