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The 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1924 - 1981)

The Karmapa (officially His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa) is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyupa (Tib. Bka' brgyud), itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

The historical seat of the Karmapas is Tsurphu Monastery in the Tolung valley of Tibet. His Holiness' 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, Dhagpo Kagyu Ling in France and Tashi Choling in Bhutan.

Due to a controversy within the Karma Kagyu school over the recognition process, the identity of the current 17th Karmapa is disputed. See Karmapa controversy for details.

The 1st Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa (Dus gsum Mkhyen pa) (1110-1193), was a disciple of the Tibetan master Gampopa. A gifted child who studied dharma (Buddhist teachings) 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 as the Karmapa, a manifestation of Avalokitesvara (Chenrezig), whose coming was predicted in the Samadhiraja Sutra^[1] and the Lankavatara Sutra.^[2]

The 1st Karmapa's main disciple, Drogon Rechen, is considered to be a previous incarnation of the Tai Situpas, thus establishing the long-standing link between the two incarnation lineages.^{[citation needed]}

The source of the oral lineage is traditionally traced back to the Buddha Vajradhara, was transmitted to the Indian master of mahamudra and tantra Tilopa (989-1069), through Naropa (1016-1100) to Marpa and Milarepa. These forefathers of the Kagyu (Bka' brGyud) lineage are collectively called the "golden rosary".

The 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi (1204-1283), is often said^{[attribution needed]} to be the first person ever recognized and empowered as a tulku (sprul sku), a reincarnated lama (bla ma).

Karmapa's Flag

The Karmapas are the holders of the Black Crown (Tibetan: Shanag; Wylie: Zhwa-nag) and are thus sometimes known as the Black Hat Lamas. This crown (Tib. rang 'byung cod pan, lit. self-arisen crown), is traditionally said to have been woven by the dakinis from their hair and given to Karmapa in recognition of his spiritual realization. The physical crown displayed by the Karmapas was offered to the 5th Karmapa by the Chinese Yongle Emperor as a material representation of the spiritual one.

The crown is currently believed to be located at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the last home of the 16th Karmapa.

1. Düsum Khyenpa (དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ་) (1110 - 1193)
2. Karma Pakshi (ཀརྨ་བ་ཤི་) (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་རྡྟེ་) (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. (Controversy over whether Ogyen Trinley Dorje(ཨོ་རྒྱན་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེ།) (b. 1985) or Trinle Thaye Dorje(མཐའ་ཡས་རྡོ་རྗེ།) (b. 1983) is the true Karmapa).

• Ken Holmes, Karmapa, Altea Publishing 1995, ISBN 0-9524555-4-4. Author's website (While the book and web site favours one candidate for the 17th the information on 1st-16th is useful and was the original source for this article)
• Michele Martin, Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa, Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje, Snow Lion Publications 2003, ISBN-10: 1559391952
• Mick Brown, The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa, Bloomsbury 2005, ISBN-10: 1582345988.
• Naher, Gaby. (2004). Wrestling the Dragon: In Search of the Boy Lama Who Defied China. Vintage Books, Random House. Sydney, Australia. ISBN 1844132315.
• "Buddha's Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today" by Erik D. Curren, Alaya Press, Feb 2006, Paper. ISBN 0-9772253-0-5. (favours Trinle Thaye Dorje)

The history of the Karmapa lineage, including biographical details of the historical Karmapas, can be found at the following web sites. Notice that the websites are written to those loyal to one or other of the rival 17th Karmapas, and their accounts of previous incarnations may not be written from a neutral point of view.

• Karmapa lineage history on karmapa.org, the website of Thaye Dorje
• Karmapa lineage history on kagyuoffice.org, the website of Ogyen Trinley Dorje
• Information on past and present Karmapas from khandro.net, a website supporting Ogyen Trinley Dorje
• Karmapa Lineage and Biographies, from Simhanada, supporting Ogyen Trinley Dorje
• Recalling a Buddha (documentary on the Sixteenth Karmapa), includes commentary from all three living Kagyu Regents.