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Chögyam Trungpa
Trungpa from Khenpo gangshar2 cropped image.jpg
Chögyam Trungpa in Tibet before 1959
Religion Shambhala Training
Personal
Nationality Tibetan
Born (1939-03-05)March 5, 1939
Nangchen Kingdom, Kham region, Tibet
Died April 4, 1987(1987-04-04) (aged 48)
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Cause of death Heart attack
Partner Konchok Peldron, Diana Judith Pybus (wife)
Children Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (by Peldron), Lhawang Tagtrug (Taggie) Mukpo, Gesar Arthur Mukpo, Ashoka Mukpo, David
Senior posting
Title Tulku
Predecessor Chökyi Nyinche
Successor Choseng Trungpa
Religious career
Reincarnation Trungpa Tulku
Students Pema Chödrön, Joni Mitchell, Allen Ginsberg, Reginald Ray, Anne Waldman, Diane di Prima, Peter Lieberson, David Nichtern, José Argüelles, Francisco Varela, Francesca Freemantle, and Joseph Goguen
Website http://www.shambhala.org/

Chögyam Trungpa (Wylie: Chos rgyam Drung pa; March 5, 1939 – April 4, 1987) was formally named the 11th Zurmang Trungpa, Chokyi Gyatso. A Tibetan Buddhist master and holder of both Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, he was recognized by both Tibetan Buddhists and other spiritual practitioners and scholars as a preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a major figure in the dissemination of Buddhism in the West, founding Vajradhatu and Naropa University and establishing the Shambhala Training method.

As the 11th of the Trungpa tülkus, he was a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the tradition of Shambhala, as an enlightened society that was later called Shambhala Buddhism.

Among his contributions are the translation of numerous Tibetan Buddhist texts, the introduction of the Vajrayana teachings to the West, and a presentation of Buddhism largely devoid of traditional trappings. Trungpa coined the term crazy wisdom.

Biography

Early years

Khenpo gangshar2
Khenpo Gangshar (left) and Chögyam Trungpa

Born in the Nangchen region of Tibet in March 1939, Chögyam Trungpa was eleventh in the line of Trungpa tülkus, important figures in the Kagyu lineage, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Among his three main teachers were Jamgon Kongtrul of Sechen, HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and Khenpo Gangshar.

The name Chögyam is a contraction of Chökyi Gyamtso (Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: Chos-kyi Rgya-mtsho), which means "Ocean of Dharma". Trungpa (Tibetan: དྲུང་པ་, Wylie: Drung-pa) means "attendant". He was deeply trained in the Kagyu tradition and received his khenpo degree at the same time as Thrangu Rinpoche; they continued to be very close in later years. Chögyam Trungpa was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools, and was an adherent of the ri-mé ("nonsectarian") ecumenical movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry.

At the time of his escape from Tibet, Trungpa was head of the Surmang group of monasteries.

Escape from Tibet

On April 23, 1959, the 20-year-old Trungpa set out on a nine-month escape from his homeland. Masked in his account in Born in Tibet to protect those left behind, the first, preparatory stage of his escape had begun a year earlier, when he fled his home monastery after its occupation by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). After spending the winter in hiding, he decided definitively to escape after learning that his monastery had been destroyed. Trungpa started with Akong Rinpoche and a small party of monastics, but as they traveled people asked to join until the party eventually numbered 300 refugees, from the elderly to mothers with babies. Even the Queen of Nangchen joined for a period. These additions greatly slowed and complicated the journey. Forced to abandon their animals, over half the journey was on foot as the refugees journeyed through an untracked mountain wilderness to avoid the PLA. Sometimes lost, sometimes traveling at night, after three months they reached the Brahmaputra River. Trungpa, the monastics and about 70 refugees managed to cross the river under heavy gunfire, then, eating their leather belts and bags to survive, they climbed 19,000 feet over the Himalayas before reaching the safety of Pema Ko. After reaching India, on January 24, 1960, the party was flown to a refugee camp.

