. >> chogyam trungpa rinpoche, who was an early pioneer in bringing tibetan buddhism to the west, introduced the karmapa to america. >> immediately, you feel like him sort of stepping out of this ageless tradition into the modern world of cars and skyscrapers. >> derek kolleeny was a student of trungpa's at the time. >> what the karmapa did for those of us who were students of trungpa rinpoche, it gave us this idea of the vastness of the tradition that he came from, so that it was not just us in this little community or little world, but we were then joining this huge family of tibetan buddhist practitioners. most westerners at that time knew tibetan buddhism as, basically, shangri la -- this mystical place filled with magical llamas. very esoteric. so he comes right out of that world and dispels your image of it as being shangri la. seeing him go up onto the stage was just like -- yes, it's true. you know, everything i've read in these books can actually happen. >> in 1980, kolleeny took a year off from college in order to assist with the karmapa's u.s. teaching tour. >> it was just an amaz