Chöying Dorje

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

Chöying Dorje (1604-[674), also Choying Dorje was the tenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Chöying Dorje was born in Khaytri Tang in the kingdom of Golok in Amdo. At the age of eight, he was recognized by Shamar Mipan Chökyi Wangchuk, the sixth Shamarpa and received the complete Kagyu transmissions. He traveled extensively through Tibet, however the country was very unstable, because the Lozang Gyatso, the fifth Dalai Lama, together with Gushi Khan, the warrior king of Mongolia, tried to gain control over Central Tibet. During the previous Dalai Lama, the Kagyus were allied to the princes of Tsang and fought against the fourth Dalai Lama.

The army attacked Shigatse and forced many monasteries to convert to the Gelugpa school. The civil war became such that Chöying Dorje had to flee Tibet and he appointed Goshir Gyaltsab as the temporary regent. The Kagyu school was almost completely annihilated in the Tsang province, however it remained in the provinces of Amdo and Kham.

During his exile, Chöying Dorje travelled extensively through Bhutan, Yunnan (Chinese province), Burma and Nepal and founded many monasteries. He returned to Tibet twenty years later, however the Kagyu school was no longer the most important school of Tibetan Buddhism.