The
Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, or
Xuanzheng Yuan (, lit. "Ministry for the Spread of Governance") was a government agency and top-level administrative department set up in
Khanbaliq (modern
Beijing) that supervised
Buddhist monks in addition to managing the territory of
Tibet during the
Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) established by
Kublai Khan. It was originally set up in 1264 as an autonomous office named
Zongzhi Yuan or the Bureau of General Regulation, before it was renamed in 1288, which was named after the
Xuanzheng Hall where Tibetan envoys were received in the
Tang dynasty. In the
Mongol Empire, Tibet was managed by the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, separate from the other provinces of the Yuan dynasty such as those governed the former
Song dynasty of
China, but still
under the administrative rule of the Yuan. While no modern equivalents remain, the political functions of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs might have been analogous to the India Office in
London during the
British Raj. Besides holding the title of
Imperial Preceptor or Dishi,
Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, the fifth leader of the
Sakya school of
Tibetan Buddhism, was concurrently named the director of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs. One of the department's purposes was to select a
dpon-chen ('great administrator', a civilian administrator who governed Tibet when Sakya Lama was away), usually appointed by the lama and confirmed by the Mongol emperor in Beijing. Tibetan Buddhism was not only practiced within the capital Beijing but throughout the country. Apart from Tibetan affairs, the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs managed the entire Buddhist clergy throughout the realm (whether they were
Han Chinese,
Tibetan or
Korean etc.), and supervised all temples, monasteries, and other Buddhist properties in the empire, at least in name. According to scholar
Evelyn Rawski, it supervised 360 Buddhist monasteries. To emphasize its importance for
Hangzhou, capital of the former
Southern Song dynasty and the largest city in the Yuan realm, a branch (行,
Xing) Xuanzheng Yuan was established in that city in 1291, although Tibetan Buddhism took public or official precedence over
Han Chinese Buddhism.