21st Feb –Vajra Vidhya Institute, Sarnath.
On 21 February 2013 the Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s main teacher, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, commenced an elaborate Tsedrup (long-life puja) dedicated to the long life of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. Lasting for five consecutive days, the extensive prayers are being conducted at Vajra Vidya Institute by tulkus and monks from Thrangu Rinpoche’s monasteries, including many who have travelled especially from Nepal.
With the chanting lasting from morning until night, the puja will culminate in a grand long-life Tenshug offering to the Gyalwang Karmapa on the auspicious day of 25 February, which is known as Chotrul Duchen or the Day of Miracles. The 14 days leading up to Chotrul Duchen are considered to be a very auspicious time in the Tibetan calendar, with positive deeds performed at this time being especially potent. In this context, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s offering serves as a particularly powerful cause for the long life of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, as well as for the flourishing of his enlightened activities and those of the entire lineage.
The Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, one of the senior most Rinpoches and foremost elders of the present Kagyu lineage, is the Abbot of Vajra Vidya Institute and has also been the Gyalwang Karmapa’s personal tutor appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama since the Gyalwang Karmapa’s arrival in India. As a mark of the importance of his role in the Kagyu lineage, in 2010 at the 28th Kagyu Monlam Chenmo in Bodhgaya the Gyalwang Karmapa performed a special long-life ceremony for Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and two other senior Kagyu masters, in the presence of the entire sangha under the Bodhi Tree.
