Tibetan Buddhist sect that takes its name from the great Sa-skya (Sakya) monastery founded in 1073, 50 miles (80 km) north of Mount Everest. The sect follows the teachings of the noted traveler and scholar 'Brog-mi (992–1072). He translated into Tibetan the important Tantric work Hevajra Tantra, which remains one of the basic texts of the order. He also transmitted into Tibet from India the teachings of the lam-'bras (“path and result”).

From about 1270 to 1340 the abbots of the Sa-skya monastery were invested by the Mongol overlords with the temporal authority of Tibet, but they lost power as the Mongol dynasty declined.