Düsum Khyenpa (1st Karmapa)
1110 CE–1193 CE · Daklha Gampo
1110–1193 CE
Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193 CE) was a chief disciple of Gampopa and the founder of the Karma Kagyu lineage; he is recognized in the tradition as the first Karmapa, the figure who began what became Tibetan Buddhism's earliest formally recognized line of reincarnate teachers (tulkus). Born in Kham in eastern Tibet, he trained under leading masters of his day and received the Kagyu Mahāmudrā transmission, and in 1189 founded Tsurphu monastery, long the seat of the Karmapas. His dates and institutional role are securely attested; some episodes of his life rest on later tradition.
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Daklha Gampo
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: studied under Gampopa, the chief disciple of Milarepa, becoming a holder of the Kagyu Mahāmudrā transmission.
About Daklha Gampo
Daklha Gampo is a monastery in the Dakpo region of south-central Tibet, founded in 1121 by Gampopa, the principal disciple of Milarepa. It was the seat from which the Dakpo Kagyu lineage spread; the future First Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa, came there to study under Gampopa.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Düsum Khyenpa (1st Karmapa)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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