A Lineage Split In Two

Recognition of the seventeenth Karmapa followed the traditional method: a prediction letter, in this case attributed to the sixteenth Karmapa and located some years after his 1981 death, was to identify the next holder. Two letters and two candidates emerged from within the Karma Kagyu leadership itself. Ogyen Trinley Dorje was recognized in 1992 with the backing of the regent Tai Situ Rinpoche and, notably, received recognition from the Dalai Lama and initial acceptance from Chinese authorities, allowing him to be enthroned at Tsurphu Monastery inside Tibet before his own escape to India in 2000. Trinley Thaye Dorje was recognized separately the same year by another senior figure, Shamar Rinpoche, who disputed the authenticity of the first prediction letter, and was enthroned in India.

Each claimant has been accepted by a substantial body of Karma Kagyu monasteries, teachers and lay followers, and each has continued teaching and building institutions largely independently of the other. Attempts at reconciliation, including a widely reported 2018 meeting between the two men, have eased some public tension without resolving the underlying question of legitimate recognition. The Karma Kagyu school's own governing bodies have not produced a resolution accepted by both sides, leaving the succession an open division within the tradition rather than a dispute settled by any outside authority.