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3 China
gains from India's Tibetan
bungle By Peter Lee
China is looking on with a certain amount
of satisfaction as India bungles the management of
a key anti-China strategic asset - the Tibetan
emigre and indigenous ethnic Tibetan Buddhist
communities in north India - with a high-profile,
borderline xenophobic campaign against the Karmapa
Ogyen Trinley Dorje, a young monk widely viewed as
the designated successor to the Dalai Lama as the
symbol of Tibetan culture, religion and national
aspirations.
Indian newspapers have been
filled with accusations of financial misconduct,
intention to evade currency and real estate laws,
and, most provocatively, the claim that the
Karmapa is a Chinese mole, receiving bricks of
Chinese cash that he intended to use to establish
a string of pro-Chinese monasteries on the Indian
side of the border.
In the West - which
tends to take a relatively simplistic view of
emigre Tibetan affairs
and the dharma-loving purity of Tibetan Buddhist
monks - the plight of the Karmapa has been a
bewildering shock. But from the perspective of
emigre Tibetan politics and Indian security
policy, the campaign against the Karmapa is not
very surprising.
From the outside, the
story of the Karmapa, known as Ogyen Trinley
Dorje, is a recapitulation of the heroic
foundation myth of the Tibetan emigre community
personified by the 14th Dalai Lama.
Ogyen
Trinley Dorje was identified and confirmed inside
the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the
reincarnation of the Karmapa, the head of the
Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, as a child in
1992. In 1999 he escaped to freedom, appearing in
Dharmsala, India, where he was embraced by the
Dalai Lama. The charismatic young monk was
promptly identified by many Tibetan emigres in
Dharmsala and foreigner supporters of the Tibetan
cause as a worthy successor to the Dalai Lama as
Tibetan Buddhism's ambassador to the world.
This happy tale is, unfortunately, only
part of the story.
The story of the
Karmapa is also the story of violent, bloody and
sometimes fatal struggles within Tibetan Buddhism,
within the Kagyu sect itself, and the
determination of India's security establishment to
control Tibetan Buddhist affairs in the sensitive
border regions.
There is little love lost
between the Kagyu sect and the Dalai Lama's
Gelugpa sect.
The Dalai Lama claims
political and doctrinal ascendancy over the other
Tibetan Buddhist sects by virtue of the Gelugpa
sect's political dominance of Lhasa and the
Tibetan heartland since the 17th century. The
stated hierarchy is Dalai Lama first, followed by
the Panchen Lama, and the Karmapa in third place.
The Kagyu sect - also known as the Black
Hat sect by virtue of the magical headgear woven
of goddess hair worn by the Karmapa on ceremonial
occasions - disputes the presumption of the Dalai
Lama to speak on its behalf. Kagyu adherents point
out that the Karmapa holds precedence as a
reincarnation over the Dalai Lama since the
Karmapa reincarnation was initiated over 100 years
before the first Dalai Lama was enthroned. The
seat of the Karmapa was the Tsurpha monastery
inside the present-day PRC; the 16th Karmapa fled
to Sikkim with the Kagyu sect's most important
regalia and treasures, and established an imposing
new seat called Rumtek a few miles outside the
Sikkimese capital of Gangtok.
This
institutional friction was exacerbated in the
1960s when the Dalai Lama's decidedly un-Buddhist
brother, Gyalo Thondup - who was the US Central
Intelligence Agency liaison for the secret war
against the Chinese occupation of Tibet -
spearheaded the creation of a "united front" that
would centralize the control of the fractious
emigre community and sects under the control of
the government in exile in Dharmsala. The other
sects were apparently loathe to bow to Gelugpa
control and formed their own political
organization, the "Fourteen Settlements" group
under the leadership of Gungthang Tsultrim.
