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H.E. the 4th Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
with his father, Yab Gonpo

On August 6th, at around 3 p.m., the search party left from Tsurphu monastery for Karak Shang, after picking up Sonam Chopel in Lhasa. They arrived at the place below the black mountain at around 6:30 p.m., and spent the night at the home of one of the families in that area, which kindly offered to house them.

At about 6 a.m. the next morning, they separated into two groups, as before, and resumed their search. They decided that they would meet all children born in the last Pig year, note their relevant details, and take their photographs. Tenzin Dorjee and Lama Nyima covered the area around the Karak Gom Chung cave, and Sonam Chopel and Didi covered the area around Karak Yongdzin monastery. They searched for four days, walking a distance of 20 to 25 kilometers each day, and covering four large village communities in the area. Altogether, they found 117 baby boys born at various times in the previous Pig year. Some of the children had eight family members and were born nearer the end of that year. However, other than those two signs, nothing else matched the Karmapa’s prophecy. There were no mountains in front, and the black mountain was behind them. The places they had covered bore no resemblance to what the Karmapa had described. It had been a tough search in an area where the terrain was steep and mountainous, the weather was hot, and the sun was harsh. Everyone was feeling exhausted and Lama Nyima was suffering from a bad toothache.

Having ended their four-day-long search, they woke up early on August 11th. On their way back to Tsurphu, they decided to pay a second visit to the village in Chushur where, the week before, they had met the baby who seemed to hold promise. As their car approached the village, they came across four young women walking towards them and noted that, among them, was the young mother of the baby. It was still early, about 7:30 a.m. There were two tea shops on the way, and they decided to take their tea in the shop further along. Stopping there, they noticed a small photograph of the baby’s grandfather on the official permit for the tea shop that was on the wall. As it turned out, the tea shop belonged to the family. Traditionally, experiences such as these are considered auspicious. Everyone felt good.

After tea, they went to the village and spent some time there. They asked if there were any children born in the last Pig year, and it was confirmed that, apart from the baby that they had met a week ago, there were no others. Tenzin Dorjee then remembered the baby boy from the village further below who was also born in the last Pig year, and decided to meet him. The search party of four went together. They found that the child was born at the beginning of the year, and that nothing else matched the other signs the Karmapa had prophesised.