Buddhism and the Karmapas - 19
CHRONOLOGY OF BUDDHISM AND THE KARMAPAS
Fifth century B.C. Shakyamuni Buddha reaches enlightenment while sitting under the Bodhi Tree in present day Bodh Gaya, India.
779 A.D. Padmasambhava, a missionary from India, establishes Samye, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.
1110 The first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa is born.
1185Dusum Khyenpa founds Tsurphu monastery and the Karma Kagyu school.
1358-1642 Pagmotru, Rinpung, and Tsangpa Dynasties rule Central Tibet under the tutelage of the Kagyu school and the Karmapas.
1408 Chinese Ming Dynasty Emperor Chengzu presents the Black Crown to the fifth Karmapa.
1642 The fifth Dalai Lama assumes the throne of Central Tibet with military backing of the Qoshot Mongols under Gushri Khan. The new government forcibly converts hundreds of Nyingma and Kagyu monasteries to the Dalai Lama's Gelug order.
1792 The tenth Shamarpa dies in Nepal and the Qianlong emperor of China bans his future reincarnations. Many of his monasteries are confiscated and his monks forcibly converted to the Gelug order.
1924 The sixteenth Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorie is born.
1950-51 The Chinese People's Liberation Army invades and conquers Tibet.
1959 Nearly a hundred thousand Tibetans, including the Dalai Lamae sixteenth Karmapa, and other high lamas flee Tibet.
1962 The Karmapa Charitable Trust is formed to manage the assets of the Karmapas after the death of the sixteenth Karmapa and until the seventeenth Karmapa reaches adulthood.
1966 The sixteenth Karmapa opens Rumtek monastery in Sikkim as his seat-in-exile.
1964-1973 Gyalo Thondup tries to unite all five religious schools of Tibet under his brother the Dalai Lama through the United Party initiative.
1974 First visit of the sixteenth Karmapa to Europe and the United States. While the Karmapa is away, Tai Situ leaves Rumtek to start his own monastery.
1975 Thrangu Rinpoche resigns as Rumtek abbot and leaves to start his own monastery.
November 5, 1981 The sixteenth Karmapa dies at age fifty-eight in a cancer hospital outside of Chicago.
May 6, 1983 Birth in Lhasa of Tenzin Khyentse, whom Shamar Rinpoche later recognizes as the seventeenth Karmapa, giving him the name Thaye Dorje.
June 26, 1985 Birth in rural Kham of Apo Gaga, whom Tai Situ later recognizes as the seventeenth Karmapa under the name Ogyen Trinley.
September 1989 As he would later claim, Tai Situ discovers the letter written by the sixteenth Karmapa predicting his rebirth.
March and November 1990 The Karmapa Search Committee holds two meetings in New Delhi. Situ Rinpoche does not present his letter at either meeting.
March 19, 1992 Situ presents his Karmapa prediction letter to a meeting of the Karmapa Search Committee at Rumtek. Shamar, Jamgon, and Rumtek General Secretary Topga express doubts about its authenticity and call for testing.
April 1992 With permission of the Chinese government, Situ and Gyaltsab send out two search parties to find the boy in Tai Situ's prediction letter.
June 9, 1992 The Dalai Lama confirms the recognition of Ogyen Trinley as Karmapa.
June 29, 1992 The Chinese government approves the recognition of Ogyen Trinley as the "Living Buddha Karmapa."
September 22, 1992 Ogyen Trinley is enthroned at Tsurphu monastery. No representative from either Rumtek or the Karmapa Trust is present, but thousands of devotees and dozens of Chinese officials attend.
August 2, 1993 With assistance from the state government of Sikkim, Situ and Gyaltsab take over Rumtek monastery and expel the monks of the sixteenth Karmapa and officials of the Karmapa Trust.
January 26, 1994 Shamar announces that he has found his own Karmapa candidate, Thaye Dorje, in Tibet.
March 17, 1994 The Karmapa Institute in New Delhi hosts a welcome ceremony for Thaye Dorje that is disrupted by a violent protest by supporters of Ogyen Trinley.
August 2, 1994 While traveling abroad, Tai Situ is banned from reentering the country for "Anti-India activities."
July 31, 1998 The Karmapa Trust files its first civil case to regain possession of Rumtek and its valuables.
