The Karmapa: Who He Is, the History of the Title, and Its Ties to Bhutan

The name means, roughly, the one who carries out the activity of the Buddhas. For some nine hundred years the Karmapa has been the head of the Karma Kagyu, one of the principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism — sometimes called the Black Hat school, after the Karmapa’s crown.

The first reincarnation lineage

The 1st Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193), was a disciple of Gampopa, the great master of the Kagyu tradition. He founded monasteries in eastern and central Tibet, among them Tsurphu near Lhasa, which became the Karmapas’ main seat, and he was the first to leave a letter predicting the circumstances of his own rebirth. His successor, Karma Pakshi, was recognised accordingly. The Karmapa line is generally regarded as the first reincarnation — or tulku — lineage in Tibetan Buddhism, the model for the many that followed.

The Black Crown

The 5th Karmapa, Deshin Shekpa (1384–1415), was invited to the Ming court by the Yongle Emperor and arrived in Nanjing in 1407. The emperor presented him with a crown of black brocade set with jewels — a physical form of the “vajra crown” the Karmapas are believed to wear spiritually. The Black Crown ceremony, in which the Karmapa holds the crown upon his head, became the lineage’s most famous rite.

The 16th Karmapa and Bhutan

Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa (1924–1981), carried the lineage into the modern world, and his story runs through Bhutan.

Before 1959 he accepted a royal invitation to Bhutan, visited Bumthang and performed the Black Crown ceremony there at the King’s request. When he left Tibet in 1959 with some 160 lamas, monks and lay people and the lineage’s sacred objects, the party came first to Bhutan, where it was received at Bumthang before travelling on to Sikkim. There he rebuilt Rumtek as his seat in exile. In 1967 the King and the Queen Mother of Bhutan presented him with the Tashi Choling palace in Bumthang and its lands. He travelled the world in the 1970s, met Pope Paul VI in 1975, and died near Chicago in 1981.

Two 17th Karmapas

After his death, two candidates were recognised as the 17th Karmapa by different senior lamas of the lineage, and each is followed as Karmapa by his own students and monasteries.

Ogyen Trinley Dorje was born in June 1985 to a nomadic family in the Lhatok region of eastern Tibet. He was identified in 1992 through a prediction letter of the 16th Karmapa presented by the Tai Situpa, a recognition confirmed by the Dalai Lama, and was enthroned at Tsurphu that September. In 2000 he left Tibet for Dharamsala in India. He has led the annual Kagyu Monlam prayer festival in Bodh Gaya, spoken widely on the environment, and since 2017 has lived outside India. His office is the Kagyu Office.

Trinley Thaye Dorje was born in Lhasa on 6 May 1983 and was recognised by the 14th Shamar Rinpoche, one of the lineage’s most senior masters. He was enthroned in New Delhi in 1994 and completed his formal studies in 2003. He oversees a network of monasteries and centres around the world. In 2017 he married Rinchen Yangzom, who was born in Thimphu, Bhutan.

In October 2018 the two met for the first time, in France, and issued a joint statement committing themselves to the strength of the Karma Kagyu. In 2019 they jointly composed a long-life prayer, and in December 2023 they announced that they would recognise the next Shamar Rinpoche together — neither of them separately.

In Bhutan, 2026

Both Karmapas made offerings to Project 108. Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje is offering three of the 108 Jangchub Chortens through the Karma Leksheling Foundation, together with the illumination of the whole complex and the lighting along its twelve-kilometre circumambulation path, and will be in Gelephu from 1 to 4 November for the gathering. Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje offered support for the construction of one chorten. The Karmapas’ fellow lineage-holder, the Tai Situpa, came to Bhutan in August 2026 to offer relics for the chortens. The prayers and rituals in Gelephu are led by His Holiness the Je Khenpo, Bhutan’s Chief Abbot. The full list of masters is in Project 108 Masters.