Phowa & the Iron Curtain
The 16th Karmapa dies in 1981. Shamar Rinpoche asks Ole to teach Phowa, the practice of conscious dying. He travels secretly to Tibet, carries the teachings across the communist East, and opens the first center in the Soviet Union.
Part of Lama Ole Nydahl
7 moments in this segment.
- — Carrying the Karmapa to cremation. High lamas of the Karma Kagyu, with Lama Ole Nydahl, carry the kudung of the 16th Karmapa to his cremation at Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, 1981.
- — With Shamar Rinpoche at Rumtek. Shamar Rinpoche with Hannah and Lama Ole Nydahl at Rumtek — the seat of the Karmapa in exile, and the centre of the lineage after 1959.
- — The 16th Karmapa passes away. In 1981 the 16th Karmapa passed away in Chicago, his composure in dying deeply moving the doctors who attended him. Together with high Lamas of the lineage, Lama Ole Nydahl carried the body of the 16th Karmapa to his cremation in Rumtek. (Photo: the Kudung of the 16th Karmapa before the ceremony.)
- — A secret journey to East Tibet. In 1986 Lama Ole travelled with a small group of friends on a secret journey to Tibet, documented in the film "Secret Journey To East Tibet". (Photo: Lama Ole giving blessing in Tibet.)
- — The first Phowa courses. In 1987 Shamar Rinpoche — the second-highest Lama of the Karma Kagyu after the Karmapa — asked Lama Ole to give Phowa courses, the practice of conscious dying, to Western students. He gave the first course in Graz, Austria. To date he has given this meditation to over 75,000 students. (Photo: Shamar Rinpoche and Lama Ole.)
- — The first center in the Soviet Union. In 1989, with the Kagyu Ngagdzö from Kontrul Rinpoche, Lama Ole founded the first Diamond Way Buddhist Center in what was then the Soviet Union. Diamond Way Buddhism was later officially recognised as a religion in Russia, and Lama Ole travelled the Trans-Siberian railway to Vladivostok with up to 200 students every year.
- — Lopön Tsechu in the former Soviet Union. Lama Ole brought his teachers into the freed East. (Photo from his site: Hannah and Lama Ole Nydahl with Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche in 1991 in the former Soviet Union.)