In 1977, Gungthang was assassinated. His
assassin allegedly told police that he had been
paid $35,000 to commit the crime by the
government-in-exile, and further alleged that he
had been promised a bounty of double that amount
to kill the current Karmapa. [1]
Efforts
to centralize control of the emigre community
collapsed, leaving a residue of bad feeling
between Gelugpa and Kagyu leaders.
The
situation was complicated by a split within the
Kagyu sect itself upon the death of the 16th
Karmapa in 1981.The conflict boils down to the
rivalry between two Rinpoche in the Kagyu order,
Tai Situ Rinpoche and Shamar Rinpoche ("Rinpoche"
is an honorific typically applied to reincarnated
lamas).
They have battled for decades over
control of Rumtek and its ecclesiastical and
worldly treasures (which are now in legal limbo;
Indian courts have awarded control to a trust
established by Shamar Rinpoche, but the local
government has not taking the politically
traumatic step of evicting the partisans of Tai
Situ Rinpoche, who actually occupy the facility).
They also continue to battle over the very
identity of the 17th Karmapa.
Tai Situ
Rinpoche claimed to have found a secret note from
the 16th Karmapa that directed him to the boy
subsequently acknowledged by the Dalai Lama and
enthroned in 1992 as Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th
Karmapa.
Shamar Rinpoche had none of that,
asserting that a dream led him to a different
Karmapa, one Trinley Thaye Dorje, whom he quietly
brought to India from the PRC and enthroned in
1994.
Adherents of Shamar Rinpoche
consider Ogyen Trinley Dorje's acknowledgement by
the Dalai Lama as a piece of low, Gelugpa
skullduggery. An America student of Shamar
Rinpoche, Erik Curren, wrote a book on the Karmapa
controversy titled "Buddha's Not Smiling". Talking
to Asia Times, Mr Curren characterized the
elevation of Ogyen Trinley Dorje as a virtual coup
d'etat against the Kagyu sect by the Dalai Lama,
with the intention of elevating an
easily-manipulated son of nomads to the position
of Karmapa.
Shamar Rinpoche's followers
have also hinted that a neutral Rinpoche was
murdered during the trip to Tibet to find Ogyen
Trinley Dorje so he wouldn't complicate the
selection process. They have also alleged that the
young man now in Dharmsala isn't even Ogyen
Trinley Dorje at all.
They claim that the
real Ogyen Trinley Dorje was afflicted by a
learning disability that rendered him incapable of
performing the duties of the Karmapa; therefore,
according to the accusation, Tai Situ Rinpoche
introduced an impostor, an older relation of the
boy, to take his place.
Allegedly, this
boy was too old to be the reincarnation of the
16th Karmapa (he would have been born before the
previous Karmapa passed on); the records of the
medical examination performed upon his arrival in
India - that would have demonstrated that his
"organs" were too developed to be consistent with
his stated age - have, in the best conspiratorial
tradition, disappeared.
The most useful
accusation against Ogyen Trinley Dorje - one that
attracted the close and hostile attention of the
Indian security apparatus-is that his patron, Tai
Situ Rinpoche, is colluding with the PRC to extend
Chinese influence into India's Himalayan border
regions.
The Indian views on Tai Situ
Rinpoche are laid out in a secret memo dated 1997
from India's Chief Secretary in Sikkim, K Sreedhar
Rao, to the Indian cabinet on the issues involved
in the struggle between Tai Situ Rinpoche and
Shamar Rinpoche to control and occupy Rumtek.
As reproduced as an appendix in Mr
Curren's book, Rao's suspicions concerning Tai
Situ Rinpoche are manifest.
The first
major area of concern is that, after Tai Situ
Rinpoche identified the Karmapa, he took him to
Tsurphu Monastery, the traditional seat of the
Kagyu sect inside China, where he was enthroned
with the support of the Chinese government, and
received a "highly visible, ostentatious
reception" in Lhasa. Indeed, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
is the only major Tibetan religious figure
acknowledged both by the Chinese government and
the Dalai Lama.
