When a high Tibetan Buddhist lama dies, he leaves clues as to where to be born again so that he can be found and brought back to his old duties. When the sixteenth Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, died in 1981, the search for his successor soon began. This story deals with the politics and intrigues that were involved in the search - which should prove to be extremely difficult. It is told here by a western observer.

Tomek Lehnert (born August 15, 1956 in Gdansk, Danzig, † 2020 in Spain). He studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Gdansk and English literature at the University of Poznan (Poznan). At the beginning of the eighties he was active in the student movement solidarity. In January 1983, he met Lama Ole Nydahl, took Buddhist refuge and became a practicing Buddhist. In 1985 he left Poland and for the next three years headed the Karma Kagyü Center in Copenhagen with others. From 1987 he made extensive trips with Lama Ole Nydahl to Nepal, India, Bhutan, Burma and Tibet, where he received initiations and teachings from high Kagyü and Nyingma lamas. For more than ten years he translated for Lama Ole Nydahl in Buddhist lectures into the Polish and the Spanish language. He wrote articles for the German magazine Kagyü Life (Buddhism Today) and the Polish Diamentowa Droga. Together with Hannah Nydahl and Caty Hartung, he organized Lama Ole Nydahl's Dharma activity for almost 30 years. He has helped build Karma Kagyü centers in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, Russia, and Western and Eastern Europe. At Lama Ole's request, he began teaching in 2003. Until 2020, he was still traveling the world with Lama Ole Nydahl.

Language:    German