|
|
 |
News Archive for January 15 - 17, 2000 |
|
January 17 |
-
La Repubblica (1/9/00)- El País (1/11/00)- Mingpao |
|
We have not been able to devote sufficient resources to providing timely references to reports on His Holiness Karmapa in the foreign language
press, but we think it is important to have a sampling to the worldwide interest in the story. While our references to the foreign-language press are not intended to be comprehensive, we have selected
articles to provide an indication of the coverage in the press writing in languages other than English. We also encourage those interested in stories in the foreign-language press to go to the websites
of these publications to read more about the coverage of His Holiness. For instance, Raimondo Bultrini of the Italian daily La Repubblica
on January 9 wrote of the Karmapa's travel to India (rough translation courtesy of Manuel Molina): "Peking had for many years kept the Karmapa under close surveillance, limiting his movements, as it had done with all religious leaders, and ultimately proclaiming him the "patriotic lama" among the highest lineages of Buddhism. The repeated visa refusals of the Chinese authorities compelled the young lama, as his followers have indicated in an Internet website, to undertake by foot, jeep and horse the difficult trek through the snow and ice of the Himalayas which separate his monastery of Tsurphu, near Lhasa, from India." Full text of the article is available at the
La Repubblica website. In El País, the major daily in Spain, reported on January 11 that (rough translation courtesy of Manuel Molina): "The escape to Dharamsala
of the seventeenth Karmapa Lama, the number three official of Tibetan Buddhism, represents a humiliating challenge for China and demonstrates the failure of its policy of "finlandization"
vis-à-vis religious leaders in Tibet. Chinese news agencies did not report the escape. The official agency, New China, has simply announced that he is on a shopping trip abroad. Silence is a
measure of its humiliation. Yesterday, the Chinese press continued to maintain its absolute silence, five days after the arrival of the Karmapa in India." Full text of the article is available at the website
of El País. However, on January 17, the Chinese language daily Mingpao
reports on the Karmapa story in an interesting article which may provide the perspective of Chinese sources (rough translation courtesy Brian Wong): "The Chinese Government now believes that the young Tulku [Karmapa] did not flee totally voluntarily; instead, he was misled and deceived" by others, believed to include the Dalai Lama. This thinking apparently is based on the reasoning that a 14 year old boy could not have made such an arduous journey without significant help.
One cannot help but remark that in this view, the Chinese conspiracy theorists have become interesting bedfellows of the Indian conspiracy theorists. Both believe the Karmapa must have had help in leaving
Tibet. The one, almost insignificant, difference between the two camps is that the Chinese side contends that the Karmapa must have received help from India, and the Indian side believes the Karmapa must
have received help from China. Both then use their conclusion to draw nefarious implications about the other. The paper provides specific details regarding the Karmapa's departure route, theorizing he
drove continuously for three days towards the border, and then made the final 400 kilometer trek on foot. The Mingpao also points to "information sources within Tibet" as the genesis of
the early reports from China that His Holiness Karmapa left China merely to obtain religious implements such as the black hat. Full text of the article is available at the Mingpao website.
Many other articles on His Holiness may be read at the websites of these publications by searching for the keyword "Karmapa." |
-The Statesman- The Times of India |
|
In breaking news reported by the Press Trust of India published in The Statesman's web edition, "India today rejected reports suggesting a conspiracy leading to the escape of the Karmapa from Tibet to India."
