With the Very Ven. Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche on their way
to His Eminence's second birthday party in Pullahari, 1997.

Rainbows have augured auspicious events, and appeared on many auspicious occasions, connected to His Eminence the Fourth Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche. In the prophecy of his rebirth, His Holiness the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa told Tenzin Dorjee that he had clear visions of the Third Jamgon Rinpoche appearing within rainbows, with many lights. Later, when he handed the letter describing the signs of the rebirth to Tenzin Dorjee, His Holiness told him that he had seen a rainbow above the mountain in front of Tsurphu monastery. In fact, His Eminence was born in a village south of that mountain.

After His Eminence had been formally recognised, several families in the village where he was born recalled that they had seen a very special rainbow around the time he was born. The rainbow which appeared to be coming from the source of a holy spring in the mountain before their village, seemed to end at the family’s home. Because of this, they felt that if any child in the village was indeed special, it would be the son that had been born to the family. They told this to Sonam Chopel, on one of his visits to the family’s home in Chushur.

  
H.E. the 4th Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
with His General Secretary, Tenzin Dorjee

The rainbows which appeared on the occasions of His Eminence’s return to his monasteries in India and Nepal, and when he visited the Third Jamgon Kongtrul’s social-benefit projects in Kalimpong, were seen by everyone around. On his second birthday, the first that was celebrated after he returned to his main seat at Pullahari, Nepal, very special rainbows appeared again in the skies, as His Eminence started from his residence to the place where his birthday party was being held, in the monastery’s dining hall. They were seen by all present. After that, in January 1998, on His Eminence’s first visit to the Karma Lekshey Ling monastery, in Swayambhunath, to inaugurate the occasion of the philosophical debate amongst the monks of the Kagyu tradition, a huge rainbow appeared around the sun when His Eminence arrived at the monastery. It was a bright and sunny day and many people present witnessed the sign.

Historic accounts of the lives of great masters have told of rainbows and other special signs, like the rain of flowers, and of special clouds that appeared, witnessed by people on very special occasions and at auspicious events. The Very Ven. Khenpo Tsultirm Gyamtso Rinpoche, who had escorted His Eminence on his return to Pullahari, Nepal, on November 17, 1997, told Drupon Khenpo Lodro Namgial that some of the rainbows and lights that he saw in the skies that day were very unusual. Khenpo Rinpoche said that he had read about similar signs in the Buddhist texts, but he saw them, for the first time, on that occasion. Therefore, although they may be outside of one’s ordinary experience, such auspicious signs, as recorded in the biography of great masters, actually do occur.

  
H.E. the 4th Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche with
his personal tutor, Drupon Khenpo Lodro Namgial

Ven. Drupon Khenpo Lodro Namgial, personal tutor to His Eminence the Fourth Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, had also witnessed unusual rainbows on November 17, 1997. Offering his explanation for the signs he saw, he said that, "Like the samboghakaya, rainbows are colourful and pure. They appear as the result of the interdependence of causes and conditions. That they are connected with the events about the Fourth Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche is a sign that His Eminence’s incarnation is authentic, and that his activity will be colourful and pure, like the rainbow."