REMEMBERING THE KINDNESS OF A SUPREME ‘FATHER’: Announcement of passing away of 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s elderly father on Saga Dawa, new calligraphy artwork and message, and re-sharing of Shakyamuni Buddha sadhana composed by 17th Karmapa

“Today, on the special and important commemoration of the Teacher’s [Buddha] Parinirvana passing, in the morning at 8.48 am, the elderly father of Gyalwang 17th Karmapa, who had reached 87 years old, also passed into nirvana, passing into the peaceful expanse of sleep.  In particular, even though the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has had to be separated from his dearly beloved, supreme father for over thirty human years, wherever he has been, in foreign or native lands, he has always held deep in his heart the kindness of his father and all his family members with sincere affection, fervent longing and equanimity.”–announcement in Tibetan on Wechat today

“It was strange because the evening before the birth, even though the sun had set, a rainbow formed over the tent. Naturally, I had no idea that the child was Karmapa. But the many wondrous signs that accompanied his birth made us very happy and gave us the certainty that this child would be of great benefit to Buddhism.” —Karma Dondrub (17th Karmapa’s father)

Today, at around 3:11 pm Chinese/Tibetan time, on the auspicious and sacred day of Saga Dawa (in Tibetan) – the full moon day in the fourth lunar month that commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana -it was announced on the Karmapa’s official Wechat account in Tibetan language that the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s elderly 87 year old father, Karma Dondrub (1937-2024) who has been having health issues for some time) passed  away earlier this morning, around 8.48 am (see image below). This announcement has not been officially made on FB yet.  Sadly, the 17th Karmapa has been unable to visit his father (or family members in Tibet) for over thirty years, and was not physically present when he passed away.

The short announcement was simple, respectful and humble indeed, saying that his father had ‘passed away in his sleep’, with no hastily and disrespectfully published photos of his father’s dead body, or public proclamations of his being in ‘thug-dam’. The Karmapa’s father was a ruggedly handsome, gentle, humble, nomadic man from Kham, Tibet with a large family who remained faithfully married and together with the Karmapa’s mother, Loga until he passed away today.

Yesterday, several Karma Kagyu monasteries and nunneries in Tibet, Nepal, India and Bhutan (including Thrangu, Bokar and Zurmang monasteries) started posting photos of their ritual prayers being conducted for the 17th Karmapa’s father’s passing, including a special event in New York, USA.

Update, 24th May: A letter of condolence and request to Karma Kagyu monasteries and followers from the Tsurphu Labrang མཚུར་ཕུ་བླ་བྲང་།Monastery was released today in the morning of 24th May, the day following the 17th Karmapa’s father’s passing.  The letter mainly confirms the news that the 17th Karmapa’s father passed away on 23rd May and requests that “non-sectarian” monasteries perform aspirations and prayers, including the wish that the Karmapa may visit Rumtek Monastery again soon.

The 17th Karmapa’s father, Karma Dondrub

In the film, Living Buddha , which can be watched in full here by Clemens Kuby, the 17th Karmapa’s father can be seen talking (around 1 hours in) about his son’s auspicious birth in a very simple nomad tent in Tibet:

“It was strange because the evening before the birth, even though the sun had set, a rainbow formed over the tent. Naturally, I had no idea that the child was Karmapa. But the many wondrous signs that accompanied his birth made us very happy and gave us the certainty that this child would be of great benefit to Buddhism.”

In that film, it explains that the Karmapa’s parents were not given any special/VIP treatment:

“For Buddhists, the parents have no special importance, and are no closer to the Buddha than anyone else. Seen from the point of view of reincarnation, a child’s qualities are derived from his former life.”

Nonetheless, it is sad and strange that the 17th Karmapa seems to have been unable to meet physically with his elderly parents during their time of ill-health. It really is time that the various exile or government/legal authorities with the power to make that happen, allowed it.

Personally, I will never forget in the documentary film, The Lion Begins To Roar (1999), in which a beautiful, bright and brilliant teenage 17th Karmapa at Tsurphu monastery, is seated on the throne, and smiles lovingly and shyly at his parents sitting near him who also look very happy and smiling.  Watching it now still brings tears to my eyes of joy, devotion and longing. Happier and more innocent times in Tibet,  than in Indian exile.