August 1998 The ban on Situ returning to India is lifted. But soon afterwards the government issues a permanent order excluding him from nine northeastern states, including Sikkim, on national security grounds.
Decemher 1999 Thaye Dorje makes his first trip abroad, visiting Southeast Asia and Europe.
January 2000 Ogyen Trinley arrives in India with a story of escape from the Chinese authorities. The Indian press challenges major details of his account.
2003 Thaye Dorje completes his formal education and prepares for a career of teaching and traveling.
July 5, 2004 The Indian Supreme Court decides the major preliminary issue in the case over possession of Rumtek in favor of the Karmapa Trust. Soon after, the Trust asks a Sikkim court to restore Rumtek to its management.
May 30, 2005 In New Zealand, the High Court in Auckland decides in favor of followers of Thaye Dorje in a property rights dispute with supporters of Ogyen Trinley.
GLOSSARY
bodhisattva (Sanskrit, lit., "enlightenment being") An advanced spiritual practitioner who remains in the physical world to help others, or, more generally, any person who promises to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of others.
Buddha (Sanskrit, lit., "Enlightened One") A person who has realized the nature of reality and has full knowledge of the open, dynamic nature of all phenomena. Buddhists believe that there have been numerous Buddhas In the past and that others will follow, but that the Buddha for our era was Shakyamuni, "the sage of the Shakyas," who lived in northern India around the fifth century B.C.
Chogyal (Tibetan, lit., "King of Dharma") The title of the Namgyal dynasty rulers of the tiny eastern Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim from 1642 until India annexed Sikkim in 1975.
Dalai Lama The effective leader of the Gelugpa order (though its formal leader is the Ganden Tri Rinpoche). The Dalai Lamas controlled the government of Central Tibet from 1642 until the current fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso fled the Chinese in 1959. Since 1959, the Dalai Lama has run the Tibetan Government-in-Exile based in Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills of northwestern India.
dakini (Sanskrit) A female meditational deity, sometimes called a Buddhist angel, representing the inspiring power of consciousness.
dharma (Sanskrit, lit., "carrying, holding") The teachings of the Buddha, comparable to the Christian term "Gospel." More generally, phenomena.
Ganden Phodrang (Tibetan) The formal name of the Dalai lama's government of Central Tibet from 1642 until 1959. Since 1959, the term has been applied to the Dalai lama's Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala, India.
Gelug (Tibetan, lit., "Joyous Way" or "Ganden Way") The last of the four main schools of Buddhism founded in Tibet. Begun in 1409 by Tsongkhapa, the school later produced both the Dalai Lamas and the Panchen Lamas. Its three large monasteries of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden came to dominate Lhasa after the fifth Dalai Lama rook control of the government of Central Tibet in 1642.
Gyalwa (Tibetan, lit., "Victorious") An honorific term applied to the Karmapas.
Kagyu (Tibetan, lit., "Hearing Lineage") The third of the four major schools of Buddhism founded in Tibet. It originated in the eleventh century with the householder yogi Marpa the Translator (1012-1097). The Kagyu developed at least twelve separate lineages, most originating with Gampopa (1079-1153).
Karma Kagyu (Tibetan, lit., "Hearing Lineage of the Karmapas") The largest sub-school of the Kagyu, established by the first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa in 1185 when he founded Tsurphu monastery, which became the seat of the Karmapas.
Karmapa (Tibetan, lit., "Man of Enlightened Activity") The highest lama of the Karma Kagyu lineage and the first reincarnate lama or tulku of Tibet, whose line began in the eleventh century with the first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1194.)
Kham (Tibetan) A large, fertile area located in the borderland between central Tibet and China, traditionally independent from both governments. Since 1642, when the Dalai lama took power in Central Tibet, Kham has served as the power base of the Karma Kagyu. Today, the western section of Kham is included in the Tibet Autonomous Region while eastern Kham has been absorbed into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai.
khata (Tibetan) A silk offering scarf, usually woven with traditional religious symbols.
khenpo (Tibetan) A degree awarded by traditional schools of Buddhist philosophy equivalent to a Ph.D. or doctor of divinity in the Kagyu and other religious schools of Tibet. Equivalent to a geshe in the Gelug school.
