The Karmapa is the spiritual leader of the Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The present Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, age 23, is the 17th reincarnation in an unbroken succession dating back over 800 years. Karmapa literally means embodiment of the activity of all buddhas. The Karmapa's purpose is to manifest wakefulness and unconditional compassion in a direct, accessible way. Between May 15th and June 2nd, 2008, His Holiness Karmapa completed a tour of the United States, his first ever journey to the West. >> View all Public Events
"he
turns 22 next month, he now speaks six languages, and he's becoming
more and more of a magnet ... There's absolutely no doubt that he is
the new star: dynamic, powerful, full of young energy but with
tremendous discipline and dignity, enormously sage for his age."
- The Independent, 2007 "the most powerful teenager in the world"
- The Independent, 2001
"currently seen as the second most important Tibetan religious leader after the Dalai Lama"
- BBC News, 2001 "clearly a serious and exceptionally intelligent 15-year-old. Few can doubt his credentials as a future Tibetan leader."
- The Observer, 2001 "a fourteen-year-old, six-foot-tall, poetry-writing, Internet-surfing Tibetan monk"
- Elle Magazine, 2001 "one of Tibet's holiest figures" - TIME Magazine, 2000 "On
28 Dec, 1999, the youth climbed out of a monastery window in Tibet,
jumped to the ground and clambered into a waiting jeep. Days later he
suddenly turned up in the township of Dharamsala in northern India,
where the Dalai Lama heads Tibet’s government in exile. The term
thunderbolt best describes the effect of his arrival."
- Newsweek, 2000 | Song: An Aspiration for the World Composed by His Holiness in 2005 to express his aspirations for peace and prosperity. >> Read the lyrics |



