The Vajra Regent made an immediate connection with His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa during his first visit to the United States, continuing and deepening through the Karmapa's passing into parinirvana in 1981. When the empowerment of Thomas Rich as Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin took place in 1976, the Karmapa added calligraphy of his own to the official proclamation. Below is a photo of the Vajra Regent with H.H. XVI Karmapa, and the Vidyadhara, with H.E. Jamgon Kontrul, one with Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche taken during the Karmapa's first visit to the United States in 1974, and other photos of His Holiness. There is also a poem written to him by the Vajra Regent after His Holiness' passing into parinirvana, an excerpt from the 1980 letter to seminary students recounting the spirit of that first visit, a brief video clip of a Q and A with the Vajra Regent on a famous teaching given by the Karmapa, and a calligraphy by the Vajra Regent evoking an aspect of the Karmapa Lineage.