About the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa’s visit in Vienna in 1977
In the Künstlerhaus Vienna
In Vienna, the local practitioners had found a particularly beautiful place for the event with His Holiness. Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick, one of the main organizers of the Austrian visit, remembers:
With the help of artist friends, I was able to rent the Künstlerhaus (art exhibition center), which just then was showing a Borobudur exhibition with large Buddha statues. A woman with Buddhist connections worked at a newspaper and so we arranged to publish a great announcement of the Black Crown Ceremony. We printed color posters and put them up all around the city. Thus hundreds came. Since the exhibition showed precious artworks, for safety reasons not everyone could enter at once. Accordingly, Karmapa performed two crown ceremonies in a row.[1]
A number of other transmissions were given at the Thubden Rime Chöling center, founded the previous autumn by Kalu Rinpoche.
Tummo in the Imperial Loge
Diana Mukpo was at that time completing an apprenticeship in the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna’s imperial castle, and she invited Karmapa to a performance in the large hall, built in (noble) Rococo-style. It must have been an incredible sight, as the Dharma King and “Lady Diana” Mukpo sat side by side in the “Kaiserloge” (Imperial Loge) under a portrait of an Austrian emperor. While watching the equestrian demonstration, Karmapa commented sorrowfully about her mink stole, “So many animals had to die for that!” He followed the performances for a while until it was time for his evening meditation, which included some chants. Mukpo still today vividly remembers:
It was cold in the box, so Karmapa decided to do a meditation practice called Tummo,[2] which among the more spiritual effects, generates warmth in the body. At one point, he held my hand for a moment and his body really was hot. I was paralyzed with embarrassment as he started his evening practice right here during the performance. Everyone in the arena could hear him chanting.[3]
As wonderful as it was to be with Karmapa, to the same degree it sometimes put one’s beloved beliefs to the test.
From the book Radiant Compassion, Vol. 2, p. 86.


[1]       Interview with Dr. Andrea Loseries-Leick, 2012.

[2]       One of the Six Yogas of Naropa* that produces heat in the body, enabling yogis in the Himalayas to practice in caves in extreme cold.

[3]       Mukpo: Dragon Thunder. My Life with Chögyam Trungpa, Shambhala 2006.

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