The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Tulkus – what’s THAT about?
Wed, 19 Feb 2025
Most traditions of Buddhist practice have nothing that resembles the tulku tradition. In the Tibetan traditions, you can’t get away from them. What are they? And what are they good for? Karma Pakshi, one of the first tulkus. Words or phrases you might want to look up: Tulku, emanation body, transformation body Three bodies of the Buddha (kusum, trikaya) Karmapa Karma Pakshi The Second Karmapa Karma Pakshi: Tibetan Mahasiddha Jamgon Kongtrul #Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #Mahamudra #Dzogchen
Chapter 1: What is a tulku in Tibetan Buddhism?
The reality is, of course, that I don't really know who most of my listeners are. And some of you might be wondering what a tulku is in the first place. Very shortly then, a tulku is somebody who is recognized as being the emanation or rebirth, if you like, of a previous highly regarded teacher.
Usually somebody who died relatively shortly, perhaps just a small number of years before the tulku was born. One way or another, this recognition is made when the child is quite small, perhaps just a few months or perhaps a few years old.
Chapter 2: How is a tulku recognized and trained?
And the child is then marked out for special training, education and preparation for taking up their role as a figure in the religious institution to which their reincarnation lineage belongs. The word tulku basically means transformation body or it can be translated as emanation body or you might see the Sanskrit equivalent of nirmanakaya. This is the third of nirmanakaya.
The three bodies of the Buddha. I shan't digress by trying to explain that concept, three bodies of the Buddha, in this episode, but I will mention that name in the list of words you might like to look up. So this word tulku turns up in two overlapping but actually different contexts.
It's on the one hand the third of the three bodies of the Buddha, and it refers to this kind of recognised rebirth. The term seems to have started to find use in this second meaning sometime around our western 13th century. It's often said that the second Karmapa,
Chapter 3: What is the historical significance of tulkus?
Karmapakshi was the first figure to be recognised as a tulku, that is to say, the rebirth of the person later recognised as the first Karmava. Surprisingly, or I suppose being realistic it's not surprising at all, the story is more complicated than the, so to speak, official Tibetan histories have it.
These histories have projected the theory backwards onto the earlier figures and the earlier stories. If you want to plunge into fascinating details about this, Charles Manson, yes, you did hear that name correctly, Charles Manson, but of course it's a completely different person, has written a fascinating and thorough account of the life of Karmapakshi.
Its full title is The Second Karmapakshi Tibetan Mahasiddha. I've included that name in the fabled word list. To approach an understanding of what the toku role is these days, let's try to take a look at how they fit in socially, religiously and administratively. We can argue, and perhaps you know that people do, about whether Buddhism is a philosophy or religion or what.
What we can definitely say, though, whichever side of that argument we come down on, is that it is a path to liberation. It says so on the tin. I don't know quite why the term sermon tends to be used here, although I suppose it might go back to the 19th century attempt to portray Buddhism as a kind of rational, oriental version of Protestantism.
But the term is somewhat ingrained, so I'll stay with it. The Buddha's first sermon, then, was given in the Deer Park at Sarnath. Here, in his very first teachings, He spoke about the four noble truths. One, life is crap. Two, it's mostly our fault. Three, there is a way out. Namely, four, following the eightfold path. This statement is called Turning the Wheel of the Dharma.
This first and very straightforward presentation of Buddhism is commemorated in the mouldings you may see over the entrance gate to Buddhist establishments round the world. You may well have noticed it. Two deer, one on each side of a large eight-spoked wheel. The eight-spoked wheel representing the Eightfold Path, the deer, of course, reminding us of the deer park.
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Chapter 4: Do tulkus play a role in Buddhist teachings?
Now, what did Tulkus have to do with this straightforward kind of Buddhism? I think the answer is nothing, really. What did Tulkus have to do with the vast scriptures of emptiness and compassion, or with the colourful rites and yogas of Tantric Buddhism. Once again, nothing really. All of these things can function, as they did for centuries, without tulkus.
Tulkus are clearly not necessary for treading the path, whether we are talking of a Hinayana path of simplicity and renunciation, or at the other end of an elaborate Tantric path, For tantric practice, for sure, a lama or guru is utterly essential, but a lama does not have to be a tulku.
