A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor. High-profile examples of tulkus include the

Dalai Lamas Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

, the

Panchen Lama The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high lamas, he ...

s, the

Samding Dorje Phagmo The Samding Dorje Phagmo () is the highest female incarnation in Tibet''The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide'', (1988) p. 268. Keith Dowman. . and the third highest-ranking person in the hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Pa ...

s, the

Karmapa The Karmapa (honorific title '' His Holiness the Gyalwa'' ��ྒྱལ་བ་, Victorious One''Karmapa'', more formally as ''Gyalwang'' ��ྒྱལ་དབང་ཀརྨ་པ་, King of Victorious Ones''Karmapa'', and informally as the ' ...

s, Khyentses, the

Zhabdrung Rinpoche Zhabdrung (also Shabdrung; ; "before the feet of ones submit") was a title used when referring to or addressing great lamas in Tibet, particularly those who held a hereditary lineage. In Bhutan the title almost always refers to Ngawang Namgyal (159 ...

s, and the Kongtruls.

Nomenclature and etymology

The word སྤྲུལ or 'sprul' (Modern Lhasa Tibetan ) was a verb in Old Tibetan literature and was used to describe the བཙན་པོ་ btsanpo ('emperor'/天子) taking a human form on earth. So the ''sprul'' idea of taking a corporeal form is a local religious idea alien to Indian Buddhism and other forms of Buddhism (e.g. Theravadin or Zen). Over time, indigenous religious ideas became assimilated by the new Buddhism; e.g. ''sprul'' became part of a compound noun, སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་'sprul.sku' ("incarnation body" or 'tülku', and 'btsan', the term for the imperial ruler of the Tibetan Empire, became a kind of mountain deity). The term ''tülku'' became associated with the translation of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

philosophical term '' nirmanakaya''. According to the philosophical system of ''

trikaya The Trikāya doctrine ( sa, त्रिकाय, lit. "three bodies"; , ) is a Mahayana Buddhist teaching on both the nature of reality and the nature of Buddhahood. The doctrine says that Buddha has three ''kāyas'' or ''bodies'', the ''Dharma ...

'' or ''three bodies of Buddha'', nirmanakaya is the Buddha's "body" in the sense of the bodymind (Sanskrit: ''

nāmarūpa Nāmarūpa ( sa, नामरूप) is used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of a living being: ''nāma'' is typically considered to refer to the mental component of the person, while ''rūpa'' refers to the physical. ''Nāmarūpa'' is ...

''). Thus, the person of

Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

, the historical Buddha, is an example of nirmanakaya. In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, ''tülku'' means the corporeal existence of enlightened Buddhist masters in general. In addition to Tibetans and related peoples, Tibetan Buddhism is a traditional religion of the Mongols and their relatives. The Mongolian word for a ''tülku'' is ''qubilγan'', though such persons may also be called by the honorific title ''qutuγtu'' (Tib: phags-pa'' and Skt: ''ārya ''or ''superior'', not to be confused with the historic figure, 'Phags-pa Lama or the script attributed to him, ( ''Phags-pa'' script), or ''hutagt'' in the standard Khalkha dialect. According to the ''Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom'' by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal: the term ''tülku'' "designates one who is 'noble' (or 'selfless' according to Buddha's usage) and used in Buddhist texts to denote a highly achieved being who has attained the first bhumi, a level of attainment which is truly egoless, or higher." The Chinese word for ''tülku'' is ''huófó'' (活佛), which literally means "living Buddha" and is sometimes used to mean ''tülku'', although the Dalai Lama has said that this is a mistranslation, as a tülku isn't necessarily a realized being.

Meaning of "tulku"

Higher

Vajrayana Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...

practitioner can be reborn as a ''tülku'', who have attained siddhis and mastered the

bardo In some schools of Buddhism, ''bardo'' ( xct, བར་དོ་ Wylie: ''bar do'') or ''antarābhava'' (Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese: 中有, romanized in Chinese as ''zhōng yǒu'' and in Japanese as ''chū'u'') is an intermediate, transitio ...

of dying, bardo of dharmata or bardo of becoming. Valentine summarizes the shift in meaning of the word ''tülku'': "This term that was originally used to describe the Buddha as a "magical emanation" of enlightenment, is best translated as "incarnation" or "steadfast incarnation" when used in the context of the tulku system to describe patriarchs that reliably return to human form." Also meaning "emanation body".

