Within the serene Himalayan foothills, a teenage Buddhist lama performs historical blessings, tapping bowed heads with a ritual vase and peacock feather and sprinkling holy water for cover and knowledge.
But, simply six months prior and hundreds of miles away, this identical younger man was immersed in all-night gaming classes of Madden NFL on his Xbox, fuelled by pizza rolls and Weight loss program Coke close to Minneapolis.
The 2 separate worlds are each residence to Jalue Dorje, a 19-year-old who embodies a novel mix of recent American youth and historical religious management. Acknowledged from an early age by the Dalai Lama and different Tibetan Buddhist figures as a reincarnated lama, Dorje grew up with a love for rap music, video video games, and American soccer.
Having graduated highschool in 2025, he has since relocated to northern India, becoming a member of the Mindrolling Monastery, some 7,200 miles from his household residence in Columbia Heights. He lately traveled to Nepal to reunite together with his mother and father, who flew from Minneapolis, and took part in sacred rituals led by the abbot of Shechen Monastery.
Whereas maroon and golden monastic robes have changed his hoodies and sweatpants, Dorje nonetheless effortlessly quotes each rapper Drake and the Eighth-century Indian monastic Shantideva. A refined nod to his American roots may be discovered beneath his robes: white Crocs adorned with The Simpsons Jibbitz charms, usually worn at Shechen Monastery, near the traditional Boudhanath stupa, one among Tibetan Buddhism’s most revered websites.
Every morning, he would awake at daybreak. After prayers, he walked from his resort by means of crowded Kathmandu streets lined with fruits, incense and spices, dodging mopeds close to the hovering white dome and spire of Boudhanath with its colourful Tibetan prayer flags and the painted, ever-watching eyes of the Buddha.
On a current day, he strode to the monastery and took off his Crocs earlier than coming into a prayer corridor reserved for monks with doctorates and lamas like himself. Incense wafted. The sound of historical devices — cymbals, bells and drums — punctuated the monastic chants.
Standing earlier than three big gold statues of the Buddha, Dorje bowed to Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, the monastery’s religious head, and offered him with a golden plate that symbolizes the complete universe, and a “khata” — a white Tibetan ceremonial scarf.
It was the primary mandala, or providing, Dorje had made since his lengthy journey to observe his predestined religious path. It was a second, he says, when he realized how far he’d come.
“That is the actual one, ? We’re right here and that is actually taking place,” he says. “I’m doing what the prophecy fulfilled.”
Reincarnation cycle dates again to 1655
For the reason that Dalai Lama acknowledged him on the age of two, Dorje had spent a lot of his life coaching to turn into a monk, memorizing sacred scriptures, practising calligraphy, studying the Buddha’s teachings.
The method of figuring out a lama relies on religious indicators and visions. Dorje was 4 months previous when he was recognized by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, a commemorated grasp of Tibetan Buddhism. He was later confirmed by a number of lamas because the eighth Terchen Taksham Rinpoche — the primary was born in 1655.
Jalue Dorje’s mother and father took him to satisfy the Dalai Lama in 2010 when Tibetan Buddhism’s religious chief visited Wisconsin. The Dalai Lama lower a lock of Dorje’s hair in a ceremony. He suggested the mother and father to let their son keep within the U.S. to excellent his English after which ship him to a monastery.
“From my mother and father’ finish, educating me was a very huge one,” Dorje says. “They adopted the phrases of his holiness; he laid the muse, they usually took that gamble.”
As a baby, he usually puzzled why he couldn’t sleep in a while weekends and watch cartoons like different youngsters. Sooner or later, it could repay, his dad would inform him, “like planting a seed that at some point would sprout.”
He remembered the early mornings of recitation and memorization. He recalled individuals who posted messages on-line doubting that he was a reincarnated lama, and the way that troubled his mother and father. And the way they each labored onerous cleansing resort rooms and doing laundry at hospitals whereas elevating him.
“It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns day by day,” Dorje says. “We overcame lots.”
Fluent in each English and Tibetan, Dorje excelled in public faculty. Though he was formally enthroned as a lama in a 2019 ceremony in India, his mother and father let him keep within the U.S. till commencement.
Rising up, he stored a photograph of the Dalai Lama in his room above DVD collections of The Simpsons, South Park, and Household Man, subsequent to the manga graphic novel sequence Buddha.
On his bedside desk, he stored a journal the place he diagramed performs he’d wish to attempt as a left guard together with his faculty soccer workforce. On a wall in his front room he hung a poster together with his senior 12 months picture sporting sun shades and his soccer uniform, touching thumb tricks to index fingers in a meditation gesture.
He had a cope with his father, who would give him Pokémon playing cards in return for memorizing Buddhist scriptures. He collected lots of, generally sneaking them in his robes at ceremonies. “I keep in mind,” he says, “once I first realized my Tibetan ABCs, once I was in a position to recite all of it by reminiscence, my dad was so comfortable.”
