By RORY MARSHALL - Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE, Jan 8 (AP) -- Not many 4-year-olds have their own throne. But then, there are a lot of unusual things about the Seattle youngster whose parents named him Sonam Wangdu. Not the least is that he will travel to Nepal later this month to head a monastery of 38 Buddhist monks.

Tibetan Buddhists recognize him as Deshung Rinpoche IV -- the reincarnation of a high lama who died here in 1987. He now goes by the name Trulku-la, the Tibetan term for reincarnation.

"I knew that he was a Trulku-la before he was born," said his mother, Carolyn Lama. "My lama knew. The signs usually work for the lamas at conception and birth. So my lama knew and told me that he was a Trulku-la before he was born."

Trulku-la is a high-energy bundle who runs around the Sakya Monastery here in maroon robes, has trouble sitting still for photographs, and doesn't like to answer reporters' questions. ("No! I'm reading a book!")

Numbers are hard to pin down, but among the hundreds of lamas - or teachers - considered reincarnations in the Tibetan Buddhist faith, only a handful have come from the West, experts say.

Bhuchung Tsering, communications director for the International Campaign for Tibet in Washington, D.C., said he knew of two from Europe, and believed a lama from New Jersey was heading a Buddhist community in Russia. A Spanish boy named Osel Iza Torres was enthroned as a lama when he was 2 years old, in 1987.

Trulku-la, also enthroned at age 2, has been to Nepal twice - for about seven months when he was enthroned and four months last year, said his mother, who accompanied him.

She also will go with him when he leaves Jan. 25 for the Tharlam Monastery in Bouhdnath, near Katmandu. But this time, she will return alone, and Trulku-la will begin years of rigorous education.

"Of course it will be incredibly difficult," she said of the coming separation. "I mean, you can imagine. It'll make me very sad and I'm sure I'll cry buckets of tears. But I think if you really love someone, you want what's best for them. And there's no doubt, absolutely no doubt in my mind, that is exactly what's best for him."

Trulku-la understands what's happening, she said.

"Without a doubt. We've talked about it always," Lama said.

Tibetan Buddhism doesn't have a rigid hierarchy, but Trulku-la will rank somewhere below the Dalai Lama, who is supreme leader for more than 10 million followers; the lama who heads the Sakya sect; and a lama who heads the monastery's branch of the sect, his mother said.

His wide-ranging education will include subjects from medicine to metaphysics to history, and the monks will be responsible for his care.

"He ordained most of them in his last life, and they love him," she said. "They've been waiting and waiting for him to come back, and they have a tremendous responsibility, and they're quite prepared to accept it."

Trulku-la's "main monk" -- Nawang Tyngure -- will be his primary care-giver "and he'll sort of just gradually replace me," Lama said.

The two formed a strong bond during past visits, she said.

"Who loves you most in the world, Trulku-la?" she asked.

"Nawang Tyngure!" the youngster shouted.

The lama whose place Trulku-la will take, Deshung Rinpoche III, came to Seattle in 1960, after China took over Tibet. He taught at the University of Washington, co-founded the Sakya Monastery here, and re-established in Nepal the Tharlam Monastery, which had been in Tibet.

He was said to be a reincarnation of the original Deshung Rinpoche, who lived in Tibet in the 19th century.

And he told several of his students he believed he would be reborn in Seattle, said Lama, a caregiver at a private adult assisted-living home who began practicing Buddhism six years ago.

In addition to her lama's assurances that her son would be a reincarnation, Lama said she had dreams before and during her pregnancy indicating he would be special.

Her husband, Trulku-la's father -- a Tibetan who died in a traffic accident two years ago -- also had portentous dreams, she said.

In Nepal, monastery life won't be too barren for Trulku-la. He'll have his action figures, Disney videos and other toys, and the house he'll live in is Westernized with amenities such as a hot-water heater and a refrigerator.