Drogön Chögyal Phagpa
The event that brought Arniko to Tibet, and eventually to the Yuan court in Shangdu (today's Beijing), was Kublai Khan's decree of 1260 CE to Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, the fifth patriarch of Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism, to build a golden stupa for Suer chi wa (Tibetan: "Chos rje pa" or "the Lord of Dharma"), that is the Sakya Pandita Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (1182–1251), the fourth patriarch of the sect. Kublai's order was one of the indicators of his acceptance of Sakya teaching.