Buddhism in Mongolia derives much of its recent characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa school. Traditionally, Mongols worshiped heaven (the "eternal blue sky") and their ancestors, and they followed ancient northern Asian practices of shamanism, in which human intermediaries went into trance and spoke to and for some of the numberless infinities of spirits responsible for human luck or misfortune. Although the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th and 15th century had already converted to Tibetan buddhism, the Mongols returned to their old shamanist ways after the collapse of their empire. In 1578 Altan Khan, a Mongol military leader with ambitions to unite the Mongols and to emulate the career of Chinggis, invited the head of the rising Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism to a summit. They formed an alliance that gave Altan Khan legitimacy and religious sanction for his imperial pretensions and that provided the Buddhist school with protection and patronage.

Altan Khan gave the Tibetan leader the title of Dalai Lama (Ocean Lama), which his successors still hold. Altan Khan died soon after, but in the next century the Yellow Sect spread throughout Mongolia, aided in part by the efforts of contending Mongol aristocrats to win religious sanction and mass support for their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to unite all Mongols in a single state. Monasteries (mong.datsan) were built across Mongolia, often sited at the juncture of trade and migration routes or at summer pastures, where large numbers of herders would congregate for shamanistic rituals and sacrifices. Buddhist monks carried out a protracted struggle with the indigenous shamans and succeeded, to some extent, in taking over their functions and fees as healers and diviners, and in pushing the shamans to the fringes of Mongolian culture and religion.

Mongolia ⁱ/mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ (Mongolian:  Монгол улс (help·info), literally Mongol country/state) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 38 kilometres (24 mi) from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.

The area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Gökturks and others. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols returned to their earlier pattern of constant internal conflict and occasional raids on the Chinese borderlands. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Mongolia came under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism. At the end of the 17th century, all of Mongolia had been incorporated into the area ruled by the Qing Dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, but had to struggle until 1921 to firmly establish de facto independence from the Republic of China, and until 1945 to gain international recognition.

Sakya Trizin (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་ཁྲི་འཛིན།, ZYPY: Sa'gya Chizin, literally "Sakya Throne Holder"; Chinese: 萨迦法王 or 萨迦崔津) or Sa'gya Gongma Rinboqê (གོང་མ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།) is the traditional title of the head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism was founded in 1073, when Khon Konchog Gyalpo (a.k.a. Kön Gönqog Gyäbo), a member of Tibet’s noble Khön (Koin) family, established a monastery in the region of Sakya, Tibet, which became the headquarters of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism. Since that time, the leadership of the Sakya Order has descended within the Khön family.

The current Sakya Trizin is the 41st Sakya Trizin. His legal name is "Sakya Trizin" and he is referred to as His Holiness Sakya Trizin. His religious name is Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Palbar Trinley Samphel Wangyi Gyalpo. H.H. Sakya Trizin is considered second only to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the spiritual hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism.

Sakya Trizin was born on September 7, 1945 in Tsedong, near Shigatse, Tibet. From his father, Vajradhara Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, he received important initiations and teachings in the Sakya lineage. He began intensive religious study at the age of five. In 1952, he was officially designated as the next Sakya Trizin by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. He continued intensive training from his main teacher Ngawang Lodroe Shenpen Nyingpo and many other famous Tibetan scholars, studying extensively in both the esoteric and exoteric Buddhist traditions. In 1959, at the age of fourteen, he was formally enthroned as head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism. In the same year, due to the political situation in Tibet, the Sakya Trizin, his family, and many lamas and monks from the Sakya Monastery relocated to India.