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With the Karmapa

  
In Tsurphu with H.H. the Karmapa

On September 1, 1996, His Eminence Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche the Fourth made his first visit to Tsurphu monastery to pay homage His Holiness the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Supreme Head of the Kagyu Lineage.

The late Drupon Dechen Rinpoche told Lama Tsewang Phuntsok and Phuntsok Tashi, the monks attending His Eminence, that the weather in Tsurphu had been very bad that entire week, and that it had snowed the evening before His Eminence arrived. However, on the day of His Eminence's arrival, the weather cleared and the day became bright and very beautiful. Drupon Dechen Rinpoche said that it was a very good sign. He likened the weather clearing up to the maras being dispelled and disappearing into the skies.

At the break of dawn on September 2, 1996, the auspicious day of Lha Bab Duchen*, His Holiness the Karmapa performed the age-old traditional ceremonies of hair-cutting and bestowing the name. The Fourth Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche was granted the name Jamgon Lodro Chokyi Nyima Tenpe Dronme Chok Thamced Le Nampar Gyalwe De, by His Holiness the Karmapa.

  
In Tsurphu Monastery with H.H. the Karmapa

The following year, on April 22, 1997, at Tsurphu monastery, His Holiness the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa granted His Eminence the oral transmission of mantras, pujas and prayers, including the transmission of writing, and clothed him with monastic robes which he wore for the first time.

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Note:
* Lha Bab Duchen is an auspicious day of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s descent to earth from the Trayastrimcat Heaven, a god realm, where his mother had been reborn. To repay her kindness and to liberate her, and also to benefit the gods, the Buddha spent three months teaching in the realm of the gods.