Gangtok, June 25: The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorji, recognised as the head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Buddhism, will turn 18 tomorrow.

Special celebrations and prayer sessions at the Rumtek monastery have been organised to mark the occasion of the monk’s “coming of age”. The monastery, apart from being the seat of the Karmapa, is also the headquarters of the Dharma Chakra Centre, which has over 500 centres all over the world.

Monks and followers of the Karmapa will offer special prayers for his well being in Rumtek. Mandala offerings and empowerment sermons like Pakshi Ladrup, a teaching of the second Karmapa, will also bec initiated at the monastery.

The initiations will be made by Gyaltshab Rinpoche, a regent of the Rumtek. He is also the acting head the monastery in the absence of the Karmapa.

A special video message by the Karmapa will be screened, after which, monks and followers will pay their leader a birthday tribute. Karma Chungyalpa of Tsurphu Labrang, the administrative body at Rumtek monastery, said prayers for the Karmapa’s early return to his rightful place in the monastery will be offered.

Senior monks at the monastery said similar celebrations and prayers would also be held in Gyuto monastery.

The Karmapa, who fled from Tibet in January 2000 and sought asylum in India, has been living in Gyuto monastery at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. He was barely 15-years-old when he reached Dharamsala with a few followers.

The Karmapa had trekked for weeks through extremely difficult terrain in Chinese controlled Tibet, evaded the Chinese Army and reached India.

Orgyen Trinley Dorji is undergoing religious studies from monks and tutors at the Gyuto monastery.

The Central government has prohibited the Karmapa from entering Sikkim since his flight to India. His movements to other parts of the country are also closely supervised and permitted only after clearance by the ministry of external affairs.

Thanking monks and followers in a birthday message released by the Karmapa from Dharamsala, he has appealed to his followers to maintain ‘harmony’ and morality. “I have hope and faith that I shall soon be able to return to the seat of my precursor at Rumtek monastery.”