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Rumtek monastery continues to remain in the eye of a storm

The six-year-old row over the selection of the reincarnated head of Sikkim's famous Rumtek monastery has taken a complicated turn with a Delhi court issuing a showcause notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation on a complaint against the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and six others for "conspiring" to dismember Sikkim from India and aligning it with the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.

Early this month, Delhi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Prem Kumar had directed the CBI to file a formal reply on the matter by October 26 after the investigating agency submitted that a special leave petition on a similar nature was pending in the Supreme Court.

The court's directive to the agency came in response to a complaint filed by one Narayan Singh, a member of Sikkim's famous Rumtek monastery.

Singh has accused the Dalai Lama, former Sikkim chief minister and opposition Sikkim Sangram Parishad chief Nar Bahadur Bhandari, controversial Buddhist monk (formerly a reagent at Rumtek) Tai Situ Rinpoche, Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Gyalo Thondup, Kunsang Sherab and Sonam Topden of conspiring to "dismember" Sikkim from India.

He alleged that the seven named in the complaint were misusing religion for subversive Chinese propaganda and urged the court to summon the "confidential" report prepared by the then Sikkim chief secretary K S Rao in May 1997 to expose the conspiracy and the entire role of the Dalai Lama and other monks so that "appropriate" action can be taken against them.

Rumtek monastery, some 24 km from Gangtok, is headquarters of the Kagypa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The 16th Gyala Karmapa had established the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek in 1959, after the Chinese overran Tibet.

The Rumtek monastery was built in 1730 by the ninth Karmapa. It was destroyed in a devastating fire and was rebuilt at the present site.

Since the death of the 16th Gyala Karmapa in 1981, the world-renowned Rumtek monastery -- considered the richest in the country and one of the richest in the world -- has been without a head.

In 1992 four monks, Samar Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, Jamgonm Kongtrul Rinpoche and Tsurpu Gyaltsab Rinpoche, who were looking after the monastery and searching for the chosen one, split, with Tai Situ Rinpoche and Tsurupu Gyaltsab Rinpoche identifying nine-year-old Tibet-born Ogyen Thinley Dorjee as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa.

However, the other faction led by Samar Rinpoche opposed the view and insisted that 11-year-old India-born Thinley Thai Dorjee was the rightful heir to the coveted post of the prestigious temple, the Dharma throne of the Rumtek monastery.

According to Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Gyalwa Karmapa leaves behind a "letter of prediction" about his own reincarnation. After his death, this letter is traced and deciphered. Based on this, the new Karmapa is tracked down and identified. Then, a report is sent to the Dalai Lama for his approval. After the completion of several religious and social rituals, the Dalai Lama gives his seal of approval, known as the Bukthan Rinpoche.

Once Ogyen Thinley Dorjee was identified, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche set out for Tibet to bring the boy to Rumtek. He however, was killed in a tragic car accident on the away to Siliguri in April 1992. Just before that, the Dalai Lama had given his seal of approval to Ogyen Thinley.

However, on June 27, 1992, the Chinese authorities proclaimed Ogyen Thinley Dorjee as the 17th Gylwa Karmapa. In September that year, nine-year-old Dorjee was consecrated on the Dharma throne of the Kagyupa sect at Tshurpu monastery in central Tibet by the Chinese authorities.

This, however, did not put an end to the ongoing battle for supremacy at Rumtek. The rivalry between Tai Situ Rinpoche and Samar Rinpoche took an ugly turn, forcing the deployment of central para-military forces inside the Gumpa complex. The monastery is currently under the Sikkim Armed Police. With the central government's intervention after the armed clashes between the two warring groups, the two monks were barred from entering the complex.

While the Indian government declared Tai Situ Rinpoche as "anti-Indian and banned his entry into India since August 1994 for his alleged anti-India activities, the ban was however revoked in April this year. But the revocation was withdrawn later under pressure from the CBI and Research and Analysis Wing. Tai Situ Rinpoche was however allowed to travel freely in India except in Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, and the north eastern states.

In his complaint, Singh alleged that the recognition of the Sino-Tibetan boy as the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa was based on fabricated evidence. While the Chinese government had recognised the boy as being the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, the Indian government did not do so.

He further alleged that Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche's death in a car accident was an act of sabotage borne out by the fact that the accident was never probed into properly by the Sikkim government or any other agency.

Bhandari had brought his "personal" mechanic from Delhi in April 1992 to Siliguri to look after the German-made BMW car owned by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. During maintenance work on April 26, 1992, the powerful car rammed into a tree killing the Rinpoche and three others, the complainant alleged.

Meanwhile, the Buddhist community in the tiny Himalayan state have been pressing the Pawan Chamling led Sikkim Democratic Front government, which came to power in 1994, to urge the central government to take steps to bring the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa from Tibet to Sikkim. Last week a delegation led by state public works minister Thinley Tshering Bhutia urged the chief minister to impress upon the Centre to immediately lift the "ban" imposed on Tai Situ Rinpoche from entering Sikkim.

Last month Chamling met Rinpoche in Delhi where he reiterated that his government would not interfere in the religious affairs of the world-renowned monastery at Rumtek. He had also assured the controversial Buddhist monk that he would request the Centre to bring back the 17th reincarnated Gyalwa Karmapa from Tshurpsu in Tibet.

UNI

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