The 17th Karmapa

Born in Kham, Tibet on June 26, 1985 to a nomadic family, Ogyen Trinley Dorje is said to have identified himself to family members as the Karmapa at a young age.
At the age of seven, he was recognized by a search party headed by the Tai Situpa, following instructions left by the previous Karmapa in a prophetic letter hidden in a locket entrusted to Tai Situpa. Ogyen Trinley Dorje was installed at Tsurphu Monastery, the traditional seat of the Karmapa in Tibet, where he lived for another seven years.

At the age of 14, he made a bold escape to Nepal en route to India, arriving at the exile headquarters of Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, in Dharamsala on January 5, 2000. Ogyen Trinley Dorje had felt that in China he was unable to obtain the specialized instruction he needed to complete his studies and realize his full spiritual authority.

The Karmapa is much loved amongst the Tibetan community in India. He is modern, forward-thinking, and approachable (visits by special request).

Some of his views/teachings include:
*The Karmapa strongly urges vegetarianism upon his students, saying that generally, in his view, it is very important in the Mahayana not to eat meat, and that even in Vajrayana students should not eat meat. (a significant number of even monks and nuns eat meat regularly).

*Environmentalist:-On Earth Day April 2009, Orgyen Trinley Dorje gave 108 instructions to protect environnement.
At the second conference on environmental protection in October 2009 at Gyuto Monastery, Sidhbari close to Dharamsala), he stated that "For too long, people have behaved thoughtlessly and ignored the damage to the environment that they are creating and, if this continued there was a great danger that it would be too late to do anything." On October 24, 2009, Ogyen Trinley Dorje supported international climate action day at a gathering at McLeodGanj.

The office of HH the 17th Karmapa has since launched a website dedicated to environmental issues (see links, below)

Born 6 May 1983 in Lhasa, Tibet, Trinley Dorje is a claimant to the title of 17th Karmapa. He is the son of Mipham Rinpoche, who is believed to be a reincarnation of an important lama of the Nyingmapa school, and Dechen Wangmo, daughter of a noble family descended from King Gesar of Ling. At the age of six months, Trinley reportedly started telling people that he was the Karmapa.

In 1988 Shamar Rinpoche went secretly to Lhasa to investigate whether Thaye Dorje was the reincarnation of the Karmapa, because, he said, the boy appeared to him in a dream. In March 1994, Trinley Thaye Dorje and his family escaped from Tibet to India via Nepal, where Shamar Rinpoche formally recognized him as the 17th Karmapa. In 1994 Thaye Dorje was enthroned by the 14th Kunzig Shamarpa as the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa at the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Delhi, India.

Thaye Dorje currently lives in Kalimpong, India where he continues the thorough traditional education required for a holder of the Karmapa title. On May 17, 2006 he was officially appointed by the Karmapa Charitable Trust as legal and administrative heir of the 16th Karmapa and can therefore, according to the Trust, live in Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. However, because the monks currently in physical control of Rumtek oppose Thaye Dorje and legal proceedings between the supporters of the two claimaints have not reached a final conclusion, Thaye Dorje's headquarters remain in Kalimpong.