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TIBET
Battle of the Lama The boy Karmapa's arrival in Dharamsala embroils India in the bitter feuding of the ibetan clergy -- heightens mutual suspicions between Delhi and Beijing. By Ashok Malik and Avirook Sen When the Iron Bird will fly and horses
will gallop on wheels In a land where the mind sees further than the mountains can reach, an ancient seer once prophesied thus. To those who call the locale known as the "Roof of the World" their homeland, these words would seem the chronicle of a flight foretold. Like all else in the greater cosmic scheme of things, Orgyen Trinley Dorje was only playing out a karmic inevitability when he opened his bedroom window that night in the Tibetan year of the rabbit. It was 11.00 p.m. on a cold wintry December 28, 1999, at the Tsurphu monastery in Tibet, seat of the Gyalwa Karmapa -- the supreme master of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Over the following week, the 14-year-old-boy -- accompanied by a sister 10 years his senior and five male attendants -- was the hero of a Himalayan adventure that took him across borders, over the mountains and into Mcleodganj, the hill station in Himachal Pradesh that is the capital of all Tibetans in exile. To put it mildly, the Karmapa -- the 17th in a line of reincarnations -- also caused a stir among his new hosts. Not since Sir Francis Younghusband trotted into Lhasa at the head of a band of intrepid imperial officers had one country so surprised another. The Karmapa's escape to India is the third event of its type. In 1959, the 14th (and present) Dalai Lama had escaped Chinese iniquity to Nehru's India. Earlier, in 1909, the 13th Dalai Lama had come to Lord Minto's colonial government with similar complaints. A week after his arrival, the little Karmapa had already moved house from the Chonor guesthouse to the Gyoto Ramoche temple in Sidhbari, a little outside Mcleodganj. He was readying for a more momentous move to the Karma Kagyu sect's Palpung monastery some 70 km away in Sherabling. The five-storey monastery is a lavish exposition of Tibetan culture, religion and, ex officio as it were, temporal authority. It has been in the making for 10 years under the watchful eye of Tai Situ Rimpoche -- the word rimpoche implies a senior scholar -- friend, philosopher and guide of the 17th Karmapa and close associate of his predecessor and previous avatar, the 16th Karmapa. Palpung's inauguration is scheduled for November 1, 2000. The arrival of its boy-king to this new spiritual kingdom in the final winter -- escape from the guards in Tibet is possible only in the secrecy the cold months lend you -- before its opening treads the fine line between happenstance and coincidence. To others, the Ministry of External Affairs (mea) in Delhi not excluded, it smells of deliberate action. It's not difficult to guess why. The 17th Karmapa is only a pawn in a complicated religio-diplomatic game involving China, the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile and the competing groups within the Kagyu clergy. It is an enormous game of chess, one in which India at times seems no more than the hapless chessboard. So far seen as a Chinese puppet and an important factor in Beijing's attempt to control Tibet's monastic power structure, the Karmapa's arrival has taken the mea by surprise. This explains why South Block has been cautious in reaction, waiting for the other players to show their cards. In the first few days after the Karmapa's arrival -- and following a call to the office of The Daily Telegraph in London, which broke the story of how the little Karmapa had "feared for his life" in Tibet -- the Dalai Lama's regime in Mcleodganj was cooperation personified. Information was volunteered and the Karmapa photographed fairly easily, though he was not available for interviews. The task of publicising achieved and sensing Delhi was getting uptight about Beijing's reaction, the Karmapa went incommunicado and was perennially "tired and resting". The Dalai Lama entered a prolonged "retreat" during which he would "speak to nobody". Minister for Religion and Culture Tashi Wangdi was the only one available for the most bland quotes possible and denied the Indian administration had been sent a request for asylum. He insisted, "The Government knows the Karmapa is here and we believe it is looking into the matter." A day later, following a surly response from China, Wangdi said, "We hope India will not be bullied." If journalists wanted anything more on the Karmapa, they could look elsewhere. The compact, 10,000-strong Tibetan community in Mcleodganj went into a collective silence. Buddham stratagem gacchhami was the new mantra. Without bias, he pervades in all
directions; In a cryptic message written in January 1981, Ranjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, had said this of his next incarnation. Dorje died 10 months later. The throne he occupied at Sikkim's Rumtek monastery, the headquarters of the Kagyu sect, fell empty. The Karmapa's 17th avatar was to be found 11 years later, in Lahtok, Tibet. Young Orgyen Trinley Dorje's clandestine entry into India earlier this month echoes his predecessor's prophecy, this time in the form of a question: who is he close to and who is he distant from? To the layperson, this may seem a vain philosophical query. In Rumtek, it cuts much closer to the bone. In 1959, when the 16th Karmapa fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion, he was offered several sites for setting up his monastery by the then Chogyal of Sikkim, his disciple and then ruler of an independent kingdom. The 16th Karmapa chose Rumtek, an idyllic village 24 km from Sikkim's capital Gangtok. By 1966, a monastery that resembled the famous Tsurphu monastery, his original seat, was ready. In Rumtek, he installed the treasured relics of the Karmapa lineage smuggled in from Tibet. Chief among these is an ornament-adorned black hat -- the belief is that it is woven from the hair of female deities -- that is special to the Karmapa (the word means "black hat lama") and a bell. A succession struggle ensued 11 years after the death of the 16th Karmapa, which saw the regents of the