Mr Ajit Panja, the Minister of State for External Affairs, said: "'I don't think there is any possibility (of a conspiracy) in this millennium. Those are the old thoughts.' To a question whether there was any Chinese conspiracy to divide the Tibetan Buddhists, Mr Panja told
Star News that in today's world exchange of information was so fast that there was nothing to 'worry' on the issue." George Fernandes, India's Defence Minister, in the same report and also in the
Times of India, explained
that "'allowing the 17th Karmapa, Urygen Thinley Dorje, to stay on in India will not violate the five principles of peaceful coexistence (Panchsheel) between India and China.' 'If people walk in and want to
stay on for a while they can be allowed to stay.' Mr Fernandes said he was not aware that Beijing had issued 'any veiled threat' to New Delhi on granting asylum to the Karmapa. 'This is not a matter on which
threats can be made,' he added. He said it will not 'impinge on relations' with China. "If one has come to our country and wants to stay there is no violation of anything. I don't think we should be
upset over anything related to that", he added." Full text
of the article at The Statesman website. |
--The Hindustan Times |
|
The Hindustan Times'
Brahma Chellany continues the paper's campaign to portray the Karmapa's departure as part of a massive choreographed conspiracy involving a variety of nefarious players from China, India and elsewhere. Despite the Indian government's pronouncement that "there is no possibility of such a conspiracy in this millenium" (reference above), Chellany continues to argue that "India has been caught in the middle of the plot involving the world's largest autocracy known for its Sun Tzu-style unconventional tactics, two rival Karmapa claimants backed by foreign interests and money, the Dalai Lama's politics, and a divided Tibetan exile community. China's Karmapa has to contend with a Kalimpong-based Karmapa supported by Taiwan." Chellany describes a colorful spectacle of world powers and superpowers to be battling upon the battleground of India, but his claims cannot be assessed for the article fails to provide any details or facts to support its contentions.
Full text. |
-Hong Kong Standard- Reuters/Infoseek
- South China Morning Post- CNN- BBC |
|
The Hong Kong Standard and Reuters report on Fernandes' comments and the Standard provides some useful perspective
on Fernandes' political background in India. The Standard also reports that a senior Indian politician, Rabi Ray, former speaker of Indian parliment, urged the government to grant asylum to His Holiness
Karmapa and confer upon him a status equivalent to the Dalai Lama's, in accordance "with New Delhi's 'age-old tradition of religious tolerance.'" Full text of the
Standard. Reuters, BBC and others adopt a phrase which has become commonplace since used by the State Department in briefings, the "Karmapa Lama." Apparently an attempt to make references to
the Karmapa parallel to references to the "Dalai Lama" and "Panchen Lama," it is doubtful that such parallelism is accurate and probably was not ever used in Tibet. Typically, the Karmapa is
referred to as "the Karmapa." Full text of Reuters and BBC. The
South Morning China Post and CNN also mention the announcement in China of the reincarnation of Reting Rinpoche. Full text of SCMP
and CNN.
|
-The Times of India
|
|
Jagdish Bhatt reports from New Delhi in The Times of India on contradictions in press statements being made by spokesmen in
Dharamsala. Full text. |
January 15-16 |
-
AP/Washington Post-
AP/ABC News Wire |
|
AP reporter Arthur Max, in a thoughtful article entitled Young Monk May Become a Leader, writes of
the potential of the Karmapa to serve as one of the leaders of the Tibetan people in relating with from China on behalf of the Tibetan people. "The arrival of the 17th Karmapa, leader of the Karma Kagyu
sect, has given exiled Tibetans a new and tangible leader they can embrace alongside the 64-year-old Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of all Tibetan Buddhists." Full text
.The AP also reports that the Karmapa wishes to revive a "300 year old ceremony" of the Black Crown. "Legend says that only people with spiritual insight can see the true black crown, said to be
woven from the hair of female deities. Those who can see it at the Black Crown Ceremony are released from the cycle of life, death and rebirth." Full text. |
-The Times of India-The Hindustan Times- The Times of India- The Times of India- The Statesman
- The Economist- Telegraph of India |
|
A storm of reports from the major press outlets in India on the government of India's thinking about the status of the Karmapa continues to
lead the news about His Holiness Karmapa. At times, the coverage seems starkly contradictory, as when the The Hindustan Times reports that "India will not grant asylum to Karmapa,"
