Thaye Dorje

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Tibetan :   ཕྲིན་ལས་མཐའ་ཡས་རྡོ་རྗེ་;
• Wylie :   Phrin-las Mtha'-yas Rdo-rje

Trinley Thaye Dorje (born 6 May, 1983, Lhasa, Tibet) is recognized by many followers as the 17th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Biography

Trinley Thaye Dorje is the son of Mipham Rinpoche, a reincarnation of an important lama of the Nyingmapa school, and Dechen Wangmo, the daughter of a noble family descended from King Gesar of Ling. <ref name="diamondway">Diamondway-Buddhism Biography Thaye Trinley Dorje. (Retrieved: September 18, 2006)</ref> At the age of six months the boy started telling people that he was the Karmapa. <ref>Karmapa Thaye Dorje, Het Boeddhistische boek van Wijsheid van Liefde, page 52, 9080582352 (Dutch translation. original title: Le livre bouddhiste de la sagesse et de l'amour)</ref> (The identification of the 17th Karmapa is disputed. See Karmapa controversy)

In 1988 Shamar Rinpoche went on a secret visit to Lhasa to investigate whether Thaye Dorje was the reincarnation of the Karmapa, because the boy appeared to him in a dream. <ref>Karmapa Thaye Dorje, Het Boeddhistische boek van Wijsheid van Liefde, page 60 and 61, 9080582352 (Dutch translation. original title: Le livre bouddhiste de la sagesse et de l'amour)</ref> In March 1994, Thaye Dorje and his family escaped from Tibet to Nepal and then to India, where Shamar Rinpoche formally recognized him as the 17th Karmapa. <ref name="diamondway"/> In 1994 Thaye Dorje was enthroned by the 14th Kunzig Shamarpa as the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa at the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Dehli, India. <ref name="diamondway"/>

Eastern and western education

Thaye Dorje subsequently began an intense period of traditional monastic training. He has received training and transmissions in Buddhist philosophy and practice from some of the finest Tibetan and Indian Buddhist scholars and masters alive. His teachers have included the 14th Shamar Rinpoche, Professor Sempa Dorje and Khenpo Chödrak Tenphel. As a result of this, Thaye Dorje was enthroned as Vidhyadhara (Knowledge Holder) by the 14th Shamarpa in December 2003 at the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute. <ref>Vienna Dharma Project Vidyadhara Ceremony of the 17th Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje (Retrieved: September 18, 2006)</ref>

Alongside this traditional Buddhist training, Thaye Dorje has received a modern Western education from English and Australian tutors and an intensive introduction to Western philosophy from Professor Harrison Pemberton of Washington and Lee University in the USA. <ref>Washington and Lee University Pemberton Teaches Western Philosophy in India. (Retrieved: September 18, 2006)</ref>

Thaye Dorje currently lives in Kalimpong, India where he continues the thorough traditional education required for a holder of the Karmapa title. On May 17, 2006 Thaye Dorje was officially appointed by the Karmapa Charitable Trust as the legal and administrative heir of the 16th Karmapa and can therefore, according to the Trust, live in Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. However, because the group of monks currently in physical control of Rumtek oppose Thaye Dorje and the legal proceedings between the supporters of the two claimaints have not reached a final conclusion, Thaye Dorje's headquarters remain in Kalimpong for the time being. <ref>Karmapa Charitable Trust: Announcement from the Council of His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa (pdf file) Retrieved: Aug 18, 2006</ref>

References

See also

• Karmapa
• Karma Kagyu
• Karmapa controversy

External links

• Official Homepage of H.H. 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinlay Thaye Dorje
• Karmapa Documentary Project
• Kagyu Asia