Between 2006 and 2010, independent Canadian and French researchers using satellite imagery tracked and confirmed Trungpa's escape route. In 2012, five survivors of the escape in Nepal, Scotland and the U.S. confirmed details of the journey and supplied their personal accounts. More recent analysis has shown the journey to be directly comparable to such sagas as Shackleton's 1914/17 Antarctic expedition. In 2016 accumulated research and survivors' stories were published in a full retelling of the story, and later in the year preliminary talks began on the funding and production of a movie.

Early teachings in the West

The 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, was known for seeing the future and made plans accordingly. In 1954, shortly after giving Trungpa the monastic vows, the Karmapa turned to him and said, "In the future you will bring Dharma to the West." At the time, Trungpa wondered what he could be talking about.

In exile in India, Trungpa began his study of English. Freda Bedi then initiated a project with Trungpa and Akong Tulku called the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie, India. After seeking endorsement from the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, they were appointed its spiritual director and administrator respectively.

In 1963, with the assistance of Bedi and other sympathetic westerners, Trungpa received a Spalding Trust fellowship to spend time at Oxford and was granted "common room" access to St Antony's College, at Oxford University. Akong Rinpoche and another monk shared the common room with Trungpa.

In 1966, after the departure of the western Theravadan monk Ananda Bodhi, the Johnstone House Trust in Scotland invited Trungpa and Akong to take over Ananda Bodhi's meditation center, which in 1967 became Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West. Actor and musician David Bowie had been one of Ananda Bodhi's meditation students there.

Shortly after his move to Scotland in 1966/67, a variety of experiences including his interactions with his western students, a solitary retreat in Bhutan, and a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body, led Trungpa to disrobe and return his monastic vows in 1969, in order to work as a lay teacher. He made that decision principally to mitigate students' becoming distracted by exotic cultures and dress and to undercut their preconceptions of how a guru should behave. Students were often angered, unnerved and intimidated by him, but many remained fiercely loyal, committed, and devoted.

In January 1970, he married his student Diana Pybus, with whom he moved to North America. Akong stayed in Scotland at Samye Ling. Trungpa landed in Ontario, and made deeper connections into Nova Scotia. They soon moved to the U.S. at the invitation of several students, and traveled mostly to Vermont, California, and Colorado, where he was gaining renown for his ability to present Buddhism in a form readily understandable to Western students. He settled in Boulder, Colorado, and grew his sanghas of students. During this period, he conducted 13 Vajradhatu Seminaries, three-month residential programs at which he presented a vast body of Buddhist teachings in an atmosphere of intensive meditation practice. "The seminaries also had the important function of training his students to become teachers themselves."

Introduction of the Vajrayana

Trungpa was one of the first teachers to introduce Tibetan Buddhism and the Vajrayana to the West. As in Tibet, the schools of the Vajrayana and their practices are the domain of everyone, including the monastic sanghas, the vow-holding sanghas, and the lay sanghas. In the U.S., Trungpa introduced the Vajrayana mostly to the lay sangha.

The presentation of these teachings gave rise to some criticism. According to Trungpa's former student Stephen Butterfield, "Trungpa told us that if we ever tried to leave the Vajrayana, we would suffer unbearable, subtle, continuous anguish, and disasters would pursue us like furies". Other Vajrayana teachers also warn their students about the dangers of the path.

Butterfield said, "to be part of Trungpa's inner circle, you had to take a vow never to reveal or even discuss some of the things he did." But Butterfield also said, "This personal secrecy is common with gurus, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism", and though he noted "disquieting resemblances" to cults, acknowledged that Trungpa's organization is not a cult: "a mere cult leaves you disgusted and disillusioned, wondering how you could have been a fool. I did not feel that charlatans had hoodwinked me into giving up my powers to enhance theirs. On the contrary, mine were unveiled."

