 In the section on debate, Sapaṇ again explained a number of points of particular interest to Tibetans of his time. Of great interest here is his discussion of debate based on scripture, in which he explains strategies for showing contradictions in the Vedas while defending against critics who claim that the Buddhist scriptures are inconsistent. These instructions cohere with Sapaṇ’s stated understanding that debate proper is a competition between adherents of different tenets. Of course, students may practice debate to test their understanding of treatises, but the real reason to engage in debate is to defend the dharma. Here we see debate as a skill that is properly the culmination of the previous trainings from Sanskrit language to poetics, all of which have as their ultimate aim to defend the Buddha’s dharma against its enemies, whether they be indirectly or unintentionally damaging it through misreadings and misrepresentations, or attacking it openly in the promotion of non-Buddhist doctrines. Sapaṇ envisions Tibetans training for a translocal courtly stage, where traditions lived or died by royal decree. Perhaps his own fame and skill as a defender of the dharma contributed to Sakya’s attaining control over a united Tibet under Mongol rule.