Tibet was always reckoned as a part of the Empire of the Mongol Kaans in the period of their greatness, but it is not very clear how it came under subjection to them. No conquest of Tibet by their armies appears to be related by either the Mahomedan or the Chinese historians. Yet it is alluded to by Plano Carpini, who ascribes the achievement to an unnamed son of Chinghiz, and narrated by Sanang Setzen, who says that the King of Tibet submitted without fighting when Chinghiz invaded his country in the year of the Panther (1206). During the reign of Mangku Kaan, indeed, Uriangḳadai, an eminent Mongol general [son of Subudai] who had accompanied Prince Kúblái in 1253 against Yunnan, did in the following year direct his arms against the Tibetans. But this campaign, that no doubt to which the text alludes as “the wars of Mangu Kaan,” appears to have occupied only a part of one season, and was certainly confined to the parts of Tibet on the frontiers of Yunnan and Sze-ch’wan. [“In the _Yuen-shi_, Tibet is mentioned under different names. Sometimes the Chinese history of the Mongols uses the ancient name _T’u-fan_. In the Annals, _s.a._ 1251, we read: ‘Mangu Khan entrusted _Ho-li-dan_ with the command of the troops against _T’u-fan_.’ _Sub anno_ 1254 it is stated that Kúblái (who at that time was still the heir-apparent), after subduing the tribes of Yun-nan, entered _T’u-fan_, when _So-ho-to_, the ruler of the country, surrendered. Again, _s.a._ 1275: ‘The prince _Al-lu-chi_ (seventh son of Kúblái) led an expedition to _T’u-fan_.’ In chap. ccii., biography of _Ba-sz’-ba_, the Lama priest who invented Kúblái’s official alphabet, it is stated that this Lama was a native of _Sa-sz’-kia_ in T’u-fan.” (_Bretschneider, Med Res._ II. p. 23.)—H. C.] Koeppen seems to consider it certain that there was no actual conquest of Tibet, and that Kúblái extended his authority over it only by diplomacy and the politic handling of the spiritual potentates who had for several generations in Tibet been the real rulers of the country. It is certain that Chinese history attributes the organisation of civil administration in Tibet to Kúblái. Mati Dhwaja, a young and able member of the family which held the hereditary primacy of the Satya [Sakya] convent, and occupied the most influential position in Tibet, was formerly recognised by the Emperor as the head of the Lamaite Church and as the tributary Ruler of Tibet. He is the same person that we have already (vol. i. p. 28) mentioned as the Passepa or Báshpah Lama, the inventor of Kúblái’s official alphabet. (_Carpini_, 658, 709; _D’Avezac_, 564; _S. Setzen_, 89; _D’Ohsson_, II. 317; _Koeppen_, II. 96; _Amyot_, XIV. 128.) With the caution that Marco’s Travels in Tibet were limited to the same mountainous country on the frontier of Sze-ch’wan, we defer further geographical comment till he brings us to Yunnan.