THE XVth KARMAPA

(1871 - 1922) 

The fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyab Dore, was born in Shelkar in Tsang province in the year of the Iron Sheep ( 1871 CE.). The infant was marked by a tiny tuft of white hair that grew between his eyebrows, just as a similar tuft is said to have distinguished the body of the baby Sakyamuni. Khakhyab Dorje displayed remarkable intelligence at a tender age and by the time he was four, he was composing prayers. 

                  At the age of six the child was recognized as the new Karmapa incarnation, in accordance with the details contained in the letter of prediction left by the fourteenth Karmapa. He was officially recognized by Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, Jamyang Khyentse and Drukchen Minjur Wangkyi Gyalpo and was crowned in the "golden throne ceremony" at Tsurphu. He was also ordained as a novice by Drukchen Rinpoche. 

                  Khakhyab Dorje was an assiduous student.  Even when very young he was taught basic  Mahayana dharma, logic and astrology. At the age of eight he constructed a Mahakala shrine and also composed a prayer to the dharmapala. 

                  In 1881 Karmapa and his entourage paid a visit to the thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten gyatsho and his court. On his return to Tsurphu he began to study with the very scholarly abbot of Palpung monastery, Khanchen Tashi Ozer, from whom he received the textual transmission of the entire Tripitaka. He also studied with the ninth Pawo Rinpoche, who instructed him in the six volumes of Rigdzin Jatson Nyingpo's terma (Tib.: གཏེར་ཆོས་). 

       In 1886, Khakhyab Dorje went to see Kongtrul Rinpoche in Palpung monastery. The aged scholar gave Karmapa the empowerments, textual transmissions and instructions of his own Five Treasures (Tib.: མཛོད་ལྔ་). This series contains over one hundred volumes compiled, annotated and commented upon by Kongtrul Lodro Thaye. It presents the major and minor traditions of religious thought and practice from the Rime perspective and had had a profound influence upon the subsequent development of dharma. Kongtrul Rinpoche also gave Khakhyab Dorje the bodhisattva vows and the empowerments and teaching of Kalachakra. 

                  From Palpung, Karmapa and his party travelled on to Dzongsar, a great Sakya monastery, where he received teachings from Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche. At that time memories of his past lives were reawakened in Khakhyab Dorje and he composed poetry concerning the training of a budhisattva. Somewhat later, Karmapa visited the famous head of the Drukpa Kagyu monastery of Sang Ngag Choling. He recognized the new Drukchen incarnation and gave him the five precepts. 

                  In 1888, Khakhyab Dorje returned to study with Kongtrul Rinpoche. The contents of his studies ranged over Sanskrit, astrology, medicine, art, Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, vinaya, abhidharma and the Five Dharmas of Maitreya. Subsequently, Karmapa revisited Dzongsar monastery, where he received the empowerments of the Collected Sadhanas (Tib.: སྒྲུབ་ཐབ་ཀུན་དུས་) of the Sakya tradition from Khyentse Rinpoche. After his return to Palpung, Kongtrul Rinpoche bestowed on him the teachings of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition. Throughout this period Khakhyab Dorje studied throughout the day and into the night. In 1890 Karmapa recognized and enthroned the eleventh Situ Rinpoche, Padma Wangchuk Gyalpo. He also revisited Sang Ngag Choling, Lhasa and Samye as well as the pilgrimage place of Tsari where he discovered some termas and was protected by dakas and dakinis.

                   On his arrival back at Tsurphu, Khakhyab Dorje established a new seminary and repaired the main shrine. He also constructed a new temple in Lhasa for the "five sisters of long life" (Tib.: ཚེ་རིང་མཆེད་ལྔ་). It was dedicated to the peace and happiness of Tibet and the rest of the world at the request of the Dalai Lama.

                   A little later, Karmapa returned to his guru, Kongtrul Rinpoche, at Palpung monastery and received the empowerments, teachings and textual transmissions of the Lama Gongdu cycle. Returning to Tsurphu, Khakhyab Dorje designed new ornaments and costumes for the ritual dances of the dharmapala, Vajra Black-Cloaked One. He also commissioned Kongtrul Rinpoche’s sixty-three volume Precious treasury(Tib.:རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར་མཛོད་) and his own works, the only complete collections of the works of Kagyu scholars to come out of Tibet. In 1898 Khakhyab Dorje paid a brief visit to Bhutan on the invitation of the king, Urgyen Wangchuk. Karmapa was extensively honoured and he gave the king instructions in dharma teachings. 

                  On his return to Tibet, Khakhyab Dorje took several consorts in fulfilment of his guru's prediction. A little later he recognized the new incarnations of Kongtrul Rinpoche, his own son, and Pawo Rinpoche. He instructed them and Situ Rinpoche in Kagyu dharma. He transmitted the Kagyu lineage to Situpa, Kongtrul Rinpochc and Palpung Khyentse Rinpoche and then went into retreat for ten years. 

                  In his fifty-first year. in 1922. Karmapa Khakhyab Dorje passed away. Several years earlier he had entrusted the details of his next incarnation to jampal Tsultim, his favorite attendant. Ten years earlier, in 1912, he had also insisted that the new year trumpets be blown toward the east instead of the south as was customary. 

Khakhyab Dorje’s principal students were Situ Padma Wangchuk Gyalpo, Jamgon Kongtrul Khyentse Ozer, Palpung Khyentse Tulku, and Gyaltshap Rinpoche.

Reproduced with permission of the Very Venerable Karma Thrinley Rinpoche.