Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche was born in Rabshu in the province of
Kham in eastern Tibet. He was born at sunrise on Mahakala Day, the
twenty-ninth day, of the second month in the Year of the Wood Mouse,
1924. On this day, very early in the morning, Rinpoche's mother went to
fetch water from the stream, carrying the full vessel of water home.
Rinpoche was then born with no pain to his mother.
According to Tibetan tradition, all of these special circumstances
show a very auspicious birth. Rinpoche's father was a devoted Manjushri
practitioner who constantly recited the Manjushri Sutra. He would go to
sleep reciting the sutra and when he woke up, he simply continued with
his recitation. His practice was so strong that he was known to benefit
even animals when they would die. When Rinpoche was quite young, his
father taught him to read and write, as well as study and memorize
Dharma texts. Rinpoche decided at a young age to follow the path of his
older brothers, who were both monks. At the age of twelve he entered
Thrangu Monastery in eastern Tibet.
When he was eighteen years old, Rinpoche went to Tsurphu Monastery to
visit the Seat of His Holiness, the Sixteenth Karmapa and the following
year Rinpoche received his gelong vows from the Eleventh Tai Situ
Rinpoche at Palpung Monastery. After the gelong ordination, Rinpoche
returned to Thrangu Monastery, and soon after this he joined the
year-long Vairochana group retreat, special to Thrangu Monastery. By the
end of the Vairochana retreat, Rinpoche was very enthusiastic to
participate in the traditional three-year retreat, which he began
shortly thereafter. After completing the three-year retreat, Rinpoche
expressed the heartfelt wish to stay in retreat for the rest of his
life; however, the Eighth Traleg Rinpoche strongly advised him to come
out to receive transmissions from Kongtrul Rinpoche and to join Thrangu
Rinpoche and other lamas in the newly formed shedra (monastic college)
at Thrangu Monastery. Traleg Rinpoche felt that Khenpo Rinpoche had
attained insight and realization in his years of retreat and that this
education would be of great benefit to many students in the future.
In 1954, when Rinpoche was thirty years old and had completed his
advanced training, he received the title of khenpo. For the next four
years he was an attendant and tutor to Thrangu Rinpoche. They traveled
together teaching, studying, and benefiting others. By the late fifties
the threat of the Communist Chinese was creating a progressively more
dangerous situation for the Tibetan people. In 1958 Rinpoche left
Thrangu Monastery along with Thrangu Rinpoche, Zuru Tulku Rinpoche, and
the three-year-old Ninth Traleg Rinpoche. After two and a half months
they arrived at Tsurphu Monastery. His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa
Karmapa, with his profound vision, was aware of the dangers, and told
them they must leave immediately for Sikkim. In March 1959, the lamas
left Tsurphu. The group quickly reached the border between Tibet and
Bhutan then traveled to Buxador, located at the border of India and
Bhutan where a refugee camp was set up by the Indian government. During
this time, due to the heat and unhygienic conditions, disease spread
rapidly throughout the camp, and by his eighth year there, Rinpoche had
become terribly sick. In 1967, Rinpoche went to Rumtek Monastery in
Sikkim, the seat of His Holiness the Karmapa in India. Since his health
continued to decline, His Holiness sent him to teach at Tilokpur, a
nunnery in Himachael Pradesh founded by His Holiness and Sister Palmo.
Rinpoche's health improved while he was in this area; however, when he
returned to Rumtek, his condition worsened once again. His Holiness then
sent Rinpoche to Tashi Choling Monastery in Bhutan. Unfortunately his
health again grew worse, leading to a long and serious hospital stay.
Upon His Holiness's return from the United States in 1975, Rinpoche
returned to Rumtek. In this same year, Khenpo Rinpoche received the
title of choje-lama ("superior Dharma master") from His Holiness the
Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa. For so many years Rinpoche had been ill with
tuberculosis, and now he was close to dying. He asked His Holiness the
Sixteenth Karmapa if he could go into retreat for the rest of his life.
In response His Holiness instead asked Rinpoche to go to the United
States as his representative in order to establish his seat in America,
to be called Karma Triyana Dharmachakra. Rinpoche was initially unable
to obtain a visa due to his illness, but soon he acquired a special type
of visa that enabled him to enter the United States specifically for
the purpose of receiving medical treatment.
Years later, when His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa visited the
United States, Rinpoche thanked him for saving his life. His Holiness
responded by telling Rinpoche that if he had stayed in India he would
have died. By February 1976, Rinpoche was on an airplane bound for New
York City, to begin a different life as teacher of the Dharma in a
culture and environment far removed from his home in eastern Tibet. When
Rinpoche arrived in New York, he spent one month in the hospital
receiving treatment, but it took a year for him to regain his weight and
become strong and healthy again. Rinpoche gave his first teachings in
New York City at what was to become the first KTC (Karma Thegsum
Choling) center in the United States. Soon more centers were
established, and when His Holiness visited again in 1977, the search
began for a permanent site for His Holiness's seat in America. His
Holiness had told Khenpo Rinpoche that he should open the new center on
the auspicious day of Saga Dawa in 1978. Earlier in the year they had
purchased the Mead House, located on a mountaintop in Woodstock, New
York. The day Karma Triyana Dharmachakra opened was the very day (the
fifteenth day of the fifth Tibetan month in 1978, May 25, 1978) that His
Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa had commanded Rinpoche to do so. Since
this time, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche has been teaching extensively with a
warmth and directness that communicates the compassionate wisdom of the
Kagyu lineage. The Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche is the Abbot of
Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York, the North American
seat of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu lineage of
Tibetan Buddhism. Rinpoche is also the retreat master at Karme Ling in
upstate New York.