KIBI The Karmapa International Buddhist Institute, a school in New Delhi to train international students in Buddhist philosophy. It was started by the sixteenth Karmapa before his death in 1981 and completed by Shamar Rinpoche.
KTC The Karmapa Charitable Trust, established by the sixteenth Karmapa in 1962 to manage his assets after his death and before his next reincarnation -- the seventeenth Karmapa -- would be found and reach the age of twenty-one.
labrang (Tibetan) Originally the personal household of a high lama, it came to refer to the monastic corporation that held the assets of a line of reincarnate lamas after the death of one incarnation and until the majority of the successor.
lama (Tibetan, lit., "none above") A religious teacher. Lamas can be either monks or laypeople.
lineage A succession of teachers who have passed down oral teachings to their students, usually originating with Shakyamuni Buddha or with a meditational deity seen by an advanced practitioner in a vision. Buddhists value an unbroken oral lineage because its teachings carry invaluable blessings of all the previous masters in that lineage that only a qualified lineage master can convey to his or her students.
Mahamudra (Sanskrit, lit., "Great Seal") In the Kagyu school, the most advanced practice of meditation, or more generally, the path to enlightenment.
Mahayana (Sanskrit, Iir., "Great Vehicle") The type of Buddhism practiced in East Asian countries including China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as well as in the Himalayas, where it is called the Vajrayana. It is the path of the bodhisattva, where practitioners try to reach enlightenment not only for their own benefit, but to help all beings. Often contrasted with the Theravada ("The Way of the Elders") Buddhism of Southeast Asia, or with a straw-man version of the Theravada known as the Hinayana ("The Lesser Vehicle"), both of which Mahayana adherents see as paths to individual enlightenment only, without helping others.
Madhyamaka (Sanskrit, lit., "Middle Way") A philosophical view usually expressed in the negative, as a position between two extremes of positivism (that everything exists the way it appears to the mind and the senses, a view that can lead to complacency) and nihilism (that all phenomena are illusory, a view which can lead to despair or megalomania).
Nalanda Institute The monk's college at Rumtek, named for the first Buddhist university which operated in northern India during the Middle Ages.
-pa (Tibetan) Suffix that can be attached to a proper noun to make it refer to a person, for example Gelugpa (a member of the Gelug school) or Khampa (someone from Kham).
PLA The People's Liberation Army of Communist China.
puja (Sanskrit) A ritual prayer ceremony. In Tibetan Buddhism, a puja may involve visualizing a bodhisattva or meditational deity and reciting mantras or a liturgy.
Rinpoche (Tibetan, lit. "precious one" or "precious jewel") A title of respect for lamas who are considered to have achieved a high level of spiritual realization. Sometimes the title is recognized as purely honorary.
Rumtek The monastery founded in Sikkim by the sixteenth Karmapa after his escape into exile in 1959.
samadhi (Sanskrit, lit., "establish, make firm") A state of deep meditative concentration said to be peaceful and joyful.
samaya (Sanskrit) An advanced vow in the Vajrayana, a bond between a teacher and a student of serious tantric practice. The vow should only be taken after careful consideration, since to break it can lead to lifetimes of suffering. Often misunderstood, ordinary devotees are not bound by samaya.
samsara (Sanskrit, lit., "journeying") The state of physical existence, described as a cycle of an unending cycle of birth, death, and rebirth entailing various degrees of suffering.
sangha (Sanskrit, lit., "crowd, host") The community of ordained Buddhist practitioners, primarily monks and nuns. In the West, the term is often used more generally to refer to people who practice Buddhism.
shamatha (Sanskrit, lit., "dwelling in tranquility"; Tibetan, shi'nay) Mental-calming or tranquility meditation considered preliminary to higher forms of meditation and spiritual practice in Tibetan Buddhism.
Shak-yamuni (Sanskrit, lit., "Sage of the Shakya Clan") Epithet of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, who lived in northern India in the fifth century B.C.
TAR The Tibet Autonomous Region, the government of the central area of Tibet established by the Chinese in 1965 to cover most of the geographic area ruled by the Dalai Lama's Central Tibetan government before 1959.
thangka (Tibetan) A religious painting done on a scroll and usually framed by silk.
tulku (Tibetan, lit., "transformation body") Generally, a reincarnate lama, though it can also refer to a religious object such as a statue or a painting that has been blessed so that it is considered to contain the spirit of the deity it portrays. Like "rinpoche," tulku is often given as an honorary title.
