14th Karmapa
Date of birth:	1798
Place of birth:	Danang, Kham, Tibet
Birth name:	Thekchok Dorje
Date of death:	1868
Place of death:	?
School:	Vajrayana
Practice School:	Kagyu
Lineage:	Karma Kagyu
Order:	N/A
Titles/Honours:	Karmapa, Lama, Rinpoche.
Quote:	?

Thekchok Dorje (1798-1868), also Thegchog Dorje, was the fourteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu

Kagyu

The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...

 School of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

.

Thekchok Dorje was born in Danang, Kham

Kham

Kham , is a historical region covering a land area largely divided between present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan province, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China. During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China , most of the region was...

 and was recognized because Drukchen Kunzig Chokyi Nangwa received a letter from Dudul Dorje

Dudul Dorje

Dudul Dorje was the thirteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.Dudul Dorje was born in Champa Drongsar and recognized by Gyaltsab Rinpoche at the age of four. He received an education in the monastery from the age of eight by both the Kagyu and the Nyingma schools....

, the thirteenth Karmapa, detailing where his next reincarnation would be born. He was ordained at the age of nineteen as a monk.

Thekchok Dorje traveled extensively through Tibet and was very active in the Rimé movement

Rime movement

Rimé is a Tibetan word which means "no sides", "non-partisan" or "non-sectarian". In a religious context, the word ri-mé is usually used to refer to the "Eclectic Movement" between the Buddhist Nyingma, Sakya, and Kagyu traditions, along with the non-Buddhist Bön religion, wherein practitioners...

, which was an attempt to bring all the Tibetan schools together and find common grounds without attempting to equalize the different schools. He was especially interested in the exchange of knowledge between his own Kagyu

Kagyu

The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...

 school and the different Nyingma

Nyingma

The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...

 schools. Thekchok other interests were with poetry, sculpturing and dialectic

Dialectic

Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...

.

His direct successor is not counted, because he died at the age of three. The Gelugpa school, on the other hand, does count children who are too young to receive transmissions.

External links

• "THE FOURTEENTH GYALWA KARMAPA, Thegchog Dorje". http://www.kagyu.org/kagyulineage/lineage/kag36.php