Yesterday and today’s full ‘strawberry’ moon (15th of the 5th Tibetan lunar month, and the Summer solstice) is being celebrated as the birthday of HE 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche (who was born 3rd July 1954). The 17th Gyalwand Karmapa released a new birthday message for Gyaltsab RInpoche in Tibetan (which I have now translated into English). As my own humble birthday offering to one of the last remaining few authentic Karma Kagyu heart-sons of the Karmapa who was born and raised in Tibet, I have created a new section on the website. Some of the highlights include:
- the recent Indonesia Dharma events in Batam Island and Borobudur, Java;
- Gampopa’s Collected Works orally transmitted twice in the space of one year;
- Long-life aspiration and Praises composed by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje in 2014 and recently 2024 (with English translation and phonetics)
- empowerment and transmission of the five tantric deities of Shangpa Kagyu, Lion-Faced Dakini and Kālacakra at Ralang and Bokar Monastery,
- the Knowing One Liberates All by 9th Karmapa transmission at Ralang Monastery,
- biographical research by the 17th Karmapa on the 8th Karmapa’s main teachers, one of whom was 2nd Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Tashi Namgyel (which I used as guidance and a reliable and useful source for my Treasury of Lives biography of him).
For the full list of original research, translations and resources, see the new website section.
Personal message from the 17th Karmapa
This photo was accompanied with a special birthday message from the 17th Karmapa in Tibetan (dated 22nd June 2024) for Gyaltsab Rinpoche. I have translated it into English:
“Life-force of the practice lineage teachings, Master of secrets, Vajra holder. Representative (Gyaltsab) of the Victors. Great, supreme Drungpa Goshri Gyaltsab on the excellent occasion of your 71st birthday, I wish you infinite auspicious greetings. Recently, you had a small obstacle on the path of the physical condition/health which seemed to make you sick and weary. Despite being given medical treatment for your health, the physical fatigue and weariness struck you again. For the sake of the general and glorious teachings with profound power you recovered your life-energy. Like a cloud-free moon, gradually revealing its brilliant-bright ‘face’.
At this time, here and now, like a sage who has accomplished immortality, may the interdependent, excellent signs of long-life arise. Like the masses of deities of long-life, three roots and guru, and the auspiciousness of saying the accomplishment of true words, may all the protectors on the side of virtue who protect the Vajra Dharma, like a spy watch over and protect you without neglect!”
Original Tibetan: སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་བསྟན་པའི་སྲོག་ཤིང་། གསང་བདག་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ། རྒྱལ་བའི་དོན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་ཚབ། དྲུང་པ་གོ་ཤྲི་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་དགུང་གྲངས་དོན་གཅིག་བཞེས་པའི་སྐུའི་འཁྲུངས་སྐར་གྱི་དུས་བཟང་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་གྲངས་མེད་ཞུ་བ་དང་ཆབས་ཅིག །རྗེ་ཉིད་བར་ལམ་སྐུ་ཁམས་ཅུང་ཟད་བསྙེལ་བའི་ཚུལ་བསྟན་ནས་སྨན་བཅོས་འཕྲོད་བཞེས་གནང་རྒྱུའི་ཚུན་གང་ཅིར་འོ་བརྒྱལ་ཅི་ཆེ་བྱུང་ཡང་། བསྟན་འགྲོའི་སྤྱི་དཔལ་དུ་འཚོ་གཞེས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ་ཟབ་མོ་གཏད་པའི་མཐུ་ལས་ད་ཆ་ཟླ་བ་སྤྲིན་བྲལ་ལྟར་རིམ་དྭངས་ངོས། འཆི་མེད་གྲུབ་པའི་དྲང་སྲོང་ལྟར་སྐུ་ཚེ་རིང་པོར་བཞུགས་པའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་གྱི་མཚན་མ་བཟང་པོ་ཤར་བའི་དུས་འདིར་བླ་མ་དང་རྩ་གསུམ་ཚེ་ཡི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་དེ་ལྟར་འགྲུབ་པའི་བདེན་ཚིག་གི་ཤིས་པ་བརྗོད་ཅིང་། རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཆོས་སྲུང་དང་དཀར་ཕྱོགས་སྐྱོང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་མེལ་ཚེ་དང་། བསྲུང་སྐྱོབ་མ་གཡེལ་བ་མཛོད་ཅིག །
This message was accompanied with the 17th Karmapa’s Long-Life Aspiration ‘Swift Accomplishment of True Words’ for Gyaltsab Rinpoche, published earlier this year, which I translated into English with phonetics, here.
Undying and uncorrupted devotion to the Gyalwang Karmapa
In terms of legacy of the Goshri Gyaltsab lineage, it is not only a Dharma/spiritual one but one which involved defending the Gyalwang Karmapa from worldly politics and corrupt influences and preserving the Karma Kagyu lineage during such times. It could be said that of all the main Karma Kagyu ‘red-hat’ heart-sons, Goshri Gyaltsab was the one with the most sincere and unbridled devotion to the Karmapa.
As the 17th Karmapa explained recently, there can be no doubt that without the Goshri Gyaltsab lineage, the Karma Kagyu lineage would probably not even exist as we know it today.
For example, from the biographical accounts, it is clear that 2nd Goshri Gyaltsab, Tashi Namgyel was mainly responsible for peacefully resolving a conflict over the recognition of the 8th Karmapa that threatened to destroy the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje and his activities (who ended up being one of the most prolific in terms of textual legacy and activities of the Karmapa incarnations).
However, it is also suggested that the 2nd Gyeltsab Rinpoche was eventually poisoned and died an unnatural and early death.
Later, in the 17th Century, the 6th Goshri Gyaltsab was crucial in helping the visionary artist, 10th Gyalwang Karmapa, Choying Dorje when he had to flee from Tsurphu Monastery and go into exile, like a beggar in a cave, during the Mongolian military invasion of Tibet. That military invasion (backed by the Gelugpas) not only murdered many Karma Kagyu, Drugpa Kagyu and Jonang monastics and followers, but (as the 17th Karmapa himself recently explained) wiped out all the Karma Kagyu shedras and monasteries in Central Tibet, as well as executed the Tibetan King of Tsang while he was in prison.
As the 17th Karmapa also explained, the 6th Goshri Gyaltsab was the main Karma Kagyu heart-son at that time (together with the Pawo lineage and the 10th Karmapa’s loyal attendant, Kuntu Zangpo) who preserved and maintained the Karma Kagyu teachings from total destruction and oblivion.
Then, more recently this century, the 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche was the key figure in ensuring that the maintenance and preservation of Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim and the court cases, and even Indian military intervention launched by the 14th Zhamarpa to enthrone his rival and unofficial candidate and take total control of Rumtek with his assistant, Tobga. For more on that see here.
Thus, it is with palms together I mentally bow down and offer this birthday gift at the feet of both the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and the ‘red-hat’ 12th Goshri Gyaltsab, a Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu lineage-holder, without whom the Karmapa incarnations may have been completely obliterated by worldly beings who wanted them silenced and disempowered.
Like this photo of Summer Solstice full ‘strawberry moon’ taken above a lighthouse, may the life, health and activities of the 12th Goshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche shine on as a guiding light in the dangerous ocean of samsara as long as possible, as may that of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (whom the 12th Goshri Gyeltsab is inseparable from).
Music? Rendition of the Praises to 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche by the 17th Karmapa (2014) here.
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 22nd June 2024.