HH 17 Karmapa – from Youth to Mastery, 1

Lats week we saw a film about one of the claimants to the position of Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje, and this film, in two parts, is something like an update to that initial offering.

This segment of the nearly 2-hour film more or less covers the same ground as the earlier one, but with much more insistence on his claim to be the rightful Karmapa, but again without ever mentioning that there is any dispute about it.

The film shows the Karmapa engaging with various lineage holders and heads of sects (who are thereby presented as upholding his claim) and his various functions around the world where he is also greeted as the rightful heir.

There is some emphasis on how the Black Hat Karmapa has traditionally been identified by the sharmapa (the Red Hat Karmapa), and how various teachers and friends of the previous Karmapa are accepting him as the new Karmapa.

The period of life covered here is more extensive than the earlier film and goes up to the time he has completed his studies, and it declared independent and ready to give his teachings to the world.