八思巴

Also 發思巴 Bashpa, Phagspa, Baghcheba, Blo-gros-rgyal-mtshah, Chos-rgyal-ḥphags-pa. A śramaṇa of Tibet, teacher and confidential adviser of Kublai Khan, who appointed him head of the Buddhist church of Tibet A.D. 1260. He is the author of a manual of Buddhist terminology彰所知論 and translated another work into Chinese. In A.D. 1269 he constructed an alphabet for the Mongol language, "adapted from the Tibetan and written vertically," and a syllabary borrowed from Tibetan, known by the name of Hkhor-yig, for which, however, the Lama Chos-kyi-hod-zer 1307-1311 substituted another alphabet based on that of Śākya-paṇḍita.