His parents have also given up their restaurant business to be near his Drukpa Sangag Choeling Monastery. They say they discovered their son was not like other children two years ago when he started talking about his "past life". At first, they dismissed it as a childish fantasy, but began taking it seriously during a trip to a monastery in Mysore, southern India.
"He used to always talk of his past life but we did not take it seriously, dubbing it as a child's fantasies," said his mother Dechen. At one point she claims he stopped playing and went into a trance in which he recounted the story of his former life as "His Holiness the Second Galwa Lorepa" lama who died in 1250 in Tibet.
While in a trance he described a celebrated Buddhist monastery with a 35ft dragon on the roof. After hearing his description of the temple he had not visited, the monks proclaimed he was the reincarnation of the 'Rinpoche' or high priest Galwa Lorepa, the founder of one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Now he will spent the next ten years in virtual seclusion and only be able to communicate with his former school friends by email. "It has been a very difficult period for us over the past two years. I have been crying for the past five months, but have, at last, come to terms with it," said his mother Dechen.
"When we were in New Delhi on our way to Darjeeling, I asked him whether he would like to go back to Boston. He said he has to fulfil his responsibilities to his people." But for 'His Holiness' Jigme, there's no regrets. "I will miss my school days but I am happy in my new role. I like it here," he said.
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