© Karine Le Pajolec

His Holiness Shamar Rinpoche
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Teachings by Shamar Rinpoche

The Shamarpa lineage is a line of incarnate lamas who since the 14th century have reincarnated as teachers and disciples to the Gyalwa Karmapas, heads of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. The 2nd Karmapa Karma Pakshi predicted that, "for the benefit of sentient beings, in the future Karmapas shall manifest as two human forms, not to be thought of as one, but not to be considered as separate either." To symbolize their indistinguishableness, the 3rd Karmapa presented the 1st Shamarpa Drakpa Sengye with a red crown, the exact replica of the Karmapa's own black crown. The Karmapa also bestowed the name, "Shamarpa," meaning, "The One With The Red Crown." As predicted by Buddha Shakyamuni, "In the future, a great bodhisattva with a ruby red crown will come to the suffering of the multitude, leading them out of their cyclic bewilderment and misery." In the Shamarpa, the Buddha's prediction was fulfilled.

The present-day 14th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Lodro was born in 1952 in Derge, Tibet as the nephew of the16th Karmapa and was formally recognized by him at age four. In 1959, the Shamarpa and the Karmapa were forced to flee their homeland due to the impending invasion by the Chinese and took refuge in Sikkim. In the years following at Rumtek Monastery, the Shamarpa received the entire transmission of the Kagyu lineage's teachings from the Karmapa and other renowned Tibetan masters. After the Karmapa's death in 1981, Shamar Rinpoche devoted his efforts to fulfilling numerous projects initiated by the Karmapa. Among his many worldwide activities, Rinpoche has overseen the reprinting of the Tengyur, a body of 214 volumes in which prominent Indian and Tibetan masters elucidate the teachings of the Buddha. He established the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Delhi for the study and translation of the great treatises of Buddhism. Rinpoche recently founded the Shri Diwakar Vihara Institute, a Buddhist Research and Educational Institute in Kalimpong, India and he is the founder of the worldwide Bodhi Path Buddhist Centers.

In keeping with tradition, in 1994, Shamar Rinpoche formally recognized the 17th Karmapa Trinlay Thaye Dorje who now resides in India and France where he receives Dharma instruction and training.

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