Newsweek: "Tibet's Rising Son"

The March 2 issue of Newsweek profiles His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. On the whole it's a decent article that explains why many Tibetans hope the young Karmapa will become regent upon the death of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. However, the article also has some flaws.

It bothers me when writers refer to high lamas as "gods." That is not accurate, either by doctrine or translation. In Buddhism, the beings who most closely fit the title "gods," devas and asuras, are not gods as most Westerners understand gods. And the high lamas are neither devas nor asuras, or at least they aren't supposed to be. (See "Gods, Goddesses and Buddhist Tantra: An Overview of Deities in Buddhist Tantra.")

At one point the writer, Patrick Symmes, refers to the Karmapa as the "living manifestation of the four-armed goddess of compassion." My understanding is that Tibetans consider him to be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, as is His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in the bodhisattva's male Tibetan form, Chenrezig. Gender bending aside, explaining Avalokiteshvara as a "four-armed goddess" does not do the bodhisattva justice and will certainly be misunderstood by most western readers.

Symmes managed to write a fairly long article about the Karmapa without once ever giving his name -- Ogyen Trinley Dorje. This is particularly unfortunate, since some in the Kagyu school believe Ogyen Trinley Dorje was misidentified and that another young man, Trinley Thaye Dorje, is the real Karmapa. If you google "karmapa" most of the pages that come up first are about Trinley Thaye, not Ogyen Trinley. Trinley Thaye may have fewer followers, but he has better search engine optimization.

Photo courtesy of Karmapa's Office of Administration.