The Times of India reports the India Defence Minister as stating that "the 17th Karmapa Urygen Trinley Dorje could be allowed to stay in India," and The Statesman reports
that the government is "still mum on Karmapa asylum." Still, one can conclude by sifting through the reports that they are not so contradictory in their coverage of the factual underpinnings of the
issues (which appear still to be in great flux). However, editorial decisions are also dictating the position taken by the reporter, and in this changing situation, there are many perspectives. The press
of India has indicated that the government of India is considering three options regarding the Karmapa's status: he could be provided asylum, he could be provided refugee status consonant with other Tibetans
who had reached India, or he could be deported. The majority of press outlets have concluded or reported that the government has at least unofficially ruled out deportation. The remaining contention in the
press, therefore, concerns the issue of asylum versus refugee status, and the related issue of where His Holiness should be allowed to stay should he obtain some resident status in India. Media reports
focus on a number of concerns said to be motivating the government's indecision. The primary concern is to minimize the offense to China, which is said to be offering to normalize its strained diplomatic
relations with India. Against that pressure is the tradition of India as an open and free democracy, with extraordinarily diverse cultural and religious heritage which enables the great country to offer its
refuge for many displaced peoples. The coverage by The Hindustan Times seems largely against granting asylum because it focuses on security concerns in the government that the Karmapa may be
a Chinese agent. The paper is largely silent about refugee status. An unnamed Hindustan Times
correspondent thus characterizes this "hardline" view as a "majority view," but today also notices that a contrary position has been expressed by "experts who believe the boy-monk when he says he fled from the Chinese. These experts point out that the incident has severely embarrassed Beijing and brought Tibet to international attention. Why, they ask, would the Chinese want to stage an episode that strengthens the characterisation of them as oppressors of the Tibetan people?" Why indeed?
The Times of India
coverage, on the other hand, focuses on what it believes to be the the almost certain grant of refugee status to the Karmapa, and highlights the domestic and international support for granting refugee status to a person widely perceived to be a fourteen year old who heroically escaped from Tibet. Thus it highlights the statements of Defence Minister George Fernandes, currently visiting Japan, that India would not take the "uncivilized" route of deporting the Karmapa.
The Times also reports on the crackdown and arrest of monks remaining behind at the Karmapa's monastery in Tsurphu, Tibet. Finally, The Times of India breaks the story that the
Tibetan government in exile has now officially requested asylum for the Karmapa, but notes that the Indian government position is that such a request, to be official, must be made by the Karmapa himself.
It can be justly argued that The Hindustan Times' position is much harder to justify analytically. To do so, The Hindustan Times must answer what the paper itself acknowledges to
be the "the expert's question": if the Karmapa's "escape" was a sham, why did the Chinese government subject itself to such international humiliation in staging it? If the Karmapa is
motivated purely by the covert motives of an undercover operative of the Chinese government, how does China plan to utilize its 14-year old spy, and why is he a threat to India? To be sure, this analysis is
not so implausible that it can be dismissed out of hand, as even such an eminence gris as the Economist
(another reminder of the eyes of the world watching the press of India) reports it as a consideration of the government of India. But any publication that continues to entertain this counterintuitive position would seem to owe its readers an informed analysis that makes the position plausible.
In providing this perspective, it would be well to note the report from the Telegraph of India
on the Tibetan Children's Village in India "which takes care of kids who have fled their homeland to avoid cultural and educational indoctrination by the Chinese. As reports of the 14-year-old Karmapa's "awesome" flight to India hog the headlines, the centre continues to receive children 'some of whom are less than 10' who have walked across rugged, icy terrain for over a month. Almost all of them are malnourished and covered with frost-bites."
