Phagpa was born in Ngari (West Tibet) in 1235 as the son of Sönam Gyeltsen (, 1184-1239), a member of the Khon family () which held hereditary power over the Sakya Monastery in the Tsang region, and his mother was Kunga Kyi () [REF].
Sakya Pandita preached sermons along his way and arrived at Godan's camp in Liangzhou in 1247, where Mongol troops were exterminating Han Chinese by throwing them in a river [REF].