The report goes on:
The Chinese Connection And Role Of
Tai Situ Rinpoche It would appear from the
above that Tai Situ Rinpoche group had wittingly
or unwittingly played into the hands of the
Chinese. However, reports indicate that the Tai
Situ who is a Tibetan national, had been
visiting )Tibet on and off and in 1984~85 he
traveled extensively and drafted a program for
so-called development of his country ... What is
noteworthy is that throughout his report he
talks about friendly connections between the
Chinese and the people of other countries, study
of the Chinese language and study of Chinese
medicine. He talks about Chinese in the most
friendly terms referring to the Chinese as
Chinese brothers. He talks about Chinese
brothers living abroad as well.
He talks
about the autonomous region of Tibet and
indicates that his plan has the honest intention
to benefit the people of China and in particular
the autonomous region of Tibet, Sitron, Yunnan,
Gangshuo, etc. He profusely thanks the two
leaders of China, namely, Hu Yao Ban and Deng
Xiao Peng as well as other leaders of China for
their excellent political stance. The report of
Tai Situ Rinpoche is addressed to the Director
of Chinese Communist Government. All this
indicates that Tai Situ had built up a good
relationship with the Chinese possibly from
1984.
It would be appropriate to
consider the Chinese interest in this entire
matter at this stage. ...It is not inconceivable
that having established their right to recognize
the reincarnates, the Chinese would not hesitate
to identify the successor to the present Dalai
Lama, when the time comes ... It is also
important to note that along the entire
Himalayan belt right from Ladakh to Arunachal
Pradesh the influence of Tibetan Lamaistic
Buddhism is extensive with a string of
monasteries.
It is reported that the
Chinese have been making efforts to penetrate
into these monasteries and as of now no less
than eleven monasteries are headed by Lamas who
car: be considered as proteges of China. It
would be most undesirable to allow the Chinese
to extend their influence in this manner and it
is in this context that the present situation in
Rumtek needs to be carefully viewed.
[2]
A 1998 suit filed by a follower of
Shamar Rinpoche further accused Tai Situ
Rinpoche-and the Dalai Lama and his brother-of
scheming to seize Rumtek, destabilize Sikkim, and
hand it over to the Chinese. [3]
Certainly, beyond pleasant Buddhist
platitudes concerning universal brotherhood, Tai
Situ Rinpoche has made no secret of his efforts to
re-establish his position inside Tibet with the
help of the Chinese government.
He has
rebuilt his traditional seat, Palpung Monastery,
in western Sichuan province. His lavish website
offers gorgeous views of the monastery and states
that 300 students and 50 monks reside there.
For its part, the Chinese government
appears to encourage the establishment of Tibetan
organizations overseas that are affiliated with
partisans of Tai Situ Rinpoche and promote Ogyen
Trinley Dorje as the Karmapa.
In India,
Tai Situ Rinpoche's reception has been less
friendly. The Indian government banned him from
entry into India from 1994 to1998 (he travels
under a Bhutanese passport). His travel to the
Himalayan border regions is restricted to Himachal
Pradesh, where the Tibetan government in exile is
located, and where his main facility inside India,
Palpung Sherabling, is located. He cannot travel
to the Northeast, Jammu/Kashmir, or Sikkim, where
Rumtek is located. [4]
In a striking
contrast to Western perception of Ogyen Trinley
Dorje as the adored heir apparent to the Dalai
Lama, the Indian government actively restricts his
movements as well. In addition to limitations on
his domestic travel - he has tried to visit Sikkim
on several occasions but been refused - the Indian
government blocked his attempt to go to Europe and
make a second trip to the United States in 2010.
With the Dalai Lama aging, it may have
become a matter of some urgency to the Indian
government that Ogyen Trinley Dorje not enhance
his prestige, political influence, and financial
clout in the West, thereby placing his perceived
pro-Chinese patron,Tai Situ Rinpoche, near the
heart of the emigre Tibetan movement.
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