On Tibetian Buddhism and Tulku
I'm reading up some more on the history of Tulku within Tibetian Buddhism and am getting some good information on the argument of "closed vs not closed" ambiguity; Tulku is functionally (whether you take to the mysticism or not literally) a method of propagating and continuing lineages of teachings and practices and is partially a historical development in Tibetian Buddhism as a result of the annexation and persecution of Tibetian Buddhists combined also with the nature of which how isolated monastaries in Tibet historically used to have relatively limited access to one another due to the mountainous terrain, so should you remove all the mysticism and spirituality that would potentially relate to "belief" and "religion" the practice of Tulku is largely a means of keeping alive important teachings, important projects that past dedicated practitioners have started, and making sure that culture, traditions, and information are effectively passed down inspite of colonialization, repression, oppression, and persecution
Typically and traditionally, Tulkus are recognized by other masters and experienced individuals who identify an individual based on their potential for helping and a number of other details and consultations with other masters as the reincarnation of a passed on / dead Master / Tulku lineage and after being recognized, the identified Tulku is generally raised and taught in depth in Buddhism and the specific lineage they were identified from in a process called enthronement and then futher actually vowed into continuing the lineage
Since the late 1900s Western Tulkus have been occasionally acknowledged, but it comes to a lot of discourse and uncertainty within the Tibetian community due to it traditionally being rooted heavily as a means of maintaining and sustaining information, traditions, teaching, and culture from Tibetian practices and the risk that having someone who was NOT from the culture brings to the adulteration and adaptation of Tibetian practices outside of Tibet / families that were related to Tibet
On the other hand, others believe that the nature of Tulku's are to expand and share teachings and the expansion of Tulku's to the West is a natural adaptation and evolution of the practice in response to changing times, futher access to information, and a larger expanse to actually teach and share and as a result some / many are of the belief that Western Tulku's are made AS a tulku in the west because the West is where their lineage calls them to continue their teachings / projects
So the topic about Tibetian Buddhist persecution and the open / closed practice of Tulku (which is one of the two Tibetian Buddhist practices that I think are the main inspiration for Tulpa) is honestly like…. intertwined with it all
Kind of a historical info dump on the tulpacourse in relation to Tibetian Buddhism but I was reading from a couple Rinpoches and Wikipedia and the book I'm currently reading to kind of synthesize a bunch of information from a less-mystical perspective and more in a purely cultural perspective
There is a lot of discourse within the Tibetian Buddhist community about how Tulku in the west is potentially problematically used in a way that is driven by orientalism and "ego-aggrandizing" and generally speaking, White Western Tulkus are generally not recognized by the wider community
And while some people like to quote the Dalai-Lama as the practice (Tibetan Buddhism) being open, the Dalai-Lama also states that he is uncertain if it is actually beneficial to recognize Western Tulkus