Meditation and education centers

Karme chöling purkong
The purkhang at Karmê Chöling

In 1973, Trungpa established Vajradhatu, encompassing all his North American institutions, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Trungpa also founded more than 100 meditation centers throughout the world. Originally known as Dharmadhatus, these centers, now more than 150 in number, are known as Shambhala Meditation Centers. He also founded retreat centers for intensive meditation practice, including Rocky Mountain Dharma Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, Karmê Chöling in Barnet, Vermont, and Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

In 1974, Trungpa founded the Naropa Institute, which later became Naropa University, in Boulder, Colorado. Naropa was the first accredited Buddhist university in North America. Trungpa hired Allen Ginsberg to teach poetry and William Burroughs to teach literature.

Trungpa had a number of notable students, among whom were Pema Chödrön, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Anne Waldman, Diane di Prima, Peter Lieberson, John Steinbeck IV, José Argüelles, David Nichtern, Ken Wilber, David Deida, Francisco Varela, and Joni Mitchell, who portrayed Trungpa in the song "Refuge of the Roads" on her 1976 album Hejira. Ginsberg, Waldman, and di Prima also taught at Naropa University, and in the 1980s Marianne Faithfull taught songwriting workshops. Lesser-known students Trungpa taught in England and the US include Alf Vial, Rigdzin Shikpo (né Michael Hookham), Jigme Rinzen (né P. Howard Useche), Karma Tendzin Dorje (né Mike Crowley), Ezequiel Hernandez Urdaneta (known as Keun-Tshen Goba after setting up his first meditation center in Venezuela), Miguel Otaola (aka Dorje Khandro), Francisco Salas Roche, German financier Burkhard Brauch (aka Chugai Keisho), and Francesca Fremantle. Rigdzin Shikpo promulgated Trungpa's teachings from a primarily Nyingma rather than Kagyü point of view at the Longchen Foundation.

Shambhala vision

In 1976, Trungpa began giving a series of secular teachings, some of which were gathered and presented as the Shambhala Training, inspired by his vision of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. Trungpa actually started writing about Shambhala before his 1959 escape from Tibet to India, but most of those writings were lost during the escape.

In his view not only was individual enlightenment not mythical, but the Shambhala Kingdom, an enlightened society, could in fact be actualized. The practice of Shambhala vision is to use mindfulness/awareness meditation as a way to connect with one's basic goodness and confidence. It is presented as a path that "brings dignity, confidence, and wisdom to every facet of life." Trungpa proposed to lead the Kingdom as sakyong (Tib. earth protector) with his wife as queen-consort or sakyong wangmo.

Shambhala vision is described as a nonreligious approach rooted in meditation and accessible to individuals of any, or no, religion. In Shambhala terms, it is possible, moment by moment, for individuals to establish enlightened society. His book, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, provides a concise collection of the Shambhala views. According to Trungpa, it was his intention to propagate the kingdom of Shambala that provided the necessary inspiration to leave his homeland and make the arduous journey to India and the West.

Work with arts and sciences

From the beginning of his time in the US, Trungpa encouraged his students to integrate a contemplative approach into their everyday activities. In addition to making a variety of traditional contemplative practices available to the community, he incorporated his students' already existing interests (especially anything relating to Japanese culture), evolving specialized teachings on a meditative approach to these various disciplines. These included kyūdō (Japanese archery), calligraphy, ikebana (flower arranging), Sadō (Japanese tea ceremony), dance, theater, film, poetry, photography, health care, and psychotherapy. His aim was, in his own words, to bring "art to everyday life." He founded the Nalanda Foundation in 1974 as an umbrella organization for these activities, but changed its name to Naropa Institute.

Death

Trungpa visited Nova Scotia for the first time in 1977. In 1983 he established Gampo Abbey, a Karma Kagyü monastery in Cape Breton. The following year, 1984–85, he observed a yearlong retreat at Mill Village and in 1986 he moved his home and Vajradhatu's international headquarters to Halifax.

