His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Thaye Dorje
His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
Karmapa was born on May 6, 1983, in central Tibet. His parents are the great Nyingma lama Mipham Rinpoche and Dechen Wangmo. As soon as he could speak, he told them he was the Karmapa.
In March 1994, Thaye Dorje was enthroned as the 17th Karmapa by His Holiness the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche, the second most senior Karma Kagyu lama.
Trinley Thaye Dorje means “Limitless Unchanging Buddha Activity.” Karmapa resides in Delhi, India. On March 25, 2017, Karmapa married Sangyumla Rinchen Yangzom (a Tibetan name meaning “Precious Prosperity Gathered”), who was born in Thimphu, Bhutan. On August 11, 2018, Karmapa and Sangyumla’s son Thugsey was born.
Maniwa Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche
Born in 1950 in Manang, Nepal, Maniwa Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche (d. September 3, 2025) was a highly respected lama of the Kagyu lineage. “Maniwa” is a title given to masters of the Chenrezi practice who have accomplished at least a billion Om Mani Peme Hung mantras.
Rinpoche was ordained in Rumtek by the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. An exceptionally gifted student, Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche mastered all aspects of traditional Buddhist study, including the sutras and tantras, rituals and music, the sciences, art, and composition.
Since completing the three-year retreat under Bokar Rinpoche, Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche supported the activity of the Kagyu lineage through his tireless commitment to practicing, giving transmissions, and guiding disciples.
Throughout his work, Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche remained a strong champion of women in Tibetan Buddhism, the first Karma Kagyu lama to support training nuns as khenpos, the highest degree of Buddhist scholarship.
With Shamar Rinpoche, Sherab Gyaltsen started a retreat center in Pharping, a major Buddhist center in central Nepal, where he served as retreat master for the traditional three-year Tibetan Buddhist retreat. He built and oversaw Hasantar nunnery west of Kathmandu and Nala monastery east of Kathmandu.
Several times a year, Rinpoche led thousands of practitioners in the practices of Nyoung-ne and Chenrezi in Swayambhu. Over 20 billion Chenrezi mantras have been accumulated over the past quarter century under his guidance.
Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche traveled worldwide, offering teachings and empowerments. Renowned as a stupa master, he was sought after to consecrate stupas—Buddhist shrines—throughout Nepal, Europe, and North America.
Rinpoche’s teaching style was deep, direct, and accessible. His teachings, peppered with practical advice, stories, and warm humor, left a lasting impression on all who were fortunate enough to hear them.
Rinpoche’s passing in September 2025 caused great sorrow among his students worldwide and in the entire Kagyu world.
Dupseng Rinpoche
The 3rd Dupseng Rinpoche was born in 1981 in Mundgod, Karnataka, in India.
From a very young age, the boy started telling his parents and family that he had many students and two monasteries, one in Tibet and the other in Nepal. There was a small Kagyu monastery in his village, and the boy always wanted to go there and stay. He entered monastery life when he was nearly four years old and studied there, exhibiting great talent and learning all the ritual arts very quickly.
Later, His Holiness Shamar Rinpoche recognized that this boy was the reincarnation of the previous Dupseng Rinpoche.
Led by Shangpa Rinpoche, the senior lamas of Jangchub Choeling Monastery (the seat of the 2nd Dupseng Rinpoche) in Pokhara, Nepal, went to South India to welcome Rinpoche. On the journey back to Nepal, Dupseng Rinpoche, together with Sabchu Rinpoche, had their official enthronement ceremony at the Rumtek Monastery.
Rinpoche studied with many great masters in Nepal, India, and France. He also studied at Delhi University, and in 2007 he completed English Language and Literature studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, graduating with a Master’s degree in Theology.
Rinpoche received many teachings, oral transmissions, and empowerments. From 2008 to 2011, Rinpoche entered the traditional Karma Kagyu three-year-and-three-month retreat under the guidance of Venerable Lama Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche in the Karma Ngedon Palbar Ling Retreat Center at Sarangkot Mountain, in Pokhara.
Rinpoche is first and foremost a vajra master guiding his students, both monastic and lay, in their practice of the Buddhadharma through all levels. For his monastic students’ intensive development, he is the retreat master responsible for the Karma Kagyu traditional three-year-three-month retreat at Karma Ngedon Palbar Ling Retreat Center, Sarangkot, Nepal. Besides his activities as retreat master, Rinpoche also takes care of Jangchub Choeling Monastery, Vikrama Shilla Buddhist Institute, Dupgyud Choling Monastery, as well as Kagyu Institute for Buddhist Studies and Tharpa Choling Nunnery in Muktinath.