Taylor Swift and Tibetan historical past
The times had been lengthy. Each morning he awoke to recite sacred texts. Then faculty, adopted by soccer apply. He returned residence for tutoring on Tibetan historical past and Buddhism. At night time, he practiced calligraphy or listened to rappers. When he obtained his driver’s license, he drove round listening to Taylor Swift.
What would he have been if not a religious chief? “Sports activities journalist would have been cool,” he says. He loves to put in writing. An avid fan, he roots for the Atlanta Hawks in basketball, Actual Madrid in soccer, and the Atlanta Falcons in soccer.
His favourite athlete is U.S. determine skater Alysa Liu: “She brings a lot swagger, however it doesn’t overshadow the sports activities.” In highschool, he wrote an award-winning story about Tibet for the coed newspaper.
On the soccer area, his teammates praised his positivity; he reminded them to have enjoyable and preserve losses in perspective. However within the last sport of his senior season, he shed tears, realizing it could seemingly be his final sport ever.
He usually helped with occasions representing the native Tibetan neighborhood. For his 18th birthday, greater than 1,000 folks gathered on the Tibetan American Basis of Minnesota for the final occasion earlier than becoming a member of the monastery in India.
The connection of karma
On the lengthy aircraft trip, his thoughts wandered.
“I used to be like, ‘Dang! I’m lacking the primary week of NFL!’” He packed gentle: headphones, laptop computer, a fantasy soccer journal and a e-book on Guru Rinpoche, the Indian Buddhist grasp who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet.
His mother and father flew with him to New Delhi after which drove north to Dehradun, close to the Himalayan foothills, within the equal of a faculty dropoff. They purchased him a bigger mattress. They painted his monastic room and erected a shrine the place he may pray at daybreak and nightfall.
He’s an solely little one, and his mother and father cried when saying goodbye. The farthest and longest that he’d gone from residence on his personal beforehand was a three-day tenting journey in northern Minnesota.
“All the pieces main up thus far within the historical past of all of your lifetimes — the billions and billions of lifetimes you amassed — results in your loved ones,” Dorje says. “To have such nice mother and father is a results of a fantastic previous life’s advantage. However not solely previous life advantage, however the connection of karma — and love.”
Early on, his mom, Dechen Wangmo, apprehensive about her then-toddler son throughout lengthy prayer classes.
“Would he be hungry? What if he fell asleep?” she recalled considering. She stored worrying about him as a young person: “He’s a tulku,” she says, utilizing the Tibetan time period for a reincarnated lama, “however he’s my son.”
To her aid, he thrived. Whereas his buddies attended historical past, science and literature courses in U.S. faculties, he took classes on Buddhist philosophy, and practiced his calligraphy and chanting in India.
“He’s sort of discovered his groove on the monastery,” says Kate Thomas, one among his tutors in Minneapolis.
‘My religious trainer’
Regardless of the 10-hour time distinction, he stored in touch with buddies again residence by means of texts and WhatsApp. On time without work, he constructed Legos, walked to an arcade to play the FIFA soccer online game and watched Marvel superhero movies and NBA and NFL video games on his laptop computer. He was particularly psyched concerning the halftime Tremendous Bowl present: “That was an unbelievable efficiency by Dangerous Bunny — I can’t lie!”
It was his first time experiencing a lifetime of asceticism, consuming a each day ration of rice and lentils and washing his personal garments by hand. However he adjusted, getting together with monks from throughout Asia, discussing spirituality, in style tradition and sports activities.
“Dudes are dudes!” he says.
It was the primary time that he was hanging out with different “tulkus” — reincarnated religious masters round his personal age. Amongst them was Trulshik Yangsi Rinpoche, 13. He is believed to be the reincarnation of Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche — the Tibetan Buddhist grasp who first acknowledged Dorje as a tulku at 4 months previous.
On the monastery, they bonded over their love of Tintin comics. Dorje turned his English trainer.
“I consider him as my religious trainer,” Dorje mentioned after sharing a meal with the youthful lama. “I’m profoundly grateful that I get to repay my debt to the one who discovered me and enhancing his English.”
Yangsi Rinpoche smiled, then mirrored: “He’s my finest buddy.”
Simply hours after Dorje blessed hundreds — together with his mother and father — on the final day of the 12-day rituals, the household awoke earlier than daybreak to go to the traditional Maratika or Halesi Mahadev Caves, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Mount Everest. They drove for eight hours on dust roads, crossing mountains and valleys, for a pilgrimage to caves sacred to each Hindus and Buddhists.
After exploring the caves in awe, Dorje sat cross-legged on the rocky floor subsequent to his father, Dorje Tsegyal. They prayed collectively, as that they had carried out nearly each day since his childhood.
Following a number of years of contemplation and asceticism, Dorje hopes to return to the U.S. to show in Minnesota’s Buddhist neighborhood on the Nyingmapa Taksham Buddhist Middle. His aim: turn into “a pacesetter of peace,” following the instance of the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi.
It’s an extended path that started quickly after his beginning. He feels prepared. “This,” he says, “is only the start.”