By then he was in failing health due to paralysis from the 1969 auto accident, diabetes, high blood pressure. On September 28, 1986, he suffered cardiac arrest, after which his condition deteriorated, requiring intensive care at the hospital, then at his home and finally, in mid-March 1987, back at the hospital, where he died on April 4, 1987.

His body was packed in salt, laid in a wooden box, and conveyed to Karmê Chöling. On 26 May 1987, more than 2,000 students and friends and Tibetan Buddhist masters including Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and the 12th Tsurpu Gyeltsab, Drakpa Tenpa Yarpel Rinpoche, attended Trungpa's cremation ceremony before his kudung was interred in a stupa at Shambhala Mountain Center. Attendants at the ceremony at Karmê Chöling witnessed that the ceremony was accompanied by rainbows, circling eagles, and a cloud in the shape of an Ashe as symbolic of enlightenment. "Everyone who stayed long enough at Trungpa's cremation saw the rainbows", Butterfield said.

Continuation of the Shambhala lineage

Upon Trungpa's death, the leadership of Vajradhatu was first carried on by his American disciple, appointed regent and Dharma heir, Ösel Tendzin (Thomas Rich). The leadership of Shambhala then passed on to Trungpa's eldest son and Shambhala heir, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Acclaim

Major lineage holders of Trungpa's Tibetan Buddhist traditions and many other Buddhist teachers supported his work.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

In 1974, Trungpa invited the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, to come to the West and offer teachings. Based on this visit, the Karmapa proclaimed Trungpa one of the principal Kagyu lineage holders in the west:

The ancient and renowned lineage of the Trungpas, since the great siddha Trungmase Chökyi Gyamtso Lodrö, possessor of only holy activity, has in every generation given rise to great beings. Awakened by the vision of these predecessors in the lineage, this my present lineage holder, Chökyi Gyamtso Trungpa Rinpoche, supreme incarnate being, has magnificently carried out the vajra holders' discipline in the land of America, bringing about the liberation of students and ripening them in the dharma. This wonderful truth is clearly manifest.

Accordingly, I empower Chögyam Trungpa Vajra Holder and Possessor of the Victory Banner of the Practice Lineage of the Karma Kagyu. Let this be recognized by all people of both elevated and ordinary station.

In 1981, Trungpa and his students hosted the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in his visit to Boulder, Colorado. Of Trungpa, the Dalai Lama later wrote, "Exceptional as one of the first Tibetan lamas to become fully assimilated into Western culture, he made a powerful contribution to revealing the Tibetan approach to inner peace in the West."

Trungpa also received support from one of his own main teachers, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage. In addition to numerous sadhanas and poems dedicated to Trungpa, Khyentse Rinpoche wrote a supplication after Trungpa's death specifically naming him a mahasiddha. Among the Tibetan Rinpoches to name Trungpa a mahasiddha are the Sixteenth Karmapa, Thrangu Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and Tai Situpa Rinpoche.

The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche said, "As taught in the Buddhist scriptures, there are nine qualities of a perfect master of buddhadharma. The Eleventh Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche possessed all nine of these."

Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and another important exponent of Buddhism to western students, described Trungpa in the context of a talk about emptiness:

The way you can struggle with this is to be supported by something, something you don't know. As we are human beings, there must be that kind of feeling. You must feel it in this city or building or community. So whatever community it may be, it is necessary for it to have this kind of spiritual support.

That is why I respect Trungpa Rinpoche. He is supporting us. He trusts you completely. He knows that if he is always supporting you in a true sense you will not criticize him, whatever he does. And he doesn't mind whatever you say. That is not the point, you know. This kind of big spirit, without clinging to some special religion or form of practice, is necessary for human beings.

Gehlek Rinpoche, who lived with Trungpa when they were young monks in India and later visited and taught with him in the U.S., remarked:

He was a great Tibetan yogi, a friend, and a master. The more I deal with Western Dharma students, the more I appreciate how he presented the dharma and the activities that he taught. Whenever I meet with difficulties, I begin to understand – sometimes before solving the problem, sometimes afterward – why Trungpa Rinpoche did some unconventional things. I do consider him to be the father of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States. In my opinion, he left very early – too early. His death was a great loss. Everything he did is significant.

