Source: The New York Times
On February 18, 2000, The New York Times published an article on the hopeful arrival of the 14-year-old monk Ugyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, to the Woodstock, NY monastery Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Center. The Karmapa is the leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Dorje was officially recognized as the 17th Karmapa in 1992 by not only a majority of the school, but also the Dalai Lama. The 16th Karmapa, in a visit to the Woodstock monastery in 1981, declared it to be his home away from Tibet. The 17th Karmapa recently fled Tibet into India because the Chinese authorities were preventing him from studying with lamas outside of Tibet. Though the main seat of the Karam Kagyu Buddhists is at Rumtek, in Sikkim, which is a Buddhist kingdom annexed by India in 1975, the Woodstock monastery is prepared to offer the 17th Karmapa an alternative home. If he comes to live in the monastery, he will become the first major Asian religious figure to be based largely in the United States. Dorje has hinted that he will be coming to the United States and members of the monastery are preparing for his arrival within the year. The Woodstock center plans to break ground next year on a $5 million monastic compound around the existing central temple, which will make it one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist centers outside of Asia.