Jambhala: An Imperial Envoy to Tibet during the Late Yuan

*Jambhala, a principal informant of Tshal-pa Kun-dga' rdo-rje (1309-64) for his chronicle's sections on Chinese history, and most likely a Mongol with a Sanskrit (Buddhist) name, acted as an envoy to Tibet in the employ of the Yuan dynasty's Shundi emperor. The phrase sto-shri-mgon, or any of the numerous variants thereof, which is affixed to his name, has been thus far imperfectly understood. In conjunction with other, cognate occurrences of this phrase in the relevant Tibetan literature, we argue that it represents the Chinese tuanshi guan, "judge, legal officer," itself the equivalent of Mongol Jaryuci. There is furthermore a definite possibility that the only partly recovered Da Yuan tongzhi was among the sources from which *Jambhala had drawn his information on China, which then penetrated into Tibetan historiography.