When a 'Chosen' Tibetan Lama Says No Thanks

[Dale_M]

Oops…

Late last month, two Spanish media outlets confirmed that 24-year-old Tenzin Osel R(name removed by moderator)oche, one of the most renowned Buddhist “golden children” — toddlers determined through dreams, oracular riddles and their own “memories” to be tulkus, or reincarnations of high Tibetan Buddhist lamas — has abandoned his foretold identity. Instead of a Lama, he wants to be a filmmaker, and has reverted to his original Spanish name, Osel Hita Torres.

The abdication of the anointed tulku is a significant embarrassment to the group he was supposed to head, the powerhouse Foundation for the Preservation of the Monastic Tradition (FPMT), the foremost Tibetan teaching organization in the West. It also challenges Westerners who have adopted Buddhism to find more sophisticated ways of understanding its magical side.

In 1989, with the approval of his Spanish convert parents, four-year-old Hita was tapped by FPMT monks as the reincarnation of the group’s co-founder Thubten Yeshe. Their methods will be familiar to anyone who has seen Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha or the current documentary Unmistaken Child: The monks reportedly heeded some dreams; the Dalai Lama consulted an oracle; and the capper was that young Hita “recalled” the color of the dead lama’s car.

time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1903076,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

But how embarrassing is this news really? The article seems to suggest that mistakes are part of the tulku selection process. Does anyone know?

 

[bpbasilphx]

Does it matter, since there’s no such thing as reincarnation, anyway?

 

[cyberwolf001]

Oops…

time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1903076,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

But how embarrassing is this news really? The article seems to suggest that mistakes are part of the tulku selection process. Does anyone know?

Tulku’s have been known to abandon there post from time to time as a lesson to not overly rely on them. Sort of taking a lifetime off if you will.

Sometimes Tulku’s get the job for political reasons. Right now there are two climates for the title of Karmapa the head of the Karma Kagyu school of the Kagyu Branch of Tibetan Buddhism.

His Holiness Ogyen Trinley Dorje and His Holiness Trinley Thaye Dorje are the two in question. For the most part this is handled using mutual respect as these kind of things happen.