Taking Refuge
Ven Karma Jiga has been requested by Akong Tulku Rinpoche to offer refuge to anyone who wishes to formally become a Buddhist.
For further information on the refuge ceremony and an explanation of the meaning of refuge please click here.
Ven Gelong Karma Jiga
The Ven Gelong Karma Jiga is a fully ordained Buddhist monk of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from Samyé Ling monastery. He has worked under the direction of Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche, the cofounder of Samyé Ling and the founding President of the Rokpa Trust, since 1976 and with the Ven Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, the Abbot and retreat master of Samyé Ling, since 1988.
Due to the kindness of Akong Tulku and Lama Yeshe, Karma Jiga has studied with and received empowerments from the greatest of Tibetan Masters at Samyé Ling including Situ Rinpoche, Gyaltsap Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, Thrangu Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Tenga Tulku, Ringu Tulku, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso and Yongey Minjur Dorje Rinpoche and from His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa in India.
He studied statue, mask and temple decoration making under the guidance of the Tibetan Master Artist Sherabpalden Beru, Tibetan ritual music with Lamas Thubten and Lodro from Palpung Monastery in Tibet, and assisted in the building of the Samye Ling Temple and Purelands retreat centre.
Karma Jiga has completed retreats of varying lengths in the last 30 years and entered closed retreat under the guidance of Lama Yeshe. After completing his personal Yidam Practice he was brought from closed retreat by Akong Tulku and appointed caretaker of The Holy Island Project by Lama Yeshe, and eventually the future retreat centre on Arran, Samye Dechen Ling, where he remained for 6 years.
He was the first monk to be ordained for life by the Abbot Lama Yeshe Rinpoche after which he was appointed director of Moscow Samye Dzong by Lama Yeshe where he began the first Dharma Centre in Moscow with its own resident teacher.
On his return to the UK he was invited to establish a centre in Dundee and with the blessing of the lineage, Akong Tulku, and Lama Yeshe he achieved this within two years, the first centre of its kind in the Rokpa Trust, established in the shortest time of any centre. He is now the director and resident teacher in this centre and has responsibility for two other groups in Scotland, Kagyu Samye Dzong Aberdeen and Kagyu Samye Dzong Highlands, and Moscow Samye Dzong in Russia.
Karma Jiga teaches throughout the UK, Europe and Russia and accompanies Akong Tulku and Lama Yeshe on their trips abroad when asked to do so. He has been asked by Lama Yeshe to establish centres in every major city in Scotland.
