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Am I Reincarnated? Tulku: Factsheet

What is a tulku?

Reincarnation is a central belief of Tibetan Buddhism, like other forms of Buddhism.

In Tibetan Buddhism, enlightened teachers choose to reincarnate themselves repeatedly in order to help others. A tulku is one of these reincarnated teachers.

The Dalai Lama is probably the most famous tulku. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th of a series of teachers stretching back to the first Dalai Lama, who was born in 1391.

Followers of Tibetan Buddhism see each Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of the previous one. He is the same person, reborn over and over again. The same process applies to other great teachers as well.

How old is the tulku system?

About 700 years old. It originated in Tibet in the 13th century.

Are all tulkus Tibetan?

For hundreds of years, they were. But as Tibetan Buddhism spread around the globe, it became inevitable that westerners would come to be identified as tulkus as well. Gesar Mukpo, the director and writer of Tulku, is the first such westerner.

His father was Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan monk who escaped that country following the Chinese invasion, and his mother is Diana Mukpo, who comes from English aristocracy. Gesar was identified as a tulku in 1976, during a visit to America by the Karmapa, a major Tibetan Buddhist monastic figure.

Since then, many other western children have been said to be tulkus. They find themselves facing the expectations of a Tibetan monastic tradition while living in the western world. Dealing with that paradox is the central issue of the film.

Which Tibetan teacher is reincarnated as Gesar?

Gesar is said to be the reincarnation of Shechen Kongtrul Rinpoche – one of the key teachers of Gesar's father.