Expert: Alex Wilding - 5/13/2008

Question
  I am a professor of meteorology and geology at a local college in Maryland near Washington, D.C.  Perhaps you can help me identify someone I met in 1986 who was introduced to me by his traveling companion as the reincarnation of the person who brought Buddhism to Tibet.  I was on a train traveling from Delhi to Agra.  A man across the aisle from me introduced himself and, after some pleasantries, excitedly told me who his traveling companion was.   Unfortunately, I don’t remember his friend’s name nor did a take a photo, but the monk (I’m not sure that is the right title) and I had a delightful conversation for the next hour or two.
  I would love to find out what and how he is doing.  I can give some details of our conversation if you are interested, but for now, I will just offer information that might help you identify him.  I would guess that he was about 25 years old and was wearing clothes that were typical Indian attire so that he would not be recognized.  He had spent almost his entire life in Dharamsala studying.  He was extremely well educated in certain areas, but was traveling around to get a better idea of what the outside world was like.  
  I have every reason to believe that he was who he said he was.  
                           Terry

Answer
Hi Terry,
Fascinating, but I think you will be lucky to identify this person. It is likely that "the person who brought Buddhism to Tibet" was the one we know as Guru Rinpoche or Pema Jungney, and, although there is good reason to believe that he existed historically, he is the centre of a vast range of devotional practice. Two things can be said:
1) there is no one generally recognized "tulku" of Guru Rinpoche in the way that there is of, say the Karmapa.
2) it would be high praise indeed, but for disciples to say of their teacher "he is a real emanation of Guru Rinpoche" would not really be uncommon.
And finally, there is quite a number of people (lamas, monks, what-have-you) who spent much of their lives from 1960 on studying and training in Dharamsala.
The picture you paint is easy to believe, but if you follow what I am saying you will see that you would need much more specific details before you'd be likely to pick up the scent. It would be great if you could find him - were there any really specific details in the conversation that you can remember?
All the best
Alex Wilding