The 14th Kunzig Shamarpa
performed the traditional ‘hair-cutting’ ceremony for the 17th Karmapa. Whilst there at the Kagyu Monlam Chenmo, the Shamarpa had conferred on him the monastic vows. Finally, with great pageantry in a ceremony attended by many Lamas, guests and disciples from all over the world, the 14th Kunzig Shamarpa enthroned the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje. Henceforth, the Shamarpa had passed on all the empowerments and transmissions to the 17th Karmapa, such as the Kagyu Ngag Zoe (Treasury of Kagyu Tantras); the Chik Shae Kundrol (Know One Realise All); the Chag Chen Gya Yong (Mahamudra transmission); and the Lung Sem Yermeh (Inseparability of Prana and Mind by the 8th Karmapa Mikyo Dorje), amongst others. In 2004, the Shamarpa had conferred upon the 17th Karmapa the title of Vajradhara, the holder of the Kagyu Lineage.
Bestowing initiations and Gyu Dey Kun Tu transmissions to the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa – With His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche, San Francisco, 2003
In 2002, determined to reverse the deteriorating morale in the Kagyu Sangha – like a ‘butter lamp running out of butter’ – which was brought on by internal division of the lineage in the previous ten years, the Shamarpa had established a five-year primary school for young monks near Darjeeling, followed by the building of the Shri Diwakar Institute at Kalimpong, which was designed to provide a ten-year curriculum of Buddhist studies for a few hundred monks. The next most important project, due to be completed soon, was to be the Shar Minub Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal, devoted to higher Buddhist studies and research, and retreat, with accommodations for a thousand monks. Meanwhile in Tibet, the traditional seat of the Shamarpas at Yangpachen had been rebuilt also as an institute for higher Buddhist studies. Not limited to projects of his own, the Shamarpa had contributed also to the rebuilding and development in Tibet of many institutions and monasteries. The flourishing of the Buddhist Dharma depended, amongst other things, on the upholding of the Vinaya Vows by the Sangha. With this particular view in mind, the Shamarpa had especially founded the Druldra Ling retreat center at Nagarjuna Hill in Nepal. It was dedicated solely to the life-long practice of the Vows together with the Mahamudra practice.
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Bestowing initiations and transmissions to the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa (Chikshik Kundrol, Chagchen Jazhung and many others), Kündröl Ling, France 2000
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