When parsed, oddly enough, The Hindustan Times' position seems to have a negative implication much more decisive than The Times of India: should the Karmapa be found to be a
genuine refugee seeking the freedom to practice his religion in India, the country of Buddhism's birth, he must be granted asylum in India, according to the reasoning of The Hindustan Times. It
will be valuable for the cautious defenders of India's national security to determine to their own satisfaction that the Karmapa did leave China against the wishes of his former keepers, and if evidence is
found to the country, present that evidence rather than rely on unsupported speculation. The Statesman
reports that Indian intelligence agencies have been interrogating His Holiness on his escape over the past few days. Perhaps they will determine the question to The Hindustan Times'
satisfaction. Will that paper than recommend the grant of asylum? A little historical perspective might help this inquiry. Plentiful Kagyu historical literature (e.g., The Life of Marpa and
Rain of Wisdom,
published by Shambhala Press (trans. from original Tibetan written centuries ago into English by Nalanda Translation Committee)) would disclose that the Kagyu form of the Tibetan Buddhist religion of the Karmapa traces itself to Marpa, a tenth century figure who walked four times across the Himalayas to study Buddhism with Indian masters, primarily the teacher Naropa, one of the greatest professors of India's famed Nalanda University. If the Indian security establishment satisfies itself that the Karmapa was motivated by similar religious reasons to leave China at great personal peril, and at enormous sacrifice of all the perquisites granted to him in China, simply to be able to practice his Kagyu Buddhist religion in India like his ancestors for centuries have practiced, will the nation of India rejoice in such a powerful expression of the allure of India?
|
-The Times of India- Times of India-Times of India |
|
The Times of India
reports that the government of Sikkim has requested the central Indian government to ask the Karmapa to reside at his monastery in Rumtek, Sikkim. The Indian press has failed to provide any background information on the seat of the Karmapa in Rumtek. We suggest that an independent examination would establish the following facts without dispute:
The Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje, in the latter half of the Sixteenth Century A.D., was invited by the King of Sikkim to build monasteries, one of which was established by the Kagyu in Rumtek, Sikkim.
White and Douglas, eds., Karmapa The Black Hat Lama of Tibet, p. 81 ((Luzak & Co. Norfolk, UK 1976); Empowerment, p. 19 (Vajradhatu Publications Boulder 1976). The Kagyu order maintained
strong historical ties to Sikkim for many centuries. In the 1960's, after the mass exodus of Buddhists from Tibet, the Sixteenth Karmapa obtained permission from the government of Sikkim to build a new
monastery in Rumtek, near the old monastery built centuries earlier. The new monastery, Dharma Chakra Centre, became the seat of the Kagyu order in exile. The Sixteenth
Karmapa, before his death in 1981, appointed four regents to preside over the monastery after his death. Of the four regents, three had their own extensive institutional obligations separate from Rumtek. The
incarnate lines of Situ Rinpoche, Gyaltsab Rinpoche, and Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche had for many centuries maintained monastic systems in Tibet and had their own ties to other institutions. The fourth
regent, Shamar Rinpoche, by circumstance had no independent institutional obligations in Tibet or elsewhere. This was because his line had been banned in the 18th Century by the government of Tibet, after it
accused the Tenth Shamar (742-1792) of trying to overthrow the Tibetan government. The Shamarpa in his own biographical literature admits his incarnation line was outlawed in Tibet: "[T]he regent [of the
Dalai Lama] sent the army to take over all the monasteries of the Shamarpa, forcibly, and to integrate them into the Gelugpa School. . . . A law was passed that there no longer be anyone called 'Sharmapa';
it was forbidden to recognize any incarnation of that lama and he was no longer allowed to reside in Tibet." The Seed of Faith: A Short History of the Line of the Incarnations of the Shamarpas,
trans. Katia Holmes (Kagyu Samye Ling 1980). Thus Shamar Rinpoche is the first to admit that the monasteries and related properties of the Shamar Rinpoche line were confiscated, and his incarnation
line was banned from Tibet. Many individual previous incarnations of Shamar Rinpoche prior to the nineteenth century were very important figures within Kagyu history. However, it is undisputed that
