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the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa Urgyen Trinley Dorje, Part 2 |
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continued from Part 1
Tsurphu
The Tai Situpa and the Goshir Gyaltsabpa arrived in Tibet on
July 12. After an overnight stay in the capital, Lhasa, and
a visit en route to Pawo Rinpoche's monastery where they conferred
belssings on hundreds of pilgrims, they arrived at Tsurphu where
they were received with grand ceremony. Tsurphu has been the
seat of previous sixteen Karmapas and was founded in 1190 by
Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa. Until the Cultural Revolution, it housed
some 900 monks and had four internal monasteries, set within
a vast complex of buildings. One of the four monasteries was
the seat of the Goshir Gyaltsabpas, who traditionally represent
the Karmapas between incarnations. Gyaltsab means regent.
Drupon Dechen Rinpoche, the present abbot of Tsurphu, was the
former retreat master of Rumtek. He had left Tibet in 1959 with
HH the Sixteenth Karmapa, when some of Tsurphu's main relics
and holy objects had been carried to the safety of Sikkim. They
are now stored in the Rumtek treasury. The Sixteenth Karmapa
had advised him to return to Tsurphu to supervise its reconstruction.
It has indeed risen from its ruins in recent years, thanks to
Drupon Dechen Rinpoche and the work of many dedicated people.
In particular, Ward Holmes and the Tsurphu
foundation he created have stimulated worldwide interest
in this remarkable place. Nestling between huge peaks in the
To valley, the walled monastic complex sits next to the beautiful
bubbling waters of the river, very reminiscent of a powerful
Scottish torrent. Geomantically it is a very special site, auspiciously
located with respect to the hills and valleys. The neighbouring
mountains are considered to be sacred locations where the various
energies and blessings of the vajrayana mandala are concentrated.
Meeting with his former disciples and future teachers
The first meeting between the Karmapa and the two Rinpoches
was a traditional and formal one. After having been received
by the snow lions and masked performers outside the temple,
the Tai Situpa and the Gyatsabpa were shown up to the Karmapa's
appartment where they paid their first homage to him and presented
him with offerings. In the days which followed they also came
to know him in less formal, more playful ways. The delicate,
loving and respectful bonds between them became forged in great
naturalness: immaculate meeting between great beings, the one
the future guru of the other, who himself was the former guru
of his new teacher. Emanations of Avalokitesvara, Maitreya and
Vajrapani were meeting just as they did so many times in the
past and in the scriptures. The Tai Situpa and the Gyaltsabpa
discovered, as Akong Rinpoche had been doing for more than a
month, the remarkable continuity between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Karmapa; his fearlessness, assuredness, sense of humour and
sincere natural compassion just like his predecessors.
Surprise
At one point a surprise was prepared for the young Karmapa.
During one of the picnics arranged for for him in the hills
close to Tsurphu, he was led to a marquee where a generator,
TV and video had been set up. He enjoyed watching some films
and then, his attention suddenly riveted, saw footage of his
previous incarnation. This striking moment was captured by Clemens
Kuby, in the documentary film he made on the Karmapa's discovery
and enthronement, Living Buddha.
Ordination and Enthronement
The next formal step in the Karmapa's installation would be
the ordination known commonly as the "hair-cutting ceremony".
This was arranged to take place in the holy shrine of the Jokhang
temple in Lhasa, in the early hours of August 2, 1992. The Tai
Situpa and Goshir Gyaltsabpa conducted the religious ceremony
before the sacred image, which represented the Buddha's own
presence. It was only the second time that a Karmapa had received
this ordination there. Offerings were presented to the Karmapa,
including gifts from His Holiness the Dalai Lama: a message
for his long life and activity, a blessing scarf and cord and
His Holiness' personal prayer beads. Marking their acceptance
of the Karmapa reincarnation, representatives of the Lhasa authorities
were also present.
After the Karmapa, flanked by the two rinpoches, had made prostration
before the Jo-wo image, and appropriate prayers and mandala
offerings had been made, the Tai Situpa cut small strands of
his hair, to mark renunciation of worldliness. The Gyaltsabpa
sprinkled consecrated water on the place of hair-cutting. The
Karmapa then received his incarnation name, inscribed on golden
silk and read aloud by the two Rinpoches. The name was chosen
according to the prophesy of Guru Rinpoche, as found in the
discovered treasures (terma) of Chogyur Dechen Lingpa. The Seventeenth
Gyalwa Karmapa's name is:
Pal Khyabdak Rangjung Urgyen Gyalway Nyugu
Drondul Trinley Dorje Tsal Chokle Nampar Gyalway De
Each of these words is charged with dharma significance, worthy
of pages of commentary. A simplified meaning would be approximately,
The Glorious All-Pervading
Spontaneously-Manifest (Guru of ) Oddiyana, Shoot of the Victorious
Ones, Vajra of Enlightened Activity to Teach Beings, Accomplished
One, Victorious in each and every Direction.