monastery divided. Trinley Dorje's ordainment was disputed vigorously, even though the Dalai Lama had approved his candidature. His being in Tibet stopped him from coming to Rumtek. In April 1994 a dissenting Rumtek regent, Shamar Rimpoche, tried to instal an 11-year-old boy called Tenzin Chentze at a ceremony in Delhi. This rival claimant to the Karmapa's throne now lives in the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in Delhi. Currently on a spiritual tour of Europe, Chentze (now renamed Thinley Thai Dorje) scoffs at his rival Trinley Dorje's escape from Tibet, "Maybe he came by helicopter, at least part of the way. It's cold right now in Tibet ... But I am the Karmapa." Each Karmapa leaves oral or written instructions as to where his next incarnation will be found. The 16th Karmapa died without a letter of prediction. In 1990, Tai Situ discovered a letter written by the 16th Karmapa inside an amulet given to him by the master. Using this letter, a search party from Tsurphu located the new Karmapa. On June 30, 1992, Trinley Dorje was recognised as the 17th Karmapa by the Dalai Lama -- and, significantly, by the Chinese Government a few months later. Back in Rumtek, however, a section of the monks led by Shamar Rimpoche objected on these very grounds: the boy was Chinese, and the Chinese had recognised a major religious leader for the first time. "This is a Chinese ploy," said Shamar Rimpoche. He still wonders how the Dalai Lama, having refused to recognise a Panchen Lama (see graphic) whose nomination was overseen by the Chinese changed the rules when it came to the Karmapa. Violence had already broken out at Rumtek in June 1992, following allegations by Shamar Rimpoche that the prediction letter Tai Situ carried was a forgery. There were even demands for forensic tests. Shamar Rimpoche also pointed to contradictions in the letter. It said, for instance, that the next Karmapa would be born in the "year of the earth ox". The year of the earth ox came 32 years before the 16th Karmapa died. It will next occur 26 years after his death. If the letter is correct, Trinley Dorje is too young to be the 17th Karmapa. In a more mundane encounter, Tai Situ's frequent visits to and close links with China alarmed the Indian Government. In 1994, he was debarred from entering India for "anti-India" activities. The ban was lifted in 1997. If matters were not confusing enough, 21-year-old Dawa Zangpo Dorji tried to storm the monastery in 1998 claiming he was the real Karmapa. He has just renewed his claim and says though he was born before the 16th Karmapa died he lived in a body without a soul, waiting for the Karmapa's passing for his soul to enter. What is at stake at Rumtek? Initially, the Chinese issued a statement that the young Karmapa had come to India to collect some of his belongings -- the black hat and an ancient bell among them. The dissenting monks from Rumtek believe that the Karmapa's arrival was stage-managed by the Chinese so that he can take the hat and relics back to China. As if to divorce the Karmapa from Chinese links, there are stories doing the rounds in Mcleodganj of how he called Tsurphu on reaching Nepal, how the phone was answered by a Chinese voice, how the Karmapa heard the sounds and shrieks of searching and interrogation in the background. Rumtek isn't just a spiritual battleground though. The Karmapa Charitable Trust, which raises funds and manages the Karmapa's property, has 350 branches worldwide. They are largely autonomous but their cumulative wealth is close to a billion dollars. It is the China factor, however, that has the mea in a bit of a tizzy. So far Trinley Dorje has been seen as broadly favoured by the Chinese. His defection is at one level a public-relations disaster for Beijing whose Tibet policy in recent years has moved from suppression of religious authority to its manipulation. Initially, Beijing sought to wipe out the monks' privileges, denounce their faith and swamp Tibet with ethnic Chinese migrants. It came to realise that the average Tibetan cherished the Buddhist faith and its institutions with an uncommon fervour. So when the 10th Panchen Lama died, the Chinese imprisoned the nominee of the Dalai Lama and chose one of their own, a boy who is ceremonially paraded on state occasions. With the Dalai Lama, 65 this coming July, hinting he may be in his final incarnation, his religio-temporal legacy could pass to the monks next in the hierarchy. Beijing reckons if it has its own Karmapa and Panchen Lama in place it is at an advantage. The Dalai Lama's mind is an enigma to South Block. After all, he has expressed his willingness for an autonomous Tibet under overall Chinese suzerainty, rather than a fully independent state. In the circumstances India has two options: Give the Karmapa the refugee status granted to 1.2 lakh other Tibetans -- but probably after assessing and assuaging China. Tell him to leave, probably for the US, where a pro-Tibet lobby ranging from Republican right-wingers to Richard Gere will welcome him. India's concern is that a Karmapa not unfriendly to China may disturb the balance in Sikkim. The Kagyu sect wields great influence in this tiny state -- the accession of which to India China does not recognise. In his own way the Dalai Lama is prescient. Quoting an old Tibetan proverb he had said in a message to followers of the Kagyu lineage at the time of Trinley Dorje's ordainment, "Where there is great Karma there is also great Mara (the arch-demon)." If the Karmapa's escape from Tibet is looked at as Karma, then the demons are destined to follow. RELIGIOUS CHEQUERBOARD DALAI LAMA, DHARAMSALA VITAL STATISTICS PANCHEN LAMA OTHER SECTS Nyingma: Known as the Red Hats, it follows the oldest form of Buddhism. Its seat in exile is Karnataka. It has 55 monasteries. Bon: The sect called the White Hats practices Tibet's traditional religion before Buddhism was introduced. But it has now amalgamated with the others and has five monasteries. Sakya: Based on Indian Buddhist teachings, this sect wielded influence in the old Tibetan government. Has 20 monasteries. IDENTIFYING A REINCARNATE KARMAPA TIBET'S TURBULENT HISTORY |
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