Karmapa – Tibet’s first consciously incarnating lama

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The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyu, itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Karmapa was Tibet’s first consciously incarnating lama.

The historical seat of the Karmapas is Tsurphu Monastery in the Tolung valley of Tibet.

The Karmapa’s principal seat in exile is the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India.

His regional monastic seats are Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in New York and Dhagpo Kagyu Ling in Dordogne, France.

Origin of the lineage

Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama was a disciple of the Tibetan master Gampopa.

A talented child who studied Buddhism with his father from an early age and who sought out great teachers in his twenties and thirties, he is said to have attained enlightenment at the age of fifty while practicing dream yoga.

He was henceforth regarded by the contemporary highly respected masters Shakya Śri and Lama Shang as the Karmapa, a manifestation of Avalokiteśvara, whose coming was predicted in the Samadhiraja Sutra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.

The source of the oral lineage, traditionally traced back to the Buddha Vajradhara, was transmitted to the Indian master of mahamudra and tantra called Tilopa (989-1069), through Naropa (1016–1100) to Marpa Lotsawa and Milarepa.

These forefathers of the Kagyu lineage are collectively called the “Golden Rosary”.

Recognition of the Karmapa

The Karmapa is a long line of consciously reborn lamas, and the second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi (1204–1283), is the first recognized tulku in Tibetan Buddhism that predicted the circumstances of his rebirth.

A Karmapa’s identity is confirmed through a combination realized lineage teachers insight, prediction letters left by the previous Karmapa, and the young child’s own self-proclamation and ability to identify objects and people known to its previous incarnation.

Incarnations of Karmapas

1. Düsum Khyenpa (དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ་) (1110–1193)
2. Karma Pakshi (ཀརྨ་པཀྵི་) (1204–1283)
3. Rangjung Dorje (རང་འབྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1284–1339)
4. Rolpe Dorje (རོལ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1340–1383)
5. Deshin Shekpa (དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་)(1384–1415)
6. Thongwa Dönden (མཐོང་བ་དོན་ལྡན་) (1416–1453)
7. Chödrak Gyatso (ཆོས་གྲགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་) (1454–1506)
8. Mikyö Dorje (མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1507–1554)
9. Wangchuk Dorje (དབང་ཕྱུག་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1556–1603)
10. Chöying Dorje (ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1604–1674)
11. Yeshe Dorje (ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1676–1702)
12. Changchub Dorje (བྱང་ཆུབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1703–1732)
13. Dudul Dorje (བདུད་འདུལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1733–1797)
14. Thekchok Dorje (ཐེག་མཆོག་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1798–1868)
15. Khakyab Dorje (མཁའ་ཁྱབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1871–1922)
16. Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (རང་འབྱུང་རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་) (1924–1981)
17. Ogyen Trinley Dorje (ཨོ་རྒྱན་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ།) (b. 1985) and Trinley Thaye Dorje (ཕྲིན་ལས་མཐའ་ཡས་རྡོ་རྗེ།) (b. 1983)

This is the life and accomplishments of the Karmapas listed above.

Karmapa

Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyupa, itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama (1110–1193), was a disciple of the Tibetan master Gampopa.

A talented child who studied Buddhism with his father from an early age and who sought out great teachers in his twenties and thirties, he is said to have attained enlightenment at the age of fifty while practicing dream yoga.

He was henceforth regarded by the contemporary highly respected masters Shakya Śri and Lama Shang as the Karmapa, a manifestation of Avalokiteśvara.

Black Crown

The Black Crown is an important symbol of the Karmapa, the Lama that heads the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The crown signifies his power to benefit all sentient beings. A corresponding crown, the Red Crown, is worn by the Shamarpa. The Tai Situpa wears a red crown as well, whereas Goshir Gyaltsab wears an orange crown.

Rangjung Dorje

Rangjung Dorje (1284–1339) was the third Karmapa and an important figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, who helped to spread Buddha-nature teachings in Tibetan Buddhism.

Karma Pakshi

Karma Pakshi was the 2nd Gyalwa Karmapa. He was a child prodigy who had already acquired a broad understanding of Dharma philosophy and meditation by the age of ten. His teacher, Pomdrakpa, had received the full Kagyu transmission from Drogon Rechen, the first Karmapa’s spiritual heir. Pomdrakpa realized, through certain very clear visions, that the child in his charge was the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa, as indicated in the letter given to Drogon Rechen.

Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

The sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje was spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Denkhok in the Dergé district of Kham, near the Dri Chu or Yangtze River.

Mikyö Dorje

Mikyö Dorje was the eighth Karmapa, head of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Yeshe Dorje

Yeshe Dorje (1676–1702) was the eleventh Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Düsum Khyenpa

Düsum Khyenpa was the 1st Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Choying Dorje

Choying Dorje, 10th Karmapa (1604-1674) is a famous painter and sculptor influenced by Chinese styles of the time. Examples of his work exist today.

Dudul Dorje

Dudul Dorje (1733–1797) was the thirteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Changchub Dorje

Changchub Dorje (1703–1732), also Chanchub Dorje, was the twelfth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Deshin Shekpa

Deshin Shekpa (1384–1415), also Deshin Shegpa, Dezhin Shekpa and Dezhin Shegpa, was the fifth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Chödrak Gyatso

Chödrak Gyatso (1454–1506), also Chödrag Gyamtso, was the seventh Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Rolpe Dorje

Rolpe Dorje (རོལ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ེ་) (1340–1383) was the fourth Gyalwa Karmapa. According to legend the fourth Karmapa’s mother, while pregnant, could hear the sound of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum while the child was in her womb and the baby said the mantra as soon as he was born. His early life was full of miracles and manifested a total continuity of the teachings and qualities of his former incarnation, including receiving teachings in his dreams. While in his teens, he received the formal transmissions of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages from the great Nyingma guru Yungtönpa, the third Karmapa’s spiritual heir, now very advanced in years. At the age of nineteen, he accepted Toghon Temur’s invitation to return to China where he gave teachings for three years and established many temples and monasteries.

Thekchok Dorje

Thekchok Dorje (1798–1868), also Thegchog Dorje, was the fourteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Thongwa Dönden

Thongwa Dönden (1416–1453) or Tongwa Donden, was the sixth Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Wangchuk Dorje

Wangchuk Dorje (1556–1603) was the ninth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Khakyab Dorje

Khakhyap Dorjé, 15th Karmapa Lama was born in Sheikor village in Tsang, Tibet. Recognised and enthroned by Migyur Wanggyel, 9th Drukchen Lama, Khakhyap Dorjé was given the Kagyu teachings by Jamgon Kongtrul. Trashi Özer and other masters completed his education. He was enthroned as the 15th Karmapa at Tsurphu Monastery when he was six years old. He went on to teach and give empowerments throughout Tibet and preserved many rare texts by having them reprinted.