The Tai Situ incarnations began when the Sixth Karmapa recognized Tashi Namgyel as the reincarnation of his teacher Chokyi Gyeltsen, a lama of Karma Gon Monastery in Kham who had received the Chinese imperial title from a Ming envoy. In the eighteenth century the Eighth Tai Situ, Chokyi Jungne, moved the seat of the line to Pelpung Monastery near Derge.
Biographies
The First Tai Situ, Chokyi Gyeltsen
b.1377 - d.1448
Chokyi Gyeltsen, a close disciple of the Fifth Karmapa, is traditionally said to have received his imperial title "Tai Situ" from the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China, although evidence suggests it was a Ming envoy who bestowed it. Primarily an instructor at Karma Gon monastery in Kham, he spent most of his later life meditating in caves.
