Karmapa 900 Comes to Europe;
Kamalashila Hosts First Celebration

(Langenfeld/Eifel, Germany, July 10) His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa’s seat, Kamalashila Institute, hosted the very first Karmapa 900 ceremony to be held in Europe. His Eminence Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche presided over the July 10 event, which was held immediately following a three-day Kagyu Monlam gathering. Participants hailed from all across Europe, including many from Austria, Belgium, France, Poland and Switzerland.

A large crowd gathered at Kamalashila’s stupa on a brilliantly sunny Sunday morning. Numerous dignitaries, members of the press and local villagers joined the many disciples of the Karma Kagyu lineage to celebrate 900 years of the Karmapa lineage, the world’s oldest reincarnation lineage. With the crowd eagerly awaiting its arrival, the statue of the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, was carried forward in a dignified procession headed by Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche.

As the First Karmapa looked on from atop a specially constructed throne, His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa participated from afar, through a video message he had specially pre-recorded before leaving India to attend the Kalachakra initiation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Washington, DC. Many in the assembly were visibly moved and overjoyed as they watched His Holiness’s video message.