China / Tibet: Trinley Thaye Dorje (1983 -), 17th Karmapa Lama (co-claimant), head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism

Trinley Thaye Dorje is the son of the 3rd Mipham Rinpoche of Junyung Monastery, one of several persons believed to be a reincarnation of Ju Mipham, an important lama of the Nyingmapa school, and Dechen Wangmo, the daughter of a noble family descended from King Gesar of Ling. At the age of six months the boy is reported to have started telling people that he was the Karmapa.

In 1988 Shamar Rinpoche went on a secret visit to Lhasa to investigate whether Thaye Dorje was the reincarnation of the Karmapa, because, he said, the boy appeared to him in a dream. In March 1994, Thaye Dorje and his family escaped from Tibet to Nepal and then to India, where Shamar Rinpoche formally recognized him as the 17th Karmapa.

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