For his lay students, Rinpoche has been traveling and teaching for years, holding group retreats and guiding smaller and larger groups in shorter and longer retreats. In 2018, a long-held aspiration finally bore fruit, and a retreat program for lay yogis based on the curriculum of the traditional three-year-three-month retreat was launched. It is Rinpoche’s aspiration to guide his lay students to the same accomplishments as the traditional lamas, in a program tailored to the conditions of modern life. The program is available through regular events Rinpoche holds in Thailand, Nepal, Denmark, and soon Czechia.
Sabchu Rinpoche
Photo: Tokpa Korlo
Sabchu Rinpoche was born in 1983 in Nepal. The late 14th Shamar Rinpoche formally recognized him as the 5th incarnation of Sabchu Rinpoche during the transmission of the Tersar empowerments given at Nagi Gompa by the late Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. The formal ceremony took place twice, first in Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre, and then in the monastery of Swayambhu.
Rinpoche moved to the Swayambhu monastery at an early age and began studying Tibetan language and the fundamental practices of the Karma Kamtsang lineage. He received many empowerments, reading transmissions, and instructions from great masters.
He spent one year practicing chöd in Pharping. At the age of eighteen, he began a three-year retreat in Pharping under the guidance of Maniwa Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche. There, Rinpoche received the Karma Kamtsang transmissions traditionally practiced in retreat. Afterwards, he began traveling and teaching in Europe and North America. After traveling and teaching for several years, Rinpoche completed a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Production in Canada.
Rinpoche divides his time between personal retreat and teaching in Asia and Europe. He is the abbot of Karma Raja Mahavihara Monastery on Swayambhu, Kathmandu, and regularly guides many students in the West in retreats and on- and offline Dharma events.
Lama Ole and Hannah Nydahl
Buddhism in the Western world would never have become as vast as we know it today without the selfless and devoted activity of Ole and Hannah Nydahl. Since their first meeting with His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje in 1969 and for the next almost 50 years, the Danish couple Hannah (1946–2007) and Ole (b. 1941) tirelessly taught in the name of Karmapa and established Dharma centers for him, introducing perhaps hundreds of thousands of Westerners to the timeless wisdom and practical methods of Tibetan Buddhism in their unparalleled charismatic manner. Thousands gained certainty in their inner freedom and the full development of their mind’s potential through the living example of Ole and Hannah.
Ole Nydahl was born on March 19, 1941, north of Copenhagen and grew up there. He studied Philosophy, English, and German at the University of Copenhagen, and in the U.S.A., Tübingen, and Munich.
Hannah was born on April 17, 1946, in Copenhagen. She studied French and Danish at the University of Copenhagen.
On their honeymoon in 1968, they traveled to Nepal, where they met their first lama, Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche, and via him, a year later, His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. The bond was instant, mutual, and profound, and soon they became close students of His Holiness.
They completed their Ngöndro (Preliminaries) under the guidance of Ven. Kalu Rinpoche in Sonada, Sikkim. They wished to stay with Karmapa in the East to study Buddhism and help him, but Karmapa had other plans: he sent them back to Europe to share their experience and establish centers for him.
After 40 years of tireless work, there were more than 600 Diamond Way centers of the Karma Kagyu lineage worldwide. No one has done anything comparable to spread the Dharma in the West than Ole and Hannah. They introduced the timeless wisdom and powerful methods of Tibetan Buddhism to, by conservative estimates, a few hundred thousand people.
While Hannah was mostly busy with close work with Tibetan lamas and teachers, Ole’s work focused on giving lectures and establishing centers for Karmapa.
Hannah and Ole received many teachings and transmissions from prominent lamas of their time, including H.H. the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, H.H. Sakya Trizin, Shamar Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, Tenga Rinpoche, Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche, Kongtrul Rinpoche, Beru Khyentse Rinpoche, Topga Rinpoche, Trungpa Rinpoche, Ayang Rinpoche, Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Ogyen Tulku Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche, Gyaltrul Rinpoche, and others.
Hannah Nydahl passed away on April 1, 2007, in Copenhagen. Ole Nydahl’s seat is now the European Center in Bavaria, Germany.