“The mountain behind is a mass of jewels,
The rocky cliffs are like a soaring eagle.
The abode of Hayagriva’s deity assembly resides,
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.”
“Annually, from the seat of Tsurphu, a tradition exists of writing various forms of calligraphy for my birthday celebration. This year, as well, plans are in place to continue this tradition, and to ensure a unified theme, a request was made for a few verses to be written. In response, Ogyen Trinley, known as the Karmapa, composed this on May 11, 2026, may it be virtuous.” —Remembering Unsurpassable Tsurphu by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
Introduction
For Dakini Day, as well as a new Vajrayana wisdom-bliss offering reel, I offer my new translation of some poetic verses composed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, published yesterday on Layjang, 11th May 2026. The 17th Karmapa explains how they were written on request from Tsurphu in preparation for his annual birthday celebrations there.
As I read them, my heart was filled with sadness, longing and nostalgia too and tears came to my eyes. Although this life I have yet to visit Tsurphu (I have visited Tibetan areas like Dechen near Lijiang, and near Chengdu), even just hearing the name Tsurphu brings a sense of longing, belonging and some mystical feeling of a previous time in Tibet, when siddhas like 2nd and 3rd Karmapa, were not involved in worldly politics, and lived in humble abodes, building up a legacy of spiritual practice and learning, that was all too tragically destroyed almost completely by the Mongolian-Gelug domination and sectarianism that followed.
The verses are four stanzas each, with a repetition of the Tibetan, remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu. Here, the 17th Karmapa uses the Tibetan word ‘og min (འོག་མིན), which is associated with the following Chinese terms:1) 色究竟天 [sè jiū jìng tiān]. In Sanskrit “Akaniṣṭha”, and English: “Nothing Higher,“ highest pure land in Tibetan Buddhist cosmology.
I have written before about Tsurphu Monastery:
As well as:
Some personal observations
This is the first Praises/Remembrance of Tsurphu composed by the 17th Karmapa. When I was in Tibetan areas of China in 2024, I saw lots of photos of the 17th Karmapa, whereas there were none of the 14th Dalai Lama. May the 17th Karmapa one day return there and perform the black crown ceremony thus finally “coming home” after being so long in exile without a proper monastery/home to call his own.
Like the 10th Karmapa before him, who was forced out of Tsurphu and made to live like a beggar in fear for his life for almost twenty years by the Gelug sectarian forces, the current Karmapa has faced similar issues from the Gelug dominated politicians and culture in exile. Yet, he would be the most likely person karmically, linguistically, and spiritually to have been a bridge between China and Tibet. Sadly, the Gelugpas never saw the wisdom in that, and following the US-European lead on maintaining a stance of China bad, Tibet good with the Dalai Lama as the figurehead for their worldly politics, has left to a “stalemate” situation Tibetans still find themselves in today.
Stupa built by 3rd Karmapa at Samye Chimphu
Layjang also published this photo of a stupa of 3rd Karmapa, which is now housed at Samye Chimphu Monastery. Samye Chimpu is widely praised as the premier residence and retreat site of Guru Padmasambhava himself, over the course of his time in Tibet. Located in close proximity to Samye, it served as an ideal residence for the Mahaguru during the construction of Samye monastery. It was at Chimpu that the Padmasambhava initiated his closest students, known as the Twenty-Five Disciples, into the Kagyé mandala, and transmitted to them countless teachings and practices. In particular, he recognized the Chimpu caves as vital for safeguarding and maintaining the blessings of Samye Monastery.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu by 17th Karmapa
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།
འཛམ་གླིང་ཡངས་པའི་རྩེ་ན། །
ཁ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ཞིང་ཁམས།
མཆོད་གནས་ཇོ་ཤཀ་རྣམ་གཉིས།།
དེ་དང་ཉེ་བའི་གནས་སུ། །
On the peak of the vast world,
The pure land of snow, Tibet.
Near the place of the two
abodes of offering, Jowo and Shakyamuni.
མངའ་བདག་རལ་པ་ཅན་གྱིས།།
ཆོས་སྲིད་འཁོར་ལོས་བསྒྱུར་དུས། །
གཙུག་ལག་ཆོས་འཁོར་བཞེངས་ས། །
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
Master Ralpachen[i] [Tibetan King],
When turning the wheel of Dharma and Worldly wheel,
Erected a Dharma Chakra [wheel] temple.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
རྒྱལ་བས་ལུང་གིས་བསྔགས་པའི། །
རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཟླ་འོད་གཞོན་ནུས།།
ལུང་བསྟན་རྗེས་སུ་གནང་བའི།།
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
Praised by the Victor [Buddha]’s scriptures,
Bodhisattva, Youthful Moon-light [Gampopa],
In accordance with the prophecy
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
མི་མཆོག་དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི། །
གདན་ས་གོང་འོག་བར་གསུམ། །
ཀུན་གྱི་རྩ་བ་ལྟ་བུ། །
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
Noble being, Dusum Khyenpa [1st Karmapa]’s
Three main seats: top, middle, and bottom [2],
All of which are like the three roots.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
རྒྱབ་རི་རིན་ཆེན་སྤུངས་པ། །
རི་བྲག་ཁྱུང་ཆེན་ལྡིང་འདྲ། །
རྟ་མགྲིན་ལྷ་ཚོགས་བཞུགས་པའི། །
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
The mountain behind is a mass of jewels,
The rocky cliffs are like a soaring eagle.
