Welcome, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche!

We are very happy to welcome one of the greatest lineage holders of our Karma Kagyu school to the EC: Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche is here on the invitation of Lama Ole Nydahl.

Migyur Drakpa Sengge was recognized by the 17th Karmapa not even being one year old at that time. He is in the fourth incarnation of the great Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, a very great scholar and meditator who lived in the 19th century and left an enormous legacy to all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, reviving and reinstalled the broken teachings of all the lineages.

The Jamgon Kongtruls are honored as lineage-holders of all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, although they are primarily identified with the Karma Kagyu lineage. The Jamgon Kongtruls have had a profound influence on many teachers and masters of the different schools.

The previous third incarnation was very close to Lama Ole and Hannah Nydahl. Unfortunately he passed away very early. All the Kongtrul Rinpoches have been very close to the Karmapas.

The fourth recognition occurred in December 1996, when Thaye Dorje gave him the name Karma Migyur Drakpa Sengge Trinley Kunkhyab Palzangpo. The child, often referred to as Jamgon Yangsi, had been born the son of one of the most senior and greatest Karma Kagyu masters we have in our lineage, Beru Khyentse Rinpoche on 17 December, 1995 in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal.

When Karmapa Thaye Dorje first visited Bodhgaya on 23 December 1996, Yangsi Rinpoche despite his young age was able to spontaneously pick up some rice and toss it into the air as a mandala offering, signifying the auspicious connection between Karmapa and Jamgon Kongtrul. In 1997, at Beru Khyentse Rinpoche’s request, the Dalai Lama performed the hair-cutting ceremony for Jamgon Yangsi in Bodhgaya. In 2000 Penor Rinpoche, then head of the Nyingma sect, again reconfirmed Jamgon Yangsi as the genuine reincarnation of the Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye.

It is such a privilege and joy to welcome Rinpoche in our Diamond Way centers and in particular of course at the Europe Center for the first time!