Vajra Mukut (Sanskrit and Tibetan) Also known as the Vajra Crown or the Black Crown of the Karmapas. Originally given to the fifth Karmapa Deshin Shegpa (1384-1415) by the Chinese Ming dynasty emperor Chengzu, also known as Yongle (1403-1424), in the fifteenth century. Later, in the seventeenth century, the king of Li Jiang gave a replica of the crown to the tenth Karmapa Choying Dorje.
Vajrayana (Sanskrit, lit., "Diamond Vehicle") The form of Mahayana Buddhism practiced in the Himalayas, sometimes called Tantric Buddhism and known for powerful practices that can help a person achieve enlightenment in a single lifetime.
vipashyana (Sanskrit; Pali, vipassana; Tibetan, lhaktong) Insight or analytic meditation, considered an advanced practice in the Tibetan tradition.
Yarney (Tibetan) Annual rainy season retreat begun by Shakyamuni Buddha and continued by many Buddhist traditions to this day. In the Himalayas, the retreat begins with an opening ceremony, reserved for ordained monks only, known as the Sojong.
WHO RECOGNIZED THE FIRST SIXTEEN KARMAPAS?
The Karmapas were the first reincarnate lamas, or tulkus, of Tibetan Buddhism. They began this tradition in the twelfth century, nearly three hundred years before the appearance of the Dalai Lamas. The lamas who recognized the Karmapas always came from the Kagyu school, and usually from the Karmapa's own Karma Kagyu sub-school. The lamas who recognized the most Karmapas were the Shamarpas, with six recognitions, five alone and one with another lama, Tai Situ. The Tai Situs recognized the second highest number of Karmapas: two alone and two more working with other lamas, for a total of four. Gyaltsabs recognized two Karmapas working alone.
No Dalai Lama or other lama from the Gelugpa order or one of the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism ever recognized a Karmapa in the past.
The table below lists each Karmapa through the sixteenth along with the lama who recognized him. This information is taken from a chart submitted in 2004 by Geoffrey Samuel, professor of anthropology at the University of Newcastle in Australia, as part of an affidavit in the case of Lama vs. Hope and Ors. in the High Court of New Zealand, Auckland Registry. Samuel's primary source was the 1976 book Karmapa: The Black Hat Lama of Tibet by Nik Douglas and Meryl White. "For the first thirteen Karmapas," Samuel wrote, "their account is based on the Zla ba chu Shel gyi phreng ba ('Moon Water Crystal Rosary') by the 8th Situ, Chokyi Jungne (1700-74), supplemented by two earlier sources. For the 14th to 16th Karmapas, it is based on the spoken commentary of the 16th Karmapa. Both sources should be acceptable to all parties in the present dispute."
GLOSSARY KARMAPA 1st Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193) 2nd Karma Pakshi (1204-1283) 3rd Rangung Dorje (1284-1339) 4th Rolpe Dorie (1340-1383) 5th Deshin Shegpa (1384-1415) 6th Tongwa Donden (1416-1453) 7th Chodrag Gyamtso (1454-1506) 8th Mikyo Dorje (1507-1554) 9th Wangchuk Dorje (1556-1603) 10th Choying Dorje (1604-1674) 11th Yeshe Dorje (1676-1702) 12th Changchub Dorje (1703-1732) 13th Dudul Dorie (1733-1797) 14th Thegchog Dorje (1798-1868) 15th Khakyab Dorje (1871-1922) 16th Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1924-1981) RECOGNIZED BY Gampopa Pomdrakpa Urgyenpa Konchok Rinchen 2nd Shamar Khacho Wangpo 3rd Shamar Chopal Yeshe 1st Gyaltsab Goshir Paljor Dondrub 3rd Situ Tashi Paljor 5th Shamar Konchok Yenlak and 4th Situ Chokyi Goha 6th Shamar Mipham Chokyi Wangchuk 7th Shamar Yeshe Nyingpo 8th Shamar Palchen Chokyi Dondrub 7th Gyaltsab Kunchok Oser 9th Situ Pema Nyingc Wangpo 9th Drukchen Mingyur Wong Gi Dorje 11th Situ Pema Wangchuk Gyalpo and 2nd Jamgon Kongtrul