The abode of Hayagriva’s deity assembly resides,
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
རྩི་ཤིང་མེ་ཏོག་རྒྱས་པའི། །
མདུན་རི་ནགས་རྒྱལ་ཕྱུག་མོ། །
རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མའི་བཞུགས་གནས། །
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
The grasslands of blooming flowers,
On the mountain in front is a mighty forest,
The abode of Noble Tārā.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
དབུས་ན་རྟེན་གྱི་གཙོ་བོ །
ཐུབ་ཆེན་འཛམ་གླིང་རྒྱན་གཅིག །
འབྲེལ་ཚད་དོན་དང་ལྡན་པ།།
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌། །
In the centre is the main support,
The Great Sage, ornament of the world,
Benefiting all who are connected.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
འཕགས་མཆོག་འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག །
རྒྱལ་དབང་རིམ་པར་བྱོན་པའི། །
ཕྲིན་ལས་འོད་སྟོང་འཕྲོ་ས། །
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
Supreme beings, powerful masters of the world,
The successive Gyalwang [Karmapa]’s
Enlightened activities brilliantly shine thousand lights.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
རྒྱ་བོད་མཁས་གྲུབ་དུ་མ།།
ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བཅགས་ཤིང་བྱོན་པའི། །
ངོ་མཚར་གྲུབ་པའི་གནས་མཆོག།
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
Many scholars and siddhas from India and Tibet,
Travelled by foot to visit,
the amazing abode of supreme accomplishment.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
མི་ལོ་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་བརྒྱད་ལྷག།
བཤད་དང་སྒྲུབ་པའི་བསྟན་པ། །
དབྱར་མཚོ་བཞིན་དུ་འཕེལ་བའི། །
འོག་མིན་མཚུར་ཕུ་དྲན་བྱུང༌།།
For over eight hundred years,
The teachings of exposition and practice,
Have expanded like a summer ocean.
Remembering unsurpassable Tsurphu.
བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་གོང་མའི་གདན་ས། །
སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་འབྱུང་གནས། །
མི་ཉམས་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ། །
དར་ཞིང་རྒྱས་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག །
The seat of the Kagyu ancestors,
Source of all the practice lineages,
May it flourish and expand
Until the end of time.
གདན་ས་མཚུར་ཕུ་ནས་ལོ་ལྟར་ཁོ་བོའི་སྐྱེས་སྐར་ལ་ཡིག་གཟུགས་སྣ་ཚོགས་བྲིས་ཏེ་བཤམ་སྲོལ་ཡོད་པ་དང་། འདི་ལོར་ཡང་དེ་ལྟར་བྱ་རྩིས་ལ་བརྗོད་བྱ་གཅིག་གྱུར་ཡོང་ཆེད། ཤོ་ལོ་ཀ་འགའ་ཤས་ཤིག་འབྲི་དགོས་པའི་བསྐུལ་མ་གནང་དོན་བཞིན།ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་སུ་འབོད་པས།སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༦ཟླ་༥ཚེས་༡༡ལ་སྦྱར་བ་དགེའོ )
Annually, from the seat of Tsurphu, a tradition exists of writing various forms of calligraphy for my birthday celebration. This year, as well, plans are in place to continue this tradition, and to ensure a unified theme, a request was made for a few verses to be written. In response, Ogyen Trinley, known as the Karmapa, composed this on May 11, 2026, may it be virtuous.
Translated and arranged by Adele Tomlin, 12th May 2026. May it be of benefit and may we all visit the unsurpassable Tsurphu monastery!
Endnotes
[i] Tritsuk Detsen (Tibetan: ཁྲི་གཙུག་ལྡེ་བཙན, Wylie: khri gtsug lde btshan), better known by his nickname Ralpachen (Tibetan: རལ་པ་ཅན, Wylie: ral pa chen; c. 802–838), was the 40th King (Tsenpo) of Tibet from c. 815 to 838.
[ii] For more on the “three main seats of 1st Karmapa”, see here: https://dakinitranslations.com/2021/02/20/sacred-geography-of-karma-kagyu-outer-and-inner-sites-of-chakrasamvara-and-birth-places-and-dates-of-the-eight-karmapas/
Here is the original Tibetan and letter issued by the 17th Karmapa on 11th May 2026:
