Sikyong hopes Karmapa will return to India

17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee may return to India soon. An indication to this affect was given by Sikyong (president of the Central Tibetan Administration) Penpa Tsering while addressing Tibetans in Sikkim recently.

The Sikyong referred to a case in the High Court of Himachal Pradesh against the 17th Karmapa involving the Enforcement Directorate. “There was a hearing regarding the Enforcement Directorate’s case and the outcome of the proceedings seem promising. I believe it will create a conducive environment that may further encourage 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Rinpoche to return to Sikkim,” the Sikyong said. Tsering’s assertion is in line with the series of events involving the 17th Karmapa, which met the Dalai Lama during his brief stay in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 25 this year, fuelling speculation regarding his return to India.

Tibetans in Sikkim have been lobbying for the return of the Karmapa to the Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. This monastery is the seat of the Black Hat lamas sect headed by the Karmapa in Tibetan Buddhism.

Tai Situ Rinpoche, one of the teachers of Kagyu school, reportedly managed the escape of Ogyen Trinley Dorjee from China and took him to the Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. The value of the assets of the monastery are pegged at about Rs 1,500 crore. However, the Union Government did not allow Ogyen Trinley Dorjee to move to Rumtek allegedly under the influence of Shamar Rinpoche.

In 2002, a sister of Karmapa Nogdhup Pulzon tried to go to Rumtek without the permission of the Indian Government but was forced to return to Dharamsala. In 2017, the Indian Government allowed the Karmapa to visit Sikkim but not the Rumtek monastery.

Dorjee was born in a nomad community of Bakor in Eastern Tibet on June 26, 1985, and the Dalai Lama had recognised him as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa in June 1992. However, one of the prominent teachers of Kagyu, Shamar Rinpoche, refused to recognize Ogyen Trinley Dorjee as the 17th Karmapa. He instead claimed that Thaye Trinley Dorjee was the real 17th Karmapa. Thaye Trinley Dorjee had married in 2017 and thus renounced monkhood.

Later, a third candidate named Dava Sangpo Dorjee also staked his claim to the office and the title. He was living in Nepal.

However, despite repeated pleas from Shamar Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration recognise Ogyen Trinley Dorjee as the 17th Karmapa, who has been out of India since 2017. He went to the US in 2017 but refused to return to India. The Karmapa took over the citizenship of Dominican Republic and applied for Indian visa in 2018 but was not obliged. Since then, he has been staying out of India.