uploaded on 8/29/2022
last updated on 9/9/2022

As did many of the Karmapa, the Sixteenth Karmapa wrote this letter indicating where he would be reborn and entrusted it to one of his heart disciples. For many centuries, Karmapas have left such instructions to ensure their disciples could recognize them in their future rebirth.
历代噶玛巴的认证据说都是根据上一世噶玛巴留下的『预言信』，来寻找转世灵童的。

十六世噶玛巴的『预言信函』
The Sacred Letter of Prediction from 16^th Karmapa

༄༅། །ཨེ་མ་ཧོ་རང་རིག༼ས༽་ནི་ཀུན་ཏུ་བདེ། །
Emaho. Self-awareness is always bliss;
噯瑪霍！自覺就是福，

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ལ་མཐའ་དབུས་བྲལ། །
The dharmadhatu has no center or edge.
法界是沒有中心也沒有邊界的。

འདི་ནས་བྱང་ཕྱོགས་ཁ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ཤར། །
From here to the north [in] the east of [the land] of snow is a country
由此往北，在雪地的東邊有個國度，

ལྷ་ཡི་གནམ་ལྕགས་རང་བྱུང་འབར་བའི་ཡུལ། །
where divine thunder spontaneously blazes
那兒有神妙的雷聲，時而自然地響起。

འདོད་འཇོ་མཚན་པའི་འབྲོག་སྡེ་མཛེས། །
[In] a beautiful nomad's place with the sign of a cow
在美麗游牧民族之區，有牛為徵兆。

ཐབས་ནི་དོན་གྲུབ་ཤེས་རབ་བློ་ལ་དགའ། །
The method is Dondrup and the wisdom is Lolaga.
方便是敦珠，智慧是洛拉嘎。

ས་ལ་སྤྱོད་པའི་ལོ་ཁམས་པ། །
[Born in] the year of the one used for the earth
生在與土為用之年。

ཀར་མོ་རྒྱངས་གྲགས་ངོ་མཚར་ཅན། །
[With] the miraculous, far-reaching sound of the white one:
如神蹟般的，白色物發出的聲音遼繞，遠遠地傳聞來。

ཀརྨ་པ་ཞེས་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས། །
[This] is the one known as Karmapa.
這就是大家所識之噶瑪巴。

རྗེ་དོན་ཡོད་གྲུབ༼ས༽་པས་རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན། །
His is sustained by Lord Donyo Druppa;
他的一切為敦悅竺巴尊者所證實；

ཕྱོགས་རིས་མེད་པར་ཕྱོགས་མཐར་ཁྱབ། །
Being nonsectarian, he pervades all directions;
不分教派的，他遍佈十方。

ཉེ་རིང་མེད་པའི་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན། །
Not staying close to some and distant from others, he is the protector of all beings:
並不只親近某群人，也不遠離其他人，他是一切眾生的守護者。

རྒྱལ་བསྟན་གཞན་ཕན་ཉི་མ་རྟག་ཏུ་འབར། ། 
The sun of Buddha's Dharma that benefits others always blazes.
佛陀的法教猶如太陽，持續地放射其光芒，利益他人。

「预言信」的发现

In ]anuary of 1981, the XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa gave to his heart son, the XIIth Tai Situpa, a protection amulet with a brocade cover and said, "This is your protection amulet. In the future, it will confer great benefit." On November 5th, 1981, the XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa passed into parinirvana in a hospital located in Zion, Illinois in the United States.
1981年1月，16世噶玛巴給予他的心子第12世泰錫度仁波切一個包覆著錦緞的護身物，並且說：「這是給你的護身物，將來它會產生極大的利益。」1981年11月5日，16世噶瑪巴在美國位於伊利諾州的醫院圓寂。

On the March 19, 1992, the heart sons of the XVIth Karmapa, gathered at the Dharmachakra Monastery in Rumtek, Sikkim. On this day, they were offered the sacred letter predicting the reincarnation of His Holiness. At first, they determined the actual letters and words of the sacred letter, and the late ]amgon Kongtrul Rinpoche entered this confirmed version into his computer. Then the four Rinpoches together interpreted the meaning of the letter.
1992年3月19日，第16世噶瑪巴的心子們，聚集在錫金隆德寺。此日，噶瑪巴的轉世預言信呈現在大家面前。首先，他們確定親筆信函的真偽，由後來圓寂的蔣貢康楚仁波切將此確認版本輸入電腦，然後四位仁波切一起詮釋信函的意義。

转世灵童的寻获

His Holiness the XVIIth Gyalwang Karmapa was born on the eighth day of the fifth Tibetan month of the Year of the Wood Ox in the place of Lhathok, located in the nomad community of Bagor, eastern Tibet. His father is Karma Dondrup and his mother, Loga. ]ust before the sun rose, he was born without any difficulty. In the afternoon of the third day after his birth, the wide-ranging sound of a conch shell resonated for about one hour. For another half hour, the tones of various musical instruments were clearly heard by all the people in this nomad community. This resounding of the conch shell in the sky and on the earth was a wondrous event.
第17世大寶法王噶瑪巴藏曆水牛年5月8日生於藏東巴闊遊牧區的拉拓地方。父親是噶瑪敦竹，母親是洛嘎。他平安在破曉時出生。出生後第3日的白天，有一個音聲遼闊的海螺聲響了約一個鐘頭，接著長達半個鐘頭，整個遊牧地區的人都聽到各種不同樂器的聲音，海螺的聲音遍傳四方，極為不可思議.

Before the Karmapa was born, a beautiful bird never seen before landed on the roof of the family's tent and sang a lovely song. At another times, a rainbow appeared over the tent. In this way, many wonderful signs appeared, which were directly perceived, and which led all the people of the area to believe that this child was a very special one.
不止如此，在出生之前，一隻之前從未見過的美麗雀鳥停在帳蓬上方悅耳鳴唱，帳篷上方亦有彩虹光芒圍繞等等無數的瑞相。讓地方的人們無造作地生起了此為聖者誕生的確信。

When he was four years old, Amdo Palden from Kalek Monastery invited the Karmapa to come there and so he began his studies.
4歲的時候，噶瑪巴由拉拓卡列寺的上師安多巴殿迎請到寺廟，並且在那裡開始接受教育。

In May, 1992 (the month that the search party arrived in Lhathok), the young Karmapa, following his own idea, left Karlek Monastery with the purpose of returning to his parents' home. He packed of his clothes on the back of his goat, a special one without horns, and said, "Now I'm ready to go to my monastery. I'd be happy to take with me a few gifts from Kalek Monastery."
1992年5月，（亦即搜索隊抵達拉拓的時候），噶瑪巴依自己心意，離開卡列寺回到了父母的家。他把自己幾件衣服披在一頭無角山羊的背上說道：「現在我準備回去我的寺院了，如果能從卡列寺帶幾件禮物就好了。」

Previous to this, the Karmapa had insisted that his family move a month early from their winter to their summer residence and so they had no choice but to do so. This allowed the search party from Tsurphu Monastery that was looking for the reincarnation, to find the Karmapa in the area of Bagor, just as his home had been described in the sacred letter of prediction. So there was a miraculous and perfect correspondence between the XVIth Karmapa's sacred letter of prediction and the place where his reincarnation was found.
噶瑪巴亦堅持要他的家人早一個月時間從冬天的遊牧棲息地遷徙到夏天的住所，這樣使得楚布寺的搜尋隊伍終於在巴闊找到了噶瑪巴，而他一家正如預言信函所描述的一般。第十六世噶瑪巴的預言信函與找到轉世的地點，其中因緣際會不可思議的吻合。