Noble Tārā and the 16th Karmapa: Tārā Day and Commemoration of 16th Karmapa’s parinirvana

“Like a bee’s heart at the peak of a smiling garland of lotuses,
May permanent and impermanent beings,
Be completely satisfied, and power and joy increase!”
—16th Karmapa, Rigpe Dorje

Today, for Noble Tārā day, and the commemoration of the 16th Karmapa’s parinirvana (the 8th day of the 9th Tibetan month, which some celebrate on November 5th annually according to the western calendar), here is an article and translation about Noble Tārā and the 16th Karmapa excerpted from Lady with the Flower: Noble Tārā and the Gyalwang Karmapas. (November 2021). It is an overview of the 16th Karmapa’s connection to Tārā and my first translation of Tārā Supplication by 16th Karmapa.   For a list of all the original research and translations I have done so far on the 16th Karmapa. Please also see the dedicated web section.

16^th Karmapa and Noble Tārā

Noble Tārā was said to be one of the main practices of the 16^th Karmapa,  Yet, surprisingly, there is only this brief supplication to Tārā in his currently published Collected Works. Documentation from this historic photograph shows shows that the year is 1976, and the 16th Karmapa is seated on a throne in Boulder Dharmadhatu, holding the Tārā.

The Tārā statue seen in photo of 16th Karmapa, was brought on his 1976 visit, to present to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. There is a colour image of the same Tārā statue below. For more information about the statue, you can look it up in: 1987.1.247 https://shambhalaarchives.zenfolio.com.

In terms of Noble Tārā from Acaccia Forest (Green Tārā), this was said to be one of few main practices of 1^st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa and, I have been told, re-appeared in 1975 in Rumtek as gift given by the 16th Karmapa to English-Canadian Namgyal Rinpoche, whom the 16th  Karmapa recognized as long awaited reincarnation of great Mipham Rinpoche.  In an interview, said to have been conducted at Rumtek, the 16th Karmapa is alleged to have said that one particular day he was doing very intensive prayers to Tārā to help in very difficult ( danger of war ?) situation between Russia, China and Vietnam. War did not erupt but peace was established. 

This very short supplication to Tārā was written by the 16^th Karmapa in what he called ‘degenerate times for the Buddha’s teachings’ when compiling and printing the renowned Four Mandala Offering to Jetsun Tārā by Katog Tsewang Norbu.  Such words are called ‘parjang montshig’ in Tibetan, which can be translated as words composed to bless the printing of a text. It is the only Tārā text in the 16th Karmapa’s currently available Collected Works, which I translated the outline for here. I have published the translation (with Tibetan and phonetics) in full below. It is also available as a free pdf.

16th Karmapa, Fred Bedi, Tilogpur nunnery and the empowerment of female practitioners and translators

In addition, the 16th Karmapa was well-ahead of his time (and culture) when it came to supporting female practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism. For example, he gave monastic ordination to some of the first non-Himalayan Buddhist nuns, Gelongma Palmo (Freda Bedi), Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and Lama Tsultrim Allione (see details below).

Palmo/Bedi went on to found the first and oldest Karma Kagyu nunnery in India, Tilogpur Nunnery, which also houses some of the first ever Tibetan fully ordained nuns in Tibetan exile. For my article about Tilogpur nunnery and the fully ordained nuns there, see here. For my research and translations on Palmo/Bedi, who was also the first female translator of a lineage head, see here. 

For Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo talking about a dream she had about the 16th Karmapa, see here. She also talks in another video here about how the 16th Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche provided direction for finding the reincarnation of her own guru, Khamtrul Rinpoche.

It states in Allione’s online biography that:

“Arriving in Nepal at the end of 1969 she met His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, a great master and committed monk. The Karmapa spotted Lama Tsultrim in a large crowd at Swayambhu and made prophecies that she would benefit beings through the Dharma. Unaware of this, but feeling spontaneous devotion to His Holiness, she recalled a line from the sadhana, “The only offering I can make is to follow your example,” and decided to become a monastic.

On the full moon of January 1970, at the age of 22, in Bodhgaya, India, she was ordained as Karma Tsultrim Chödron by the 16th Karmapa, Rigpai Dorje… She was the first American to be ordained by H.H. Karmapa.”

The current 17th Karmapa has very much followed in the 16th Karmapa’s footsteps with a vast amount of unprecedented activities and initiatives he launched to help nuns and female practitioners, as well as writing and speaking about the importance of female empowerment and gender equality. For my article about that, see here.