I felt it was maybe the right time to tackle this topic because we are, once again, in the middle of yet another case of serious allegations, including sexual misconduct going up to rape, against an important youngish tulku. I shan't actually mention the name because at this stage, although it does look very bad, these are still just anonymous allegations.
And if you're interested in any case, it won't take much sniffing around the net to find out who I'm talking about. For our general concern here, it doesn't really matter whether this case turns out to be as serious as it looks, or whether it turns out to just be a case of empty accusations.
Because what we do know is that there have been only too many well-proven cases of abuse in Tibetan Buddhism. where a tulku is very often at the centre of the theatre. So it's important to get a grip on what their function really is and what they may indeed be good for. Tulkus, typically, are expected to take up the reins of their predecessor.
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Chapter 5: What controversies surround the tulku tradition?
One thing this can mean is becoming the head figure of a small monastery with a dozen or a score of monks. Or we can be thinking of a major figure with literally hundreds of subsidiary monasteries under the same umbrella. As such, their role is indeed in part religious, especially in the ceremonial sense.
Usually, or maybe I should say invariably, they are expected to receive the empowerments and the transmissions that are central to their particular school. This part of their education and training can be a huge exercise, taking many, many years, and it should put the tulku into a position to maintain and pass on those transmissions and empowerments to yet another generation.
Quite often, the tulku will not be the main teacher, even of the studies departments of their monastery, let alone the retreat master. Their role often does include a large element of administration and what we might call diplomacy.
It is very important to recognize that the society of Old Tibet was highly stratified, extremely rigid, and was ruled by what I'm tempted to call an unholy alliance of church and state. There was indeed a secular government, but the power of the big Buddhist schools, the Gelug in particular, but also the Sakya, the Kaju and so on, was enormous.
Amongst the many things that I am not is a scholar of Tibetan society, but I will mention that as a first approach, medieval Europe would be a better model than anything that we have today in order to start thinking about the way things were in Tibet. As a modern person, a product of the European Enlightenment, in fact I am extremely doubtful about the wisdom of blending church and state at all.
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Chapter 6: How do tulkus fit into the structure of Tibetan society?
Separating church and state was, after all, one of the founding principles of the American Pilgrim Fathers, even though that country seems to be slipping back towards some kind of authoritarian theocracy. But that too is not a subject for today. Old Tibetan society can also be described, at least loosely, as feudal.
A high proportion of poorer Tibetans were, to all intents and purposes, tied to the land. Social mobility, well, you can forget it. Some writers have made a lot out of the option of becoming some kind of begging wanderer, like a chirpa going from one cemetery to another, living on alms and donations and free from other social responsibilities.
Perhaps that kind of option was open, but it is a very, very, very hard way of living. So monasteries were centres of political, economic and religious power. As a result of the rigid nature of society, Tulkus had their path pretty much laid out. They could fulfil their role well, or they could fulfil their role badly, but they didn't have a great deal of other choice.
Stories of how children, usually boys of course, came to be recognised as Tulkus do offer a fascinating insight into Tibetan religious society. The Dalai Lama, for example, the present one, was born in a very remote part of eastern Tibet to a middle-class family, while the family of the 17th Karmapa Argentin Lidoje was, like all the people in his small village, frankly speaking, dirt poor.
But these are exceptions. In many cases, cynics might say suspiciously many, The young tulkus are found in well-to-do families, often those who provide financial and other support to the monastery concerned. This binds their generous donations even more closely to the monastery. And there are a couple of major Nyingma lineages, each having quite a number of tulkus.
where it seems to be practically the rule that the rebirth is kept in the family. Uncles, nephews, brothers, cousins. If you're born as one of those, you may well be recognised as a tulku. Otherwise, you don't stand much chance.
It's important to mention as well that it's possible for somebody, through study, practice and personal qualities, to rise through the hierarchy without being a tulku, to a very high level.
The 19th century figure of Jamgon-Kontrol the Great had quite humble beginnings, but rose to become enormously significant as a result of his towering intellect, enormous commitment to practice and diplomatic skills. So, that's another case worth mentioning, and there are more, but this path to prominence is the exception.
So how is it working out as this whole system now has to survive and coexist with a more or less modern society? The religious system must now become at least partially compatible with the West, that is to say the society that descends from the European Enlightenment. Let's try to put ourselves in the shoes of that kid.
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