Enthronement
Over twenty thousand pilgrims assembled at Tsurphu for the Karmapa's
enthronement on September 27, 1992. Besides the main organisations
of the Karma Kamtsang tradition worldwide, there were representatives
of all the other traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as
of the Bön religion, and representatives from the different
regions. However, most of the twenty thousand were Tibetans,
some of whom had made journeys of more than a thousand kilometres
to be present. Many tulkus came from all over Tibet and from
India and Himalayan areas. For Tibetans, it is considered a
very wonderful thing simply to be present at such an occasion,
and the chance of just seeing the new Karmapa means more to
them than most of us can imagine. This would already have been
true before 1959 and was doubly true in 1992 as people's religious
faith was reinforced by a ray of hope for the future of Buddhism
in their land. The Tolung valley around Tsurphu became a gigantic
and colourful campsite. There were Tibetan girls, and wives
wearing bright rainbow aprons, sporting a rich variety of regional
hairstyles, ornamented with large turqoises, corals and ambers
.
People from every quarter of Tibet were present, all wearing
costumes specific to their own areas, the Khampa men with bright
red or black braids in their hair. The gathering included dance
groups and performers. Wearing masks, brocades or just their
local costumes, they performed folk dances in front of the temple,
often watched by His Holiness from an upper balcony. On the
night before enthronement day, it snowed copiously on the nearby
sacred mountains. This was taken as a highly auspicious omen.
Some three hundred tulkus and representatives of other monasteries
and dharma-centres had also gathered there. Some of the international
gathering of Europeans, Americans, South-East Asiand and Africans
had also brought their own national costumes to wear at the
enthronement ceremony. Gifts and offerings for the Karmapa and
his monastery had been pouring in with the pilgrims. Many of
these were neatly arranged in the temple in an amazing array:
dharma objects such as butter-lamp bowls and offering bowls,
ritual objects, some of them finely crafted and adorned with
noble metals, religious musical instruments, rolls of cloth
and brocade, sack of grains and other foodstuffs, tea and many
other gifts. All of these were carefully recorded and a list
of donors and donations was proclaimed aloud ceremoniously in
gratitude. All in all, it made for an historic international
gathering of great colour and excitement.
The Minister for Religious Affairs, representing of the People's
Republic of China, presided over the first part of the ceremony,
at which officials of the Lhasa authorities were also present.
This lasted for some thirty minutes. He announced the official
acknowledgement of the Karmapa by the government and assured
his government's intention of supporting the religious freedom
in China. He presented His Holiness with the written acknowledgement,
bearing the State seal. National and regional Chinese TV station
cameramen were there to record, and later transmit, the event.
Despite the obvious political intentions behind this presence,
it represented a watershed in policy trends concerning Tibetan
Buddhism. One of Tibet's most important religious leaders has
been recognised and enthroned in the traditional way; one with
the full support of HH the Dalai Lama. Doubtlessly, the sublime
wisdom and foresight of the Karmapa had led him to take rebirth
in Tibet for good reason. His vajra mind, that no one can influence
or penetrate, will use all its skill in his delicate situation
to bring peace and happiness to the people of that land, as
well as those of the rest of the world. Karmapa has no boundary.
The officials gone, there was a half-hour pause and the religious
ceremony proper commenced. His Holiness took up his seat on
the high Tsurphu throne, donning the beautifully-ornate brocade
cloak of his station and the small black "activity" crown. The
Tai Situpa and the Goshir Gyatsabpa were wearing special robes
for the occasion, vivid yet subtle in design and hue and made
of rare brocade. The temple itself is a vivid array of colour
and ornate decoration—so exotic that in other circumstances
it would be garish. But in Tibet's land of bright sunlight,
where vivid colour is the norm, and within its feeling of timeless
solemnity, the temple gives the impression of noble richness
and heightened senses. The Tai Situpa opened the ceremony by
presenting His Holiness with the sealed recognition letter of
HH the Dalai Lama, the prediction letter written by the former
Karmapa and the written prediction of Nechung, the State Oracle
of Tibet. This was followed by the chanting of offering prayers,
during which time the Tai Situpa made offerings of purification
consisting of the eight auspicious substances, the eight auspicious
symbols and representations of the seven attributes of a universal
monarch, each of which the Karmapa blessed by his touch, signifying
acceptance.
This was followed by religious discourses. Khenpo Zhönu Dawa,
the Abbot of Palpung, gave an exposition of the perfection of
wisdom. Adi Rinpoche, head of the Drukpa Kagyu in the kingdom
of Nangchen, taught on enlightened body, speech, mind, qualities
and activity and Khenpo Lodro, of Burkar monastery, spoke on
the Manjusri prayer. Following these discourses, HE the Goshir
Gyatsabpa explained the five auspicious conditions, after which
he made the formal thirty-seven offering of the mandala, representing
all the finest things in the entire universe of gods and humans.
