On the last day of the Kagyu Monlam, the Gyalwang Karmapa performed a special long-life ceremony for the three senior great lamas of the Karma Kagyu lineage: Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche.
During the ceremony, the lay and ordained Sanghas gathered under the Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya and first began the ritual of offerings to the Sixteen Elders, which includes prayers for the long lives of the masters who uphold the Buddha’s teachings. Then in the middle of that puja, His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa performed a long-life ceremony combining sutra and tantra rituals that he composed specifically for this occasion.
During the first part of the ceremony, each of the three masters in turn offered a Dharma robe back to the Sangha and recited a prayer asking that any merit that would have ripened upon them as material possessions instead ripen upon them as long life. After that, His Holiness performed a long-life empowerment of Amitayus for each of the masters. At the conclusion of the ceremony, each of the major Kagyu monasteries and the three masters’ Dharma centers from abroad made long life offerings of a mandala, body, speech, and mind.
After the ceremony, a historic photograph of the the Gyalwang Karmapa, His Eminences Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and Goshri Gyaltsap Rinpoche, and the three senior masters was taken.
Thrangu Rinpoche said the next day that he felt that because the Gyalwang Karmapa combined the sutra and tantra traditions in the ceremony, it had especial blessings and power, and that he feels very grateful to the Gyalwang Karmapa for performing this ceremony for him.