Art-works and statues of  Tārā preserved at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, India

There are several previous objects relating to Tārā preserved and stored at the Karmapa’s Indian seat, Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim. These are photos of two of them. In particular, the Tārā   – Siddhis Blaze and Flourish (Drolma Ngodrup Pel Barma) in the gau box is said to have been owned by various Karmapas and made predictions to them.

Images from Douglas and White (1976).

The 16th Karmapa left a handwritten prediction letter of his future rebirth to 12th Tai Situpa before he passed away, and the famed 19th Century treasure-revealer, Chogyur Lingpa revealed Guru Padmasambhava’s prophecy on the 15th to 21st Karmapas,  which stated the 17th Karmapa would be ‘one mind with Tai Situpa’, Despite that, the officially recognised 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (followed by the vast majority of Karma Kagyu teachers, monasteries, nunneries and laypeople) has still not been allowed to visit and teach at Rumtek Monastery (the seat of the Karmapa) in Sikkim, India due to an ongoing court case originally launched by the 14th Zhamarpa for control of Rumtek Monastery and his own candidate. Thus, I dedicate this article, that Ogyen Trinley Dorje may soon be allowed to visit and teach at Rumtek Monastery and in India, Nepal and Bhutan!

Music?The Continuous Rain of Nectar that Nurtures the Sprouting of the Four Kayas – A Guru Yoga of the Sixteenth Lord, Rigpey Dorje and  Tarā Prayer chanted by 17th Karmapa,  I am Woman by Emmy Melli and By Your Side by Sade (lady with the precious flower in the video): ‘Oh when you’re cold, I’ll be there, hold you tight to me, Oh when you’re low, I’ll be there by your side.’

Compiled and written by Adele Tomlin, 22nd October 2023.

TRANSLATION

16th Karmapa’s Aspiration words of  supplication and offering to Jetsun Drolma for the publication of the renowned ritual: The Four Mandala Offering to Tārā: The Wish-Fulfilling Tree that Satisfies All Wishes, compiled by Khatog Rigzin Tsewang Norbu[3]

ཀ༔་ཏོག་རིག་འཛིན་ཚེ་དབང་ནོར་བུས་ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་གསོལ་གདབ་མཆོད་པ་མནྡལ་བཞི་པར་གྲགས་པའི་ཆོ་ག་འདོད་དོན་ཡིད་བཞིན་འགྲུབ་པའི་ལྗོན་ཤིང་གི་སྤར་བྱང་སྨོན་ཚིག

ཨོཾ་སཱ་སྟི།
OM SWASTI

བརྟན་གཡོའི་བཅུད་ཀུན་བརྟས་པའི་གོ་ས་ན༎
ten yö chü kün té pé go sa na
State of the whole essence of animate and inanimate,

 རྡོ་རྗེའི་ལང་ཚོ་རྫོགས་པའི་ མཚར་སྡུག་འཆང༎
dor jé lang tso dzok pé tsar duk chang
Holder of amazing beauty, the perfect, youthful vajra,

སྲིད་ཞིའི་བདེ་ལེགས་སྦྱིན་མཛད་རྗེ་བཙུན་མས༎
si zhi dé lek jin dzé jé tsün mé
Jetsunma who creates auspicious blessings in peace and existence,

འཆི་མེད་ཚེ་ཡི་འཁྲིད་ཤིང་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག།
chi mé tsé yi tri shing ten gyur chik
May your vine[3] of immortality remain stable!

གང་དེའི་ཆོག་གཞུང་ལུགས་རྣམས་ཀུན་གྱི་བཅུད༎
gang dé chok zhungluk nam kün gyi chü
Essence of all the textual traditions whatever they are,

ཕྱུངས་ཏེ་ཀ༔་ཐོག་རིག་འཛིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཡིས༎
chung té ka tok rigdzin chenpo yi
Originated from the great Khatog Rigdzin

དཀྱུས་སུ་བསྡེབས་པའི་ངོ་མཚར་བྱེ་བའི་དཔྱིད༎
kyü su debpé ngo tsar jewé chi
Spring of billions of amazing direct instructions;

འོག་མིན་རུམ་དགོན་ཀརྨྤའི་ཆོས་སྒར་ཆེར༎
ogmin rum gön karmpé chö gar cher
In the great Dharma place of Karmapa, Akanishta Rumtek Monastery;

ལེགས་བྱས་ཕྱི་མོའི་ཟླ་སྣང་ཤར་པའི་མོད༎
lek je chimö da nang sharpé mö
May copies of this excellent deed, dawn of the moon’s appearance,

ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་བདེ་ལེགས་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འཛུམ་ཕྲེང་རྩེར༎
chok chü delek chukyé dzum treng tser
Be auspicious in ten directions. Like a bee’s heart at the peak

རྟག་ཆགས་སྐྱེ་དགུ་བྷྲ་མ་ར༔་ཡི་སྙིང༎
tak chak kyegu bhrama ra yi nying
of a smiling, garland of lotuses, may permanent and impermanent beings,

ཡོངས་སུ་ཚིམས་ནུས་དགའ་སྟོན་འཕལ་གྱུར་ཅིག༎
yongsu tsim nü gatön pal gyur chik
Be completely satisfied and power and joy increase!

This was written during the time when the Victor’s teachings are degenerating. Having given rise to a pure mind of altruism, while printing the Supreme Noble Tārā’s Four Mandala Offering. These aspiration words arose in 16^th Karmapa while holding the crown of blue-black. By this may the Victor’s teachings flourish and become vast!”

Compiled and translated by Adele Tomlin, 29th November 2021. With thanks to Geshe Tenzin Nyima for clarifying some of the words.

ENTERING THE 16TH KARMAPA’S MANDALA: AS TOLD BY HIS TRANSLATOR, ACHI TSEPEL: The 16th Karmapa’s magnetic qualities, Hugh Richardson’s weeping, meeting foreign leaders, gifts of Bumthang valley land and diplomatic passport by the Bhutanese and severe sickness before Rumtek monastery founding ceremony. (41st Parinirvana Anniversary of 16th Karmapa)

LADY WITH THE FLOWER: NOBLE TĀRĀ AND THE GYALWANG KARMAPAS. Overview of Karmapas’ works on Tārā and first translation of Tārā Supplication by 16th Karmapa

RUNNING INTO THE VAST SPACE OF MIRACULOUS LOVE, WHERE THE IMPOSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE : Account of 16th Karmapa’s extraordinary conduct during ‘sickness’ and paranirvana (1981), and ‘Shower of Siddhis’ 16th Karmapa daily Guru Yoga (40th Paranirvana, Part 3))

THE ‘FOUR FLOWING DESCENTS’ SOURCE OF KAGYU: MARPA’S SONG ON THE FOUR TRANSMISSIONS. 16th Karmapa’s 40th Paranirvana (Part II).

First English transcript/translation of 16th Gyalwang Karmapa 1976 Vermont TV Interview: 16th Karmapa’s 40th Paranirvana (Part I).

FIRST EDITION CATALOGUE OF 16TH GYALWANG KARMAPA’S COLLECTED WORKS, TEACHINGS, INTERVIEWS, SONGS, VIDEOS (in Tibetan, English and other languages)

‘TOWARDS SUPREME ILLUMINATION’: Guru Yoga Texts by 16th Karmapa and translations by the Karmapas’ first female translator, Freda Bedi

NEW TRANSLATION: THIRD VOLUME OF 16TH KARMAPA’S COLLECTED WORKS. Aspirations, Guru Yogas, Life-Stories, Songs, Supplications, Teachings and Letters.

‘Shower of Siddhis of the Profound Path of Guru Yoga’ by 16th Karmapa

16th Karmapa’s Transmission Record (Volume II of his Collected Works) and Kālacakra lineages

Tibetan script of Guru Padmasambhava’s prophecy on 15th to 21st Karmapas, as revealed by Chogyur Lingpa

Endnotes

[1] Sadly, the 17th Karmapa is still not allowed to visit Sikkim or Rumtek Monastery and teach and stay there. This is due to a court case that was launched against the Karmapa’s heart sons, 12th Gyeltsab Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche (after the tragic ‘accident’) of the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul, by the 14th Zhamarpa and his predominantly European followers.

[2] Katok Tsewang Norbu’ (ka’ thog tshe dbang nor bu, 1698–1755) was a teacher of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism who notably championed the shentong ( gzhan stong) or “empty of other” view first popularised by the Jonang school by masters such as Dolpopa. Despite the shentong view being banned as heretical, he successfully taught and cultivated its teachings as a legitimate view among the Nyingmapa. He also wrote some non-religious works on history and geography and travelled widely, making several journeys to Nepal. His seat was the Katok Monastery of Tibet.  He was also very close to the 12^th Karmapa (1703-1732), and important Karma Kagyu lamas, who are said to have introduced him to the Jonang teachings.