At the height of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan had an audacious idea: one universal script to unite every language in his realm.

Sanskrit. Tibetan. Chinese. Mongolian. Uyghur. All written the same way.

In 1267, the Khan commissioned a Buddhist monk named Phags-Pa to bring his vision to life.

Within two years, the monk delivered.

He devised a script with sixty signs, most of which were consonants and vowels, with a few syllables.

The writing system was named after the monk, Phags-pa script. It was elegant, yet universal.

It was exactly what Khan ordered. And then Kublai’s officials buried it.

No open rebellion. No formal objection. Just the oldest trick in the bureaucrat's playbook: nod, smile, and do nothing.

Though the script continued to be used by Kublai’s successors in official communication, it never caught on beyond the royal courts.

Turns out, demolishing walled cities was easier than changing how people write.

A 14th-century Christian tombstone from Quanzhou, in Phagspa script.