Karmapa

Common card · No. 332737

The Karmapa Tulku lineage of the Gyalwa Karmapa is the oldest among the major incarnating lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, established in 1110 CE by the 1st Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa. Karmapa means "the one who carries out buddha-activity", or "the embodiment of all the activities of the buddhas". A total of 17 Karmapa manifestations have incarnated after their predecessors predict their own rebirths in detailed letters. Their honorific titles include His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa (རྒྱལ་བ་, lit. 'Victorious One', and more formally as Gyalwang (རྒྱལ་དབང་ཀརྨ་པ་, lit. 'King of Victorious Ones') The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyu school (བཀའ་བརྒྱུད bka' brgyud), itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The main seat of the four Tibetan seats of the Karmapas is the Tsurphu Monastery in U-Tsang, along the Tolung valley of central Tibet. The Karmapa's seat built during the Tibetan diaspora is the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek Monastery...

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