The 22-year-old living Buddha seemed joyfully aware to feel no jet lag whatsoever. So far. “Maybe tonight,” he said in English on Thursday. “But not yet.” He had just arrived at a Midtown hotel with his security detail after a 14-hour flight from New Delhi to Newark.
Ugyen Trinley Dorje, 22, widely admired as an enlightened being, arrived in New York to start an 18-day American tour.
“It is the first time I’ve ever visited the United States, and it’s a bit like a dream,” said His Holiness, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje, one of the most important leaders in Tibetan Buddhism.
Despite his youth, he is revered by followers as a master teacher, and on Thursday he began his whirlwind tour of the United States, an 18-day visit to New York, New Jersey, Boulder, Colo., and Seattle.
Yes, he is that Karmapa: the young master who made headlines across the world at age 14 with his daring escape from China to India across the Himalayas in 1999.
His followers regard him not only as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, who died in 1981, but also as the 17th incarnation of the first Karmapa in the 12th century, in an unbroken lineage going back 900 years. They revere him as leader of the Kagyu sect — called the black hat or black crown sect — one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
To believers, he is the embodiment of wisdom and compassion, a “reincarnate lama,” or teacher who has achieved enlightenment yet returns to the human world, lifetime after lifetime, to help others do the same.
“The passing of the previous Karmapa was like the sun going behind the clouds,” said Michele Martin, a Tibetan translator who is the author of a 2003 biography, “Music in the Sky: The Life, Art and Teachings of the 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje.”
She added, “With the new Karmapa’s arrival, it’s like the clouds have cleared away, and he is the sun in the sky.”
Thousands of people have attended his public appearances in India, and some 20,000 more are expected to see him in America. In Manhattan he will be speaking to the faithful on Saturday at the Hammerstein Ballroom (tickets: $30 to $108), and Sunday in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria (tickets: $35 to $175).
On Monday he will visit his North American seat at the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra center in Woodstock, N.Y., where he is ecstatically anticipated. The shrine room was used for scenes in “Kundun,” the Martin Scorsese film about the life of the Dalai Lama.
Americans have been preparing for the visit for a year and a half, said Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, the organizer of the American trip, who is president and founder of Nalanda West in Seattle, one of the speaking stops. “There is great joy and delight that they can finally see him,” he said.
So little is easy, however, on the noble eightfold path of Buddhism, and Ugyen Trinley Dorje is but one of two claimants to the title of Karmapa in the Kagyu tradition. A rival, Trinlay Thaye Dorje, made a tour of Europe several years ago. There have been legal battles in India. Rival factions of monks, those emissaries of loving kindness, have come to blows over the conflict.
But the American followers of Ugyen Trinley Dorje point to his recognition as the 17th Karmapa by both the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama, a world figure and a spokesman for Tibetan Buddhism who has been a teacher to Ugyen Trinley Dorje.
In an interview, the Dalai Lama’s United States representative, Tashi Wangdi, said, “We welcome the visit” of Ugyen Trinley Dorje, adding, “We are very happy that he will be here.”
Robert A. F. Thurman, professor of Buddhist studies at Columbia University, said, “The guy who’s here is the official one,” adding, “The other Karmapa is a nice person, and he has followers in Europe and Asia, but almost all of the Tibetans accept the Karmapa who is here now.”
Asked about the rival Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje said that “one person is appearing at a time, who is the reincarnation of the previous Karmapa.”
He added, “Being its current incarnation, as I am, it is my greatest responsibility” to embody the succession.
His great escape from China, in December 1999, was a grueling eight-day, 1,000-mile trip by foot, horse, train, jeep and helicopter that led him to Dharamsala, India. The government accepted him as a refugee in 2001.
Ugyen Trinley Dorje’s age, spiritual presence and dramatic escape have made him a rock star in certain precincts of Tibetan Buddhism, and some have invoked a Barack Obama parallel. Elle Magazine named the meditative master one of its “25 people to watch.”
“He could become a spokesman for Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet itself, if he chooses to,” said Dr. Thurman, the author of a new book, “Why the Dalai Lama Matters.” He is also the father of the actress Uma Thurman.
이 기사는 더 계속되지만 여기까지만 실었습니다.
22살된 카규파 스님이 뉴욕타임즈에 생불로 크게 되었다. 이 법회에 많은 미국 백인들이 1년 6개월 이상 기다렸다. 이 스님은 카규파의 중국정부와 달라이 라마의 공식적인 인정을 받은 스님이다. 이 법회에 미국의 백인 불교지도자들이 대거 참석할 예정인데 티켓을 구하기가 아주 어려운 실정이다.