after 1792 there were no officially recognized incarnations of Shamar Rinpoche in Tibet. In addition, the subsequent centuries witnessed the ascendancy within Eastern Tibet of the influence of Tai Situ
Rinpoche's Palpung Monastery, and the recognition of the Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche The Great (born 1813). Whereas the the lineage heads who had rotated with the Karmapas prior to the late 1700's consisted of
Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsab Rinpoche, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the lineage heads along with the Karmapa included Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche but not Shamar Rinpoche. After the Tibetan
diaspora, the Sixteenth Karmapa officially recognized the current Shamarpa, who played an important role in the administration over the years. Moreover, at the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, the Dalai
Lama confirmed the reappointment of the current Shamar Rinpoche. However, these historical circumstances meant that while the other regents each had their own uninterrupted line of property and entitlements
and obligations separate from Rumtek remaining in Tibet, and to some extent outside Tibet, in India Shamar Rinpoche had only those entitlements provided him by the Sixteenth Karmapa in Rumtek. After
the death of the Karmapa, Shamar Rinpoche sought to exert control over Rumtek Monastery. His entitlement and control over the Monastery was subsequently challenged within the Kagyu order, and in 1992, he
left Rumtek Monastery, leaving the administration. Since that time, Shamar Rinpoche has sought to wrest control of Rumtek Monastery from those loyal to His Holiness Karmapa through the courts and the press.
The Times of India in Sunday's paper features an interview with Shamar Rinpoche. At the end of the interview, Times
reporter Maneesh Pandey reports that "Shamar was at loss of words when asked that the ongoing power struggle projects the holy lamas as materialistic, power hungry and is contrary to the teachings of Buddha. He simply replied: 'We regret it.'" Though Shamar Rinpoche may regret it, as his interview shows, he has been far from reticent in speaking his own views. Unfortunately, the embarrassment of the Karmapa's side has apparently precluded them from speaking directly about it. Now that this issue is on the world stage, it would be exceedingly valuable for the press of India to launch an independent journalistic investigation into the validity of the claims of both sides, and to report to the world its results.
A review of Shamar Rinpoche's statements in his interview would seem to raise these avenues for investigation: 1) How does Shamar Rinpoche's claim to hierarchical authority over the other regents square
with the banning of his incarnation in Tibet and the recent contradictory history outside Tibet showing shared authority with the other regents? 2) Whether or not Shamar Rinpoche is a ranking hierarch of the
Kagyu order, does this have any bearing on the authority of His Holiness Karmapa when virtually all other Kagyu leaders support the Seventeenth Karmapa and refuse to follow Shamar Rinpoche's directions
regarding the Karmapa? 3) Shamar Rinpoche argues that no Tibetan religious leader may try to minister to his disciples in Tibet without fear of being labeled a stooge of the Communist government. Does this
theory not effectively abandon the Tibetan people, leaving them without any hope of religious education, even for a short eight years while a Karmapa matures from a boy of six years to a man of fourteen
years? The Times of India
also has a valuable article reporting on the names and authority of the lineage heads of the four major Tibetan orders, in which the paper notes that all heads were confirmed by the Dalai Lama. |
January 12-14 |
Click here to go to the news archive containing references to articles on His Holiness
the Gyalwa Karmapa dated January 12-14, 2000 |
January 11 |
|
Click
here to go to the news archive containing references to articles
on His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa dated January 11, 2000
|
January 10 |
|
Click
here to go to the news archive containing references to articles
on His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa dated January 10, 2000
|
January 9 |
Click here to go to the news archive containing references to articles on His Holiness
the Gyalwa Karmapa dated January 9, 2000 |
January 8 |
Click here to go to the news archive containing references to articles on His Holiness
the Gyalwa Karmapa dated January 8, 2000 |
January 7 |
Click here to go to the news archive containing references to articles on His Holiness
the Gyalwa Karmapa dated January 7, 2000 |
|
|
