The Treasury of Lives

The Zhamarpas, the "red hat" lamas, are one of the main reincarnate lines of the Karma Kagyu order and one of the oldest tulku line of Tibetan Buddhism. The First Zhamarpa, Drakpa Sengge was a close disciple of the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, who gave him a red version of his own famous black hat. When the Tenth Zhamarpa was found guilty of plotting with the Gorkha army that invaded Tibet and sacked Tashilhunpo Monastery in 1791, the government confiscated the seat at Yangpachen and turned it into a Geluk monastery, and banned further Zhamar incarnations. In 1963, at the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, the Central Tibetan Administration lifted the ban, after which he identified his nephew, Mipam Chokyi Lodro, as the Fourteenth Zhamarpa.