The Tai Situpa then came forward and presented the Karmapa with
objects symbolising the enlightened body, speech and mind: a
Buddha image, a longevity sutra and a stupa. Urgyen Drodul Trinley
Dorje was now enthroned as the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, supreme
head of the Karma Kamtsang tradition of Buddhism.
All these events, witnessed by a few hundred special representatives
within the temple, were transmitted by a public address system
to the tens of thousands listening intently outside. The enthronement
proper concluded, the members of this crowd joyfully threw their
long white, yellow or red offering scarves towards the monastery.
These were picked up in mid air and passed or thrown on, from
hand to hand, all the way up to the monastery where they were
piled up. It was a marvellous sight, like spume on the ocean
waves: an ocean of devoted offerings making its way spontaneously
towards the living Buddha within the temple walls.
Inside, the representatives of monasteries and organisations
from both Tibet and other countries were making their offerings.
This over, His Holiness concluded the enthronement by giving
his personal blessing to the crowd, who were now being admitted
to the temple. However, it proved impossible to maintain order
in the face of the ardent enthusiasm of thousands trying to
crush into the temple space and the blessing was halted temporarily
to be continued the following day. By the time the blessing
was adjourned, the seven-year-old Karmapa had spent some five
hours on his throne, maintaining great dignity of bearing. The
following morning, some twenty-five thousand people filed before
him to receive his personal blessing, many of them presenting
offerings they had brought from their villages and encampments.
Empowerment
The following day, September 29, Karmapa Urgyen Trinley Dorje
gave blessings for several hours on the temple roofdeck, to
individuals and groups of visitors. He then conferred his first
formal empowerment as the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa. Although
assisted by the Tai Situpa and the Gyaltsabpa, he read the main
part of the empowerment in clear ringing tones, from the balcony
windows of an upper storey of the monastery, in sight of the
tens of thousands below, his voice relayed by a PA. The empowerment
was that of Avalokitesvara, Chen.re.sig in Tibetan, the bodhisattva
of whom he is seen to be an emanation. Although every action
of the Karmapa's life is seen as having significance, this marked
the beginning of his enlightened activity as the enthroned Karmapa.
This moving moment was accompanied by many auspicious signs.
The sky was bright, with a few patches of cloud, yet a fall
of snowflakes, like a rain of flowers, descended. A very exceptional
number of birds gathered and circled high in the sky. But most
striking was a long straight rainbow which shone in the sky
overhead, behind the wheeling birds.
Education
Although Urgyen Trinley Dorje had received some education while
at Kalek monastery, his thorough education as a Karmapa had
now to begin. Under the overall guidance of the Tai Situpa and
the Gyaltsabpa, and with Drupon Dechen Rinpoche, Abbot of Tsurphu,
close at hand, he will have many things to learn. Through being
the Karmapa, many things are second nature to him. Often he
simply need to be told something once or to read through a text
once to assimilate it. Sometimes he knows a topic perfectly
well before he has been told of it by anyone. He is remarkably
bright with a lightning intelligence and spontaneous wit. Nevertheless,
he will have to learn all the various aspects of ritual, textual
learning, meditation and so forth just as all the previous Karmapas
have done in the past. This sets an example of diligence for
all to follow: if even he has to learn all those things in the
proper fashion, then so much the more so for the likes of ordinary
Buddhists!
For the first part of his education he had the assistance of
two exceptionally experienced and mature teachers, both formerly
in the service of the Sixteenth Karmapa, Omdze Thubten Zangpo
and Lama Lodro Sherab. The latter has since returned to Rumtek,
where his services are needed. Under the former, he has already
learnt the skills required in ritual and has passed his Umdze
exam. Umdze means Master of Liturgy and includes many aspects
of ritual, religious dance and other monastic skills. A layman,
Mr Lodro, is also helping with his education. The young Karmapa
memorised by heart one esential part of the liturgy—a text more
than a hundred pages long—in less than one month, spending only
a fraction of the hour of his daily text lesson on it each day.
The Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa is an extraordinary being. Much
of what is extraordinary cannot be put in print. He has performed
many, many, things which we would call miracles. It is not customary
in the Kagyu tradition to publicise them, and their main purpose
is to teach those present at the time. However, some have been
so public that they have become common knowledge. The greatest
miracle is the presence of his limitless compassion and enlightened
wisdom here on Earth. I would like to conclude this chapter,
which is but a glimpse of this remarkable person, with the sincere
prayer that his life be long and healthy and that many millions
of people all over the world may benefit from this ray of enlightenment
sent to us from the sun of buddhahood.
The above is some
of the story of the discovery and installation of HH the 17th
Gyalwa Karmapa, from Ken Holmes' book "Karmapa", published
by Altea, Scotland 1996.
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