Diana Mukpo, his wife, stated:

First, Rinpoche always wanted feedback. He very, very much encouraged his students’ critical intelligence. One of the reasons that people were in his circle was that they were willing to be honest and direct with him. He definitely was not one of those teachers who asked for obedience and wanted their students not to think for themselves. He thrived, he lived, on the intelligence of his students. That is how he built his entire teaching situation.

From my perspective, I could always be pretty direct with him. Maybe I was not hesitant to do that because I really trusted the unconditional nature of our relationship. I felt there was really nothing to lose by being absolutely direct with him, and he appreciated that.

Chronology

1939: Born in the Nangchen Kingdom, Kham, Eastern Tibet. Enthroned as Eleventh Trungpa Tulku, Supreme Abbot of Surmang Monasteries, and Governor of Surmang District. Some put his birth in 1940.

1944–1959: Studies traditional monastic disciplines, meditation, and philosophy, as well as calligraphy, thangka painting, and monastic dance.

1947: Ordained as a getsul (novice monk).

1958: Receives degrees of Kyorpön (recitation master) and Khenpo (equivalent to MPhil or PhD). Ordained as a bhikshu (full monk).

1959–1960: Decides to escape from Tibet after hearing about the 1959 Tibetan uprising in Lhasa, during which the Fourteenth Dalai Lama escaped to India as the 1959 Tibetan uprising failed to overthrow the Chinese government.

1960–1963: By appointment of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, serves as spiritual advisor to the Young Lamas' Home School in Dalhousie, India.

1962: Fathers his first son, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, with Tibetan nun Konchok Peldron (1931–2019), who later joined Shambhala and was referred to as Lady Konchok Peldron.

1963–1967: Attends Oxford University and resides at St. Anthony's College, supported by a Spalding Fellowship. He studies comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts. Receives instructor's degree of the Sogetsu School of ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).

1966-1967: In Scotland, establishes together with Akong Rinpoche the monastery Samye Ling, in Dumfriesshire. Named after the first monastery in Tibet Samye, Samye Ling becomes the first Tibetan monastery in the West.

1968: By royal invitation, travels to Bhutan and goes on solitary retreat at Paro Taktsang. Receives terma text' while on retreat in the sacred cliffside monastery in Bhutan, where Guru Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal also practiced.

1969: Becomes a Tibetan-born British subject, 10 February. On May 5, injured in a car accident, leaving him partially paralyzed on his left side. Accident reported in Newcastle Evening Chronicle, May 6. In October, returns his monastic vows and disrobes. States that the dharma needs to be free of cultural trappings to take root.

1970: On January 3, marries upper-class 16-year-old Scottish student Diana Judith Pybus. British media storm follows.

1970: Arrives in Canada before visiting Vermont, California, and Colorado. Establishes Tail of the Tiger, a Buddhist meditation and study center in Vermont, now named Karmê Chöling. Establishes Karma Dzong, a Buddhist community in Boulder, Colorado (now known as Boulder Shambhala Center).

1971: Begins teaching at University of Colorado. Establishes Rocky Mountain Dharma Center near Fort Collins, Colorado (now known as Shambhala Mountain Center).

1972: Brings son Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo (the future Sakyong) to the U.S. from Britain. Initiates Maitri, a therapeutic program that works with different styles of mental conditions using principles of the Five Buddha Families. Conducts the Milarepa Film Workshop, a program that analyzes the aesthetics of film, on Lookout Mountain, Colorado.

1973: Established Mudra Theater Group, which stages original plays and practices theater exercises, based on Tibetan cham dance. Incorporates Vajradhatu, an international association of Buddhist meditation and study centers, later renamed as Shambhala International. Establishes Dorje Khyung Dzong, a retreat facility in southern Colorado. Conducts first annual Vajradhatu Seminary, a three-month advanced practice and study program for future Shambhala teachers.

