- published: 05 Mar 2012
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Qoijê Sa'gya Paṇḍita Günga Gyaicain (Tibetan: ཆོས་རྗེ་ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: chos-rje sa-skya paN+Di-ta kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan/ (EWTS), ZYPY: Qöjê Sa'gya “Bantida” Günga Gyäcän; alt. Choeje Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltse), also known as Günga Gyaimcain Bai Sangbo (Tibetan: ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།[citation needed], Wylie: kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan dpal bzang-po/, ZYPY: Günga Gyämcän Bä Sangbo; alt. Kunga Gyaltshan Pal Zangpo; 1182–1251) was a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar and the fourth of the Five Venerable Supreme Sakya Masters of Tibet. Günga Gyaicain is generally known simply as Sa'gya Paṇḍita, a title given to him in recognition of his scholarly achievements and knowledge of Sanskrit. He is held in the tradition to have been an emanation of the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the embodiment of the wisdom of all the Buddhas.
He became known as a great scholar in Tibet, Mongolia, Coastal China and India and was proficient in the five great sciences of medicine, grammar, dialectics and sacred Sanskrit literature as well as the minor sciences of rhetoric, synonymies, poetry, dancing and astrology. He is considered in Tibet to be the fourth "Great Forefather" and sixth Sakya Trizin, and one of the most important figures among the Sakya lineage.