The family obtained a leading position in Tibet under his uncle Phagpa who, as a Buddhist intellectual, enjoyed the confidence of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty.
Phagpa's brother Yeshe Jungne (1238-1274) lived in Yunnan in south-western China where he was the household lama of Kublai Khan's son Hügechi.
He married Jomo Rinchen Kyi of the Palrin family and begot a son called Zangpo Pal.
In 1311 the great khan endowed him with the title Guoshi (State Preceptor), and two years later he took his vows as a fully ordained monk.
When the Dishi Kunga Lotro Gyaltsen returned to Sakya from Beijing in 1322, he took the initiative of dividing the siblings into four groups, each of which was given a part of Zangpo Pal's heritage.
With internal unity weakened, the Sakya elite was unable to prevent increasing unrest in the various myriarchies of Central Tibet.
[8] When Zangpo Pal died, probably in 1323, a new star was already rising in the political landscape of Tibet: the Phagmodrupa myriarchy which would eventually take over power from Sakya in the 1350s.