Bodhi Path Teachers

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche is a highly accomplished Buddhist teacher born in 1975 to an American mother and a French father. His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa recognized the 13-month-old Rinpoche as the reincarnation of an important Buddhist master.

In 1978 Trinlay Rinpoche started the traditional training of tulkus under the guidance of the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche in India. Rinpoche is trilingual with equal competence in English, French, and Tibetan.

From age ten onward Karma Trinlay Rinpoche mainly lived in France where he received a traditional Western education conjointly with his Buddhist education. He later pursued academic studies in Paris at the Sorbonne, the School of Oriental Languages, and at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche holds in particular great reverence the late 14th Shamarpa as his principal root teacher from whom he received: the unparalleled teachings of Mahamudra, and especially, as the sole recipient, the very special and highest oral transmission not written in any text pertaining to the Joining of the Two Rivers of Mahamudra and Mind Training teachings.

A charismatic speaker, Karma Trinlay Rinpoche is respected for his lucid mind and diligence in both study and practice. He has taught in Buddhist centers and universities throughout the world where people widely appreciate his inner calm, sweet disposition, and sharp mind.

Rinpoche lives in France with his American wife, Giselle de Saint Phalle and their two sons.

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche