Mipham Chokyi Lodro (27 October 1952 – 11 June 2014), also known as Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche, was the fourteenth Shamarpa of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Shamarpa is the second-most important teacher of the Karma Kagyu school, after the Karmapa. The Karmapas are sometimes referred to as the Black Hat Lamas, referring to their distinctive, black crown. Karma Pakshi, the second Karmapa, prophesied that "future Karmapas shall manifest in two nirmāṇakāya forms." Later, the third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, presented to his principal student, Khedrup Drakpa Senge, a ruby-red crown (Tibetan: ཞྭ་དམར། Wylie: zhwa dmar, pronounced /shamar/, "red hat") that was—apart from its color—an exact replica of his own crown; the Karmapa explained that the red crown symbolised their identical nature, and so the lineage of the Shamarpas began. The fourteenth Shamarpa was recognised by the sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. Early life In 1956, Shamar Rinpoche and his brother, Lama Jigme Rinpoche, went to Tsurphu, the seat of the Karmapas in Lhasa. The four-year-old Shamarpa showed special abilities, including recognizing a few monks from a previous life at Yangpachen monastery. In light of these special signs, the sixteenth Karmapa asked the fourteenth Dalai Lama to revoke the prohibition of the Sharmapa incarnations. Consent was given, and a private enthronement of Shamar Rinpoche took place in 1958. His formal education took place at Rumtek, and he received transmissions and initiations from the Karmapa and other Kagyu and Nyingma masters. In 1964, the Tibetan Government-in-Exile formally lifted the one-hundred-seventy-year ban on the Shamarpa institution, and Shamar Rinpoche was officially enthroned. After completing his studies in 1979, the Shamarpa began his extensive teaching activity. Activity In the 1980s, the fourteenth Shamar Rinpoche established an education center for Tibetan exiles in Rumtek, the Nalanda Institute. He also founded an education center in Kalimpong, and a retreat center in Parphing. He also oversaw the construction of the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute (KIBI), and personally ran the institute in its first years. Shamar Rinpoche took over the project—conceived by Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche—of building the tallest stūpa in Europe; constructed in Benalmadena, Spain, in cooperation with the local government, it is thirty-three metres tall, and was inaugurated in 2003, with Lama Ole Nydahl, representatives of the Bhutanese Royal Family and government, and local Spanish authorities in attendance. The Shamarpa looked after eight hundred traditional monasteries throughout Tibet and the Himalayas; in the West, the