Emaho. [exclamation of great joy]
Self-awareness is always bliss;
The dharmadhatu has no center nor edge.

From here to the north [in] the east of [the land] of snow
Is a country where divine thunder spontaneously blazes
[In] a beautiful nomad’s place with the sign of a cow,
The method is Dondrub and the wisdom is Lolaga.
[Born in] the year of the one used for the earth
[With] the miraculous, far-reaching sound of the white one;
[This] is the one known as Karmapa.

He is sustained by Lord Donyo Drubpa;
Being non-sectarian, he pervades all direction;
Not staying close to some and distant from others,
he is the protector of all beings:
The sun of Buddha’s Dharma that benefits others always blazes.

The 17th Karmapa’s place of birth is lhatok: “Lha” means divine and “thok” means thunder. In the text, thunder is poetically called gnam lchags’ or “sky iron”

The name of the nomadic community where the Karmapa was born is Barkor: “ba” means “cow” and the Dharma term for cow. “dod jo,” is used in the texts.

Method refers to the father and wisdom to the mother.

His Holiness was born in the Wood Ox year: a tree lives from the earth and an ox is used to plow it.

This refers to the sound of the conch shell that miraculously resounded in space for about an hour after His Holiness’ birth.

English translation Michele Martin during July 1992, in Rumtek, Sikkim