Jigme Wangchuk blesses devotees at Druk-Sa-Ngag Choeling monastery after he was enthroned at Dali near Darjeeling. (Above) A copy of one of his written replies. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Oct. 28: The boys at St Peter’s School in Boston will have to be a bit guarded when they get in touch with little Jigme Wangchuk from now on.

Ten-year-old Tashi Norzum, too, will have to get used to a new life and school in Darjeeling so that she is not very far from her brother.

The two adaptations in young lives, so everyday in modern times, bookmark a chronicle that stretches as far back as 759 years.

Jigme Wangchuk, an 11-year-old boy based in Boston, was today enthroned near Darjeeling as the reincarnation of Gyalwa Lorepa, a monk who passed away in 1250 AD.

The boy has now become a rinpoche (high priest) of a Buddhist sub-sect called Drukpa that traces its lineage to Kagyu. Kagyu is one of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama belongs to another sect called Gelugpa but is revered by the entire Tibetan community as he is its spiritual and political leader.

Just as the Dalai Lama is known as the 14th incarnate, the boy will be revered as the Second Gyalwa Lorepa among the sect’s followers who number lakhs and spread over mostly Ladakh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The fifth-grader from Boston’s St Peter’s School will now have to spend the rest of his life at the Druk-Sa-Ngag Choeling monastery at Dali, 3km from Darjeeling. He can visit Boston later in his life but to deliver discourses. If he badly misses his friends back in the US — he is an American citizen now — he can speak to them but the conversation cannot be as carefree as what 11-year-olds usually indulge in.

During his training, which can stretch up to a decade, the Second Gyalwa Lorepa is not expected to speak to lay persons.

But the boy can send emails — a digital window to the world he referred to today while fielding questions in writing. “As for my friends, I will contact them through email,” he said.

The reincarnate touched upon some things he has left behind. “It is a big transition, and yes, I do miss being a joyful schoolboy and my friends, my home, my grandparents, aunts and uncles.”

The rinpoche added later: “In fact, I already miss them” but took solace in the fact that his parents had moved to Darjeeling to serve him.

His parents — Chosang, a businessman, and mother Dechen — is planning to send his kid sister Tashi Norzum to a school in Darjeeling. “We have left Boston and have to live in Darjeeling along with my husband Chosang and my 10-year-old daughter Tashi Norzum,” Dechen said.

The rinpoche also acknowledged the enormity of the occasion. “But being a rinpoche is such a great honour and I feel blessed with my past responsibilities,” he wrote in reply to a question.

“It is after 700 years that the reincarnation has arrived,” said Karma Rinpoche, the boy’s uncle.

Reincarnations are identified through an elaborate procedure. In 2007, when the boy was visiting the Kagyu-Nalanda monastery near Mysore, he had spoken of his past life describing his vision of monasteries as they stood then, including one in Bhutan.

“He talked about the monastery (in Bhutan) being situated in a rocky area of the Himalayas with a 35-foot-long dragon adorning its rooftop,” recalled Karma Rinpoche. Four hours after the boy recited his vision, the 12th incarnate of Tsangpa Gyare — another Drukpa monk — sent word to the family, recognising the boy as Gyalwa Lorepa.

The first Lorepa had received his initial teachings from the first Gyare. After Gyare passed away, Lorepa had meditated on Mount Kailash for 13 years and founded the Tharpa Ling monastery in Bhutan. His followers belong to the Drukpa lineage, which is part of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism.

“I even visited the monastery in Bhutan to see if it really matches with his description. When I found it was true, I realised he was the real incarnate,” mother Dechen said.

Today, as the drone of gyaling (a Tibetan musical instrument) rose from the monastery on a mild day — it was 20 degrees Celsius in Darjeeling and 11 degrees Celsius in Boston — the rinpoche wrote down the answer to the third and last question: “I like it here.”