M A I N   N E W S

‘China link’ back to haunt the lama
Pratibha Chauhan/Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service

THE MONK MIRED IN CONTROVERSY

Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, the 17th Karmapa

n There are four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Nyingma, which is the oldest school, the Kagyu, the Gelugpa, headed by the Dalai Lama and the Sakya. Karmapa belongs to the Kagyu school. n The Karmapas, as per the tradition, are considered to be the enlightened teachers who take rebirth to carry on the teachings of a predecessor. n The present Karmapa was born in 1985 in a nomad family in the Lhatok region of Tibet. As a child, he was named Apo Gaga. He was discovered by the 16th Karmapa in 1992 as his successor. n He was enthroned with the permission of the Chinese Government and was recognised by the Dalai Lama. n He is viewed with suspicion, both by the Indian Government and the aides of the Dalai Lama because of the Chinese recognition.

Shimla/Dharamsala, Jan 29
The alleged Chinese links of the 14-year-old lama boy, who had taken the world by surprise when he made a sudden appearance in Mcelodganj on a frosty January morning in 2000, are back to haunt him even after a decade's existence in India. Even on January 5, 2000, when the 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, had told the story of his flight to freedom from Tsurphu monastery in Tibet to Mcleodganj, thousands of kilometers away, there were apprehensions expressed by intelligence agencies of his being a Chinese man. He tried to lend credence to his tale by declaring that he had undertaken this arduous journey and risked his life by giving the Chinese the slip to be able to get back the "black hat" of the 16th Karmapa from the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim.

Now, the recovery of huge foreign currency and more specifically Yuan from the abode of the 25-year-old head of Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism has left everyone in a tizzy.

The Indian intelligence agencies have been maintaining a close surveillance on his every movement. The Karmapa has not been allowed to visit the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, which was set up by his predecessor. Barring the sparing visits he has been allowed to some Buddhist shrines like Varanasi, he has more or less been confined to Dharamsala.

After his arrival here from Tibet as a timid young boy, who had very little exposure to the world outside his monastery and barely any knowledge of English, the Karmapa has transformed into a spiritual "guru" who is beginning to be viewed as a possible heir to the revered Dalai Lama.

But neither has the Karmapa been able to reach his ultimate destination of Rumtek nor has he expressed any desire to return to Tibet. During his stay in Dharamsala, the Karmapa has received teachings from one of the four high ranking spiritual heads of the Kagyu sect, Tai Situ Rimpoche. Tai Situ has always been accused of having close ties with China. In fact, he was considered to be the mastermind behind Karmapa's magical appearance in Dharamsala. Over the last 11 years, the Karmapa has matured as a spiritual head as he has been holding audiences for his followers, many of them from abroad at the Gyuto monastery. However, he’s yet to establish a permanent base and efforts are on for the purpose. It is probably this pursuit of a bigger and grand abode that invited trouble for the Tibetan leader. A section of the Tibetan government-in-exile officials suspect the Karmapa of being part of the Chinese ploy to capture important religious institutions to gradually wean away the Tibetan people from the Dalai Lama. The Karmapa is the only new reincarnate Lama, who is recognised both by China and the 14th Dalai Lama. Unlike the other Tibetans living in exile, he had never criticised the Chinese Government or took any direct or indirect part in the regular protests organised here by them.

Beijing has, in the past, installed its own Panchen Lama, the second most high ranking spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama. The boy, Gedun Choekyi Nimya, chosen by the Dalai Lama suddenly went missing in 1996 along with his family.

Recently, the Himachal Government scaled down the security of the Karmapa and reduced the number of vehicles in his cavalcade. The sources said this was done at the behest of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, as they did not want him to be given a status equal to the Dalai Lama.