Finding a successor

Pamela Logan outlines a general approach for finding a successor:

Training

Logan describes the training a tulku undergoes from a young age: The academic atmosphere is balanced by unconditional love:

History

The tulku system of preserving Dharma lineages did not operate in India. The first tulku line of Tibet is the

s. After the first Karmapa died in 1193, a lama had recurrent visions of a particular child as his rebirth. This child (born ca. 1205) was recognized as the second Karmapa, thus beginning the Tibetan tulku tradition.

Tulku lineages

Some examples: *Dodrupchen tulkus are the main custodians of

Longchen Nyingthig Longchen Nyingthig () is a '' terma'', revealed scripture, of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, which gives a systematic explanation of Dzogchen. It was revealed by Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798). Etymology Longchen Nyingthig may be transla ...

. *Dudjom tulkus are the main custodians of Dudjom Tersar. *Chokling tulkus are the main custodians of Chokling Tersar. *Khyentse tulkus are the main custodians of

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (, 1820–1892), also known by his tertön title, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa, was a renowned teacher, scholar and tertön of 19th-century Tibet. He was a leading figure in the Rimé movement. Having seen how the Gelug instit ...

*Kongtrul tulkus are the main custodians of the

Jamgon Kongtrul Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (, 1813–1899), also known as Jamgön Kongtrül the Great, was a Tibetan Buddhist scholar, poet, artist, physician, tertön and polymath.Jackson, Roger R. The Tibetan Leonardo, 2012, https://www.lionsroar.com/the ...

. *

tulkus are the highest female incarnation lineage in Tibet. Tibetologist

Françoise Pommaret Françoise Pommaret (born 1954) is a French ethno-historian and Tibetologist. She holds the position of Director of Research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Her work focuses on Bhutan. Françoise Pommaret grew up in th ...

estimates there are presently approximately 500 tulku lineages found across

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

, Northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, and the southwest provinces of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Documentaries

* ''

My Reincarnation ''My Reincarnation'' is a 2011 documentary film directed by Jennifer Fox. It is a drama between father and son, spanning two decades and three generations. The film addresses spirituality, cultural survival, identity, heritage, family, growing int ...

'' * ''

Tulku A ''tulku'' (, also ''tülku'', ''trulku'') is a reincarnate custodian of a specific lineage of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism who is given empowerments and trained from a young age by students of his or her predecessor. High-profile examples ...

'' * ''

Unmistaken Child ''Unmistaken Child'' is a 2008 independent documentary film, which follows a Tibetan Buddhist monk's search for the reincarnation of his beloved teacher, a world-renowned lama. It was directed by Nati Baratz. Plot The documentary follows a Tibeta ...

In fiction

*''Tulku'' by

Peter Dickinson Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL (16 December 1927 – 16 December 2015) was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories. Dickinson won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association ...

, a children's novel about a young English boy who visits Tibet while fleeing the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

''Tulku'' page on Goodreads

References

External links

Reincarnate Lamas: Tulkus and Rinpoches
- section from Berzin, Alexander. 2000 ''The Traditional Meaning of a Spiritual Teacher''

- An excerpt from ''Testimonies of Tibetan Tulkus; A Research among Reincarnate Buddhist Masters in Exile'' by Danial Barlocher, Opuscula Tibetana, Rikon-Zurich, August 1982.

- excerpted from ''Testimonies of Tibetan Tulkus; A Research among Reincarnate Buddhist Masters in Exile'' by Danial Barlocher, Opuscula Tibetana, Rikon-Zurich, August 1982. (Interview translator: Cyrus Stearns).
Tulkus : Masters of Reincarnation
- focus article at WisdomBooks.com {{Authority control Tibetan Buddhist titles