A young boy who was taken away from his parental care at a very young age and flung into a world of adult politics, sectarianism and conflict, of Chinese and Indian politicians and ‘fake friends’ , constant monitoring and control etc. cannot have been easy at such a young age. Nonetheless, as a testament to his remarkable compassion, wisdom and power, the 17th Karmapa has continued, and continues to inspire and innovate a whole new generation of followers within and outside of Tibet.

Thus, on this auspicious day we remember not only the great kindness of Buddha at coming to this world and teaching the Dharma, but also the 17th Karmapa’s humble and simple father, whose body helped to bring the 17th Karmapa into this world. What a great gift to us all, and a teacher whose absence in person we all feel and miss very much!

Music? Karmapa Khyenno by Dawa Tsona (beautiful lyrics and video about the 17th Karmapa’s birth in Tibet, and his parents), Melody of Devotion and I’ll Be There by Mariah Carey.

Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 23rd May 2024 (15th day of fourth lunar month).

Tibetan announcement on Wechat

The statement (translated by myself into English) says:

“Today, on the special and important commemoration of the Teacher’s [Buddha] Parinirvana passing, in the morning at 8.48 am, the elderly father of Gyalwang 17th Karmapa, who had reached 87 years old, passed into nirvana, passing into the peaceful expanse of sleep.  In particular, even though the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has had to be separated from his dearly beloved, supreme father for over thirty human years, wherever he has been, in foreign or native lands, he has always held deep in his heart the kindness of his father and all his family members with sincere affection, fervent longing and equanimity.”

Shortly after reading this announcement, his father was expertly guided into the bliss bhaga realm, Dewachen by the 17th Karmapa and abiding there. 

Tibetan original

༼ ༸ རྒྱལ་དབང་མཆོག་ཡབ་ཆེན་འདས་པ་མྱ་ངན་ཞུ།༽
​
​དེ་རིང་སྟོན་པ་མཆོག་སྐུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་དུས་ཆེན་དམིགས་བསལ་འདིའི་སྔར་མོ་དུས་ཚོད་༨དང་སྐར་མ་༤༨ཐོག་༸རྒྱལ་དབང་༸ཀརྨ་པ་མཆོག་གི་ཡབ་རྒན་དགུང་ལོ་༨༧ལ་ཕེབས་མཛད་པ་ཁོང་ཡང་སྐུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་མཛད་འདུག །
​དེས་ན་ཡབ་ཆེན་མཆོག་དགོངས་པ་ཞི་དབྱིངས་སུ་གཟིམ་པ་ལ་མྱ་ངན་ཞི་བ་དང་།
​ལྷག་པ་མི་ལོ་སུམ་ཅུ་ལ་ཉེ་བ་ཙམ་བརྩེ་བའི་ཡབ་ཆེན་དམ་པ་དང་ཞལ་འབྲལ་དགོས་བྱུང་བའི་༸རྒྱལ་དབང་མཆོག་དང་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཅན་གྱི་སྐུའི་ལྕམ་སྲིང་དབུས་པའི་གཞི་བྱེས་གང་སར་བཞུགས་པའི་ཡབ་ཚང་ནང་མི་ཡོངས་ལ་སེམས་གཏིང་ནས་གདུང་སེམས་མཉམ་བསྐྱེད་ཞུ།

Saga Dawa artwork and short Tibetan message

Earlier today, Tsurphu Labrang monastery posted a calligraphic artwork by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, on Facebook, with a short Tibetan message (unknown if written by the 17th Karmapa or not). The artwork reads in Tibetan བུདྷ། (Budh), which means ‘Awaken’ in Sanskrit (the term Buddha, means ‘awakened one’)

“གང་ཚེ་རྐང་གཉིས་གཙོ་བོ་ཁྱོད་བལྟམས་ཚེ། །ས་ཆེན་འདི་ལ་གོམ་པ་བདུན་བོར་ནས།།
ང་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་ན་མཆོག་ཅེས་གསུངས། །དེ་ཚེ་མཁས་པ་ཁྱོད་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། །
Happy Vesak and Saka Dawa day”

“Whenever, you the ‘chief’ of the two-legged ones (humans) [Buddha]was born,
Having taken seven steps on this great earth,
You proclaimed: “I am supreme in this world!”
From that  time, I go for refuge to you, the expert!”

Shakyamuni Buddha sadhana puja composed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (December 2023)

In December 2023, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa composed, published and performed a poetic and brilliant new Buddha Shakyamuni ritual and praise, as well as a stunning new artwork. On this Saga Dawa Duchen, I share again the overview and article I wrote about this and some of the stunning verses below: