MINNEAPOLIS — There isn’t anyone else like Jalue Dorjee in Minnesota.
He was two or three years old when his parents realized he was destined to be a spiritual leader.
“It was always you’re a lama, and you know, I would have to sit up with the other monks and the senior lamas,” Dorjee said.
As a child, Dorjee was recognized by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnated lama. He’s the eighth reincarnation of Taksham Nuden Dorje, who was born in 1655 A.D.
And he’s set to graduate from St. Anthony Village High School in June.
He’ll have the summer before he leaves to study at the monastery for a few years. It’s not restrictive, so he’ll be able to travel back to Minnesota. Once he’s finished, he hopes to return to Minnesota to teach.
Inside the Gyuto Wheel of Dharma Monastery, Dorjee sat up front alongside the other monks. They led more than 100 people as they recited Tibetan text hundreds of years old.
The prayer service was held on the first day of the Tibetan New Year, but this year’s celebration was different.
“That would be because of the earthquakes that happened in Tingri, Tibet, which took the lives of over 120 people, damaged thousands and thousands of homes, which was devastating and very sad,” said Jalue Dorjee.
All big celebrations have been canceled this year to stand in solidarity with Tibet. He said they wanted to have the prayer service so Tibetans could still come together.
One day, Dorjee will return to Minnesota to help his community. Many Tibetans will look to him for guidance during tragedies, but he’s already learning what it means to be a leader.
“I think leadership comes by itself. When you’re surrounded by great leaders. Mine would be my dad,” he said.
His father, Dorje Tsegyal, was a longtime monk in Nepal. Tsegyal said that, through an interpreter, the Dalai Lama advised Dorjee’s parents he should stay in Minnesota until he’s fluent in English. His father said a lot of lamas hardly speak English, and it will be important for Dorjee to be able to communicate with his followers. Dorjee’s parents decided it would be best to keep him until he graduated high school. Tsegyal said language wasn’t the only thing his son needed to learn. They wanted him to be able to relate to other people and believed it would help him later in life.
“Growing up here, I was basically in everything band, I was in football, I was in journalism, I was kind of touched everywhere so that might help me. I definitely think that’s going to help me in the future, you know, relating to the people, being able to give examples, be able to effectively teach my target audience,” Dorjee said.
Dorjee said his parents support him in a lot of ways. His dad gets up early every morning.
“He comes back from work late at night, and he wakes up really early to teach me, and that’s something he’s been doing since I was four, now I’m 18,” Dorjee said.
He studies scripture before he goes to school. Once he’s finished his after-school activities, he continues to study and pray at home. On the weekends, his tutors help him with Tibetan history, calligraphy, science, and scriptures that are like poems to help him understand Tibetan readings.
He’s been balancing school and his Tibetan studies since he was in 7th grade, balancing a lot at an early age.
“That’s just what most lamas are expected or trained to do,” he said.
Dorjee dedicates 2-3 hours of prayer every day. When he was younger, he spent 3-4 hours in the prayer room.
When he’s not studying, he loves to read.
“I can kind of like to go down rabbit holes whether that be online or books,” he said.
Dorjee said there’s a lot he’s learned from reading books.
“There’s a lot of different ways of looking at an event or situation or just how everything is just in general. One person might have this way of saying, another person might have this way of saying it, but it’s just all the same,” Dorjee said.
When he’s not reading, he’s likely watching sports. He played left guard on his high school’s football team and managed the basketball team in the winter. He’s a big Atlanta sports fan and loves to support the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Hawks. Getting regular updates on his team is one thing he’ll miss.
“Being there for a few years, you know, there’s some players like Michael Penix or Drake London they’re like 25 and when I came back, they’ll be like 30, 31, so I’m just going to have to stick with the highlights for a few years,” he said.
When Dorjee returns to Minnesota, he hopes to help his community by teaching peace.
“His Holiness, the Dalai Lama always says we need to find a way to bring 8 billion people into oneness, so that’s sort of what I want to teach… spread the Buddhist teachings, spread harmony,” he said. “To me, it’s just someone that is responsible to teach peace.”