Trinley Thaye Dorje (born 6 May, 1983, Lhasa, Tibet) is recognized by many followers when a Seventeenth Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the quartet independent schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

His father was Mipham Rinpoche, the reincarnation of an crucial lama of the Nyingmapthe school, and Dechen Wangmo, a girl of a noble personal descended from either King Gesar of Ling. At a age of 1½ a son began telling humans that he was a Karmapa. Around March 1994, he and his personal throw off Tibet to Nepal and then to India, where when you took the welcoming ceremony Shamar Rinpoche formally recognized him as a Seventeenth Karmapa.

Nonetheless, a identity of the Seventeenth Karmapa is extremely disputed. A second claimant, Urgyen Trinley Dorje, has support from either either significant lamas from a Kagyu lineage when well as from either a Dalai Lama. Each young men keep around been two crowned when a Seventeenth Karmapa by their several supporters & perform their common ceremonial duties. As of 2005 they have non met.

Within December 2004 Thaye Dorje was declared a Vajraacharya, a great Tantric master. This puts him of these step forward to existence crowned truth Karmapa. A more claimant, Urgyen Trinley Dorje, is as of 2004 still studying.

Trinley Thaye Dorje presently sleep in Kalimpong, India.