The Prophecy of the XVI Karmapa

In January 1981 the XVI Karmapa gave his heart son, the XII Tai Situpa, a sealed protection amulet covered by brocade and said,

”This is your protection amulet. In the future it will provide you great benefits.“

Only many years later Situ Rinpoche discovered the letter predicting the reincarnation of His Holiness inside the amulet.

On March 19, 1992 the four lineage holders of the Karmapa, Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and Gyaltsen Rinpoche met to examine the letter. Afterwards the letter was translated as follows:

Emaho. Awareness of oneself is blessedness. The Dharmadhatu [1] has neither a center nor limits. From here to the in the east of snow land, there is a place where divine thunder sounds spontaneously,[2] is a nice settlement of nomads located with the sign of the cow [3], the method of Dondrub and the wisdom Lolago [4]. Born in the year of the one who is used for the earth [5], with a wonderful, far-reaching sound of the white [6], this is the one who is known as Karmapa. Encouraged by Lord Donyo Drupa and non-sectarian, he permeates all cardinal points. Neither near one nor far from the other, he is the protector of all beings: The sun of the Buddha Dharma acting for the benefit of everybody, blazes uninterruptedly.”

The interpretation of the letter yielded:

• ”Hier“ means Rumtek, the seat in exile of the Karmapas
• The ”snow land“ is the usual name for Tibet among Tibetans; it means eastern Tibet
• The place of birth is LHATHOK: in Tibetan LHA means divine, and THOK thunder, that means the place where divine thunder rings out.
• The settlement of nomads is BAKOR: in Tibetan BA means cow.
• The expression ”method“ signifies the male element in dharma terminology, thus in this context the father, ”wisdom“ the female element, thus the mother.
• ”Who is used for the earth, who works on it“ is a clue to the sign of the zodiac of the ox, in this case the year of Karmapa’s birth with the sign of the wood ox.
• ”… the wonderful, far-reaching sound of the white“ refers to the mysterious sound of the conch shell, which could be heard for an hour after the birth of the XVII Karmapa.