16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, was one of the most powerful Karmapas in the lineage. Already when he was a child, he naturally performed miracles until his teachers, (of whom the 11th Situpa and the 2nd Jamgön Kongtrul were, as he said himself, his root lamas), asked him to stop.

The 16th Karmapa was ordained at Palpung Monastery and began to study and practice under the guidance of Situ Rinpoche. His teachers included the greatest Karma Kagyü masters of his time.

At the age of 20, the Karmapa prepared himself and his disciples for the coming events of their escape from Tibet, well before the invasion by the Chinese. The nature of his preparations demonstrated once again that powerful quality, which changed everyone he met for the better, beyond all human understanding. He protected the teachings from the occupiers and safeguarded his activity by rebuilding Rumtek Monastery.

The Karmapa went on to entrust his closest disciples, of whom Hannah and Ole Nydahl were to become the most important, to bring Diamond Way to the West; in this way, a prophecy of Guru Rinpoche was fulfilled. Karmapa was the first of the lineage to circumnavigate the world and therefore was able to bring his blessings directly to the countries where the practicing Diamond Way world found their new homes. Lama Ole and his wife Hannah experienced themselves as the 16th Karmapa’s activities and continued to manifest the Diamond Way throughout free countries around the world.