1974: Incorporates Nalanda Foundation, a nonprofit, nonsectarian educational organization to encourage and organize programs in the fields of education, psychology, and the arts. Hosts the first North American visit of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyü lineage. Changes the name of Nalanda to the Naropa Institute, a contemplative studies and liberal arts college, now fully accredited as Naropa University. Forms the organization that will become the Dorje Kasung, a service group entrusted with the protection of Buddhist teachings and the welfare of the community.

1975: Forms the organization that will become the Shambhala Lodge, a group of students dedicated to fostering enlightened society. Establishes the Nalanda Translation Committee for the translation of Buddhist texts from Tibetan and Sanskrit. Establishes Ashoka Credit Union.

1976: Hosts the first North American visit of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, great master and scholar of the Nyingma lineage. Hosts a visit of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage. Empowers Thomas F. Rich as his dharma heir, known thereafter as Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin. Establishes the Kalapa Court in Boulder as his residence and a cultural center for the Vajradhatu community. Receives the first of several Shambhala terma texts. These comprise the literary source for the Shambhala teachings. Establishes Alaya Preschool in Boulder.

1977: Bestows the Vajrayogini abhisheka for the first time in the West for students who have completed the preliminary ngöndro practice. Establishes the celebration of Shambhala Day. Founds Shambhala Training to promote a secular approach to meditation practice and an appreciation of basic human goodness. Visits Nova Scotia for the first time.

1977-1978: Observes his first yearlong retreat in North America, at Charlemont, Massachusetts. Delivers his talk "Famous Last Words" on 24 January before departing.

1978: Conducts the first annual Magyal Pomra Encampment, an advanced training program for members of the Dorje Kasung. Conducts the first annual Kalapa Assembly, an intensive training program for advanced Shambhala teachings and practices. Conducts the first Dharma Art seminar. Forms Amara, an association of health professionals. Forms the Upaya Council, a mediation council providing a forum for resolving disputes. Establishes the Midsummer's Day festival and Children's Day.

1979: Empowers his eldest son, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo, as his successor and heir to the Shambhala lineage. Founds the Shambhala School of Dressage, an equestrian school under the direction of his wife, Diana Mukpo. Founds Vidya Elementary School in Boulder.

1980–1983: Presents a series of environmental installations and flower arranging exhibitions at art galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and Boulder.

1980: Forms Kalapa Cha to promote the practice of traditional Japanese tea ceremony. With the Nalanda Translation Committee, completes the first English translation of The Rain of Wisdom.

1981: Hosts the visit of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to Boulder. Conducts the first annual Buddhist-Christian Conference in Boulder, exploring the common ground between Buddhist and Christian contemplative traditions. Forms Ryuko Kyūdōjō to promote the practice of Kyūdō under the direction of Shibata Kanjuro Sensei, bow maker to the Emperor of Japan. Directs a film, Discovering Elegance, using footage of his environmental installation and flower arranging exhibitions.

1982: Forms Kalapa Ikebana to promote the study and practice of Japanese flower arranging.

1983: Establishes Gampo Abbey, a Karma Kagyü monastery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, for Western students wishing to enter into traditional monastic discipline. Creates a series of elocution exercises to promote precision and mindfulness of speech.

1984–1985: Observes a second yearlong retreat in North America, in Mill Village, Nova Scotia.

1986: Moves his home and the international headquarters of Vajradhatu to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1987: Dies in Halifax. His cremation ceremony was held on May 26 at Karmê Chöling. The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya at Shambhala Mountain Center, near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, houses his kudung, or his bodily remains.

1989: The child recognized as his reincarnation or tulku, Chokyi Sengay, is born in Derge, Tibet; recognized two years later by Tai Situ Rinpoche.

See also

  • Buddhism in the United States
  • Charles H. Percy
  • Ken Keyes, Jr.
  • Miksang (contemplative photography)
  • Samaya
  • Tulku (film), documentary by Trungpa's son Gesar Mukpo
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