Will of the Living Buddha

　　On June 27, 1992, I went to cover the religious event of the confirmation of the reincarnated soul boy of the 16th Living Budhha Karmapa at the Curpu Monastery. When I arrived at the monastery in the morning, people who had learnt about the news were there already.

　　Luozhui, 60, director of the Democratic Management Committee of the Curpu Monastery, was very kind and answered all of my questions. "I've heard that the will of the late Living Buddha has already been in your hand," I asked. Luozhui nodded and took a photocopied letter from his robe to show me and other reporters.

　　According to the rules of the Karma Kagyu Sect, the reincarnated soul boy of each Living Buddha should be in accordance with the will of the late Living Buddha, which is different from the complicated and mysterious Gelug Sect featuring redundant rules.

　　The 16th Living Buhdda went to India in 1959 and in the 1970s, Indira Gandhi, then prime minister of India, granted the Kagyu Sect a piece of land. At a ceremony to commemorate the event, the 16th Karmapa Rigpe Dorje was said to catch a cold and had been sick since then.

　　Karmapa Rigpe Dorje was born in 1925. As a knowledgeable monk, he enjoyed great popularity among the Kagyu Sect. The Kagyu Sect built a dozen of sub-monasteries in foreign countries and there were about 100,000 foreign believers. An American businessman handling watch business, also a believer of the Kagyu Sect, transferred sick Karmapa Rigpe Dorje to the U.S. for treatment. The 16th Karmapa Living Buhdda died in 1981 at the age of 58.

　　Maybe the Living Buhdda had second sight, Karmapa Rigpe Dorje already wrote down his will to look for the next Karmapa Living Buhdda in 1977. The American businessman who funded the treatment of the Living Buddha once asked him: "Living Buddha, I can fund you for the treatment, but as a Living Buddha, could you predict your own death?" The Living Buddha answered, "Everyone has a soul and they all will die. I will have a successor when I am 58 and we can meet if it is fate."

　　Not surprisingly, the Living Buddha died after he had an operation in the United States at the age of 58. After his will was confirmed, it was photocopied four pieces and one was sent to the Curpu Monastery by a special envoy.

　　There was English at both corners of the letter reading SIKKIM (INDIA). The will was written in Tibetan in a poetic form with a square seal at the end. According to the director of the Democratic Management Committee of the Curpu Monastery, the seal was bestowed by Xianzong of the Yuan Dynasty to the 2nd Living Buddha when he met the emperor in the capital. It is the token of past Karmapas who were in charge of the political and religious ruling and also a treasure handed down from generation to generation among the Karma Kagyu Sect.