Thedpon-chen orpönchen (Chinese:本欽;pinyin:Běnqīn), literally the "great authority" or "great administrator", was the chief administrator or governor ofTibet based at theSakya Monastery during theYuan dynasty. The office was established in the 1260s and functioned as the Tibetan local government serving the Yuan emperors, unlike the SakyaImperial Preceptors (Dishi) who were active in the Yuan imperial court.
The Yuan dynasty set up a government agency and top-level administrative department known as theBureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs inDadu (modern-dayBeijing) that supervisedBuddhist monks in addition to managing the territory of Tibet; one of the department's purposes was to select a dpon-chen to govern Tibet when the Sakya Lama (e.g.Drogön Chögyal Phagpa) was away. The Dpon-Chen was invariably a Tibetan nominated by the ruling Sakya Lama and approved by the reigning emperor. His function was, apart from being the chief executive head of the Sakya Government, to appoint atripön for each of the 13 myriarchies, and to act as liaison between the Yuan government and Tibet.[1] Nevertheless, this system also led to conflicts between the Sakya leaders and the dpon-chens. While dpon-chens had a small army in Sakya itself, their major military support came from the Yuan imperial court when an internal rebellion or external invasion occurred. As the Yuan dynasty declined in the mid-14th century however, in Tibet,Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen toppled the Sakya and founded thePhagmodrupa dynasty, marking the end of the dpon-chen system.
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