Karmapa Continues To Languish In Dharamsala
China Forges Closer Ties To India As Li Peng Visits

Li Peng, Chairman of the National People's Congress of China (the legislative body), has just wrapped up a nine-day visit to India, which included a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee. Li is one of the most senior Chinese officials ever to visit India, and these meetings are a continuation of recent attempts by the two Asian mega-powers to forge closer ties. Vajpayee summarized the basis for the meetings as follows:

"As two great civilizations and neighbors, India and China are engaged in the process of resolving, and putting behind us, past differences and forging a new and dynamic relationship for the 21st century for the benefit of our two countries and the world.'' Asia Times

Li's visit is part of a series of diplomatic initiatives which included earlier meetings between the superpowers. One of the issues considered to be on the table in such diplomatic exchanges is the status in India of His Holiness Karmapa. Karmapa News has previously commented upon earlier meetings and press speculation about them in relation to His Holiness. See Karmapa News March 7, 2000 and Karmapa News April 11, 2000.

The Karmapa's status is reportedly pertinent to Li's visit to India because the "Chinese leadership always suspected Delhi's motives in playing host to the exiled Dalai Lama, over 100,000 Tibetan refugees and, since last year, the Karmapa Lama or "boy Lama" whose dramatic mountain flight into India threatened further Sino-Indian upset." Financial Times (London). But initial reports from Indian officials indicated that the Karmapa's escape was not  expected to be on Li's agenda in India. PTI . Upon his arrival, "Li told journalists that he did not intend to bring up the presence of the Karmapa Lama in India (who had fled from Tibet to Dharamshala around this time a year ago)." Indian Express .

 In response to press inquiries, Indian officials were noncommittal as to whether the "Karmapa issue" was discussed during the visit:

"[W]hether the other vexed questions such as the proliferation of cheap Chinese consumer goods in the Indian market, the Karmapa and overt Chinese support to Pakistan's ballistic missile programme figured in the talks evinced evasive responses from the Indian side. 'What is important is that both sides displayed the political will to carry the relationship forward,' a senior official said. The Joint Working Group and Experts Group are there to go into the specifics. The idea is to stimulate the political process for creation of conditions for eventual solving of the particular hitches, the official said. 'It is understood that it is going to be a long drawn process and both sides need to display patience.'" Hindustan Times .

The Indian Express and The Tribune similarly reported that the issue of the Karmapa's legal status in India was raised during the Li visit. The Asia Times concluded that Li had deliberately declined to pressure India on the Karmapa issue on this visit:

India could not but appreciate the fact that Li did not ruffle its feathers on the contentious issues of India having given refuge to the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa Lama. Li's arrival coincided with the first anniversary of the flight of the young Ugyen Thinley Dorji - the Karmapa Lama - to India from Tibet. Significantly, New Delhi has so far refused to give any refugee-status papers to the Karmapa despite requests by the Dalai Lama himself, because it is still undecided about the identity of the boy.

Li's visit is the latest attempt at a reconciliation of the tensions between China and India, which arise from a long history of animosity, but were most recently strained almost to the breaking point by India's nuclear testing program, including a history of mutual suspicion vividly chronicled by Sultan Shahin writing in the Asia Times . In response to the underground atomic blasts, Beijing broke off ongoing talks with India about border issues. Li's visit and remarks were taken as the most recent sign that China is willing to return to those negotiations and heal this most recent rupture in relations. Financial Times (London)

On the occasion of visits such as Li's, it may be helpful to remind ourselves just how India's decision on the freedom of the Karmapa became entangled with larger issues of China-India diplomacy. Tibetan issues are present both implicitly and explicitly during any high-profile visit between Chinese and Indian leaders. As usual, Tibetan exiles protested Li's visit vigorously, decrying China's failure to respect the human rights of Buddhists in Tibet. China Times . The timing of Li's visit played into these issues, as January marked the anniversary of the Karmapa's escape, and highlighted the plights of the thousands of Tibetans fleeing into India, an issue gaining increasing attention from the international media. Reuters, Washington Post, Indian Express

There are also implicit realpolitik concerns having to do with the role played by Tibet in the vexed modern-day diplomatic history of China's relations to India, going back to the last days of the Raj. The centerpiece of Li's talk with Vajpayee was a commitment by both China and India to "to speed up their efforts to complete 'clarification' of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as soon as possible with an aim to find permanent solution to the border dispute in a just and equitable manner." Hindustan Times , The Tribune. These talks had been broken off after India's nuclear tests, and only recently resumed.

This border subject to dispute is the boundary between India and China. In 1962, Indian and Chinese military units facing each other over the disputed borderline came to blows, and thousands of Indian soldiers lost their lives. The Tibetan connection with all this stems from the fact that the specific border areas at issue are primarily better known as the border between India and Tibet, set by negotiations between the Tibetan government of the Dalai Lama and India, through British diplomat Henry McMahon, in 1914 pursuant to the Simla Convention. See the detailed discussion of this border dispute and Tibet's role in it at Karmapa News March 7, 2000 .

Part of that border divides China from the Indian state of Sikkim. Map. "Long a sovereign state, Sikkim became a protectorate of India in 1950 and a state in 1975." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Although a de facto protectorate of the British Raj since the mid-19th century, China officially refuses to recognize that Sikkim is part of India. Such recognition involves accepting the disputed borderline between Sikkim and Tibet, which China steadfastly resists. At the same time, China has often made concessions which have given de facto recognition to Sikkim's status as part of India, WTN Archive 1994 , WTN Archive 1995 , and the politics are tangled. Tribune

The connection of the Karmapas to Sikkim is not so tangled, but rather is strong and ancient.The Karmapas established monasteries in Sikkim during the16th Century, when the Ninth Karmapa directed the construction of three monasteries in Sikkim. The monastery at Rumtek become the main seat in exile for the Karmapa when the Sixteenth Karmapa first fled Tibet four centuries later. The current Rumtek Monastery was newly constructed in the 1960's close to the old monastery building. The Karmapa's monks patiently await the return of His Holiness to his seat at Rumtek Monastery, praying for His long life, but New Delhi refuses to allow the Karmapa to go to Rumtek. Reuters .

From the point of view of the Tibetan community, the Karmapa's return to Rumtek is quite straightforward. As the Dalai Lama recenly put it:

Now, several months have passed since he came. He still lives in a rented house.  That's really unfortunate. I think that as far as the Tibetan refugee community is concerned, since his previous incarnation's seat is Rumtek in Sikkim, it is logical that the 16th Karmapa's reincarnation, now that he is already in India, should be allowed to go and settle there.

WTN Transcript of December 28, 2000 Press Conference. From the knowledgable viewpoint of Tibetans living in India familiar with the Tibetan culture, questions about the Karmapa's role have been resolved, and the community in its entirety waits for his return to Rumtek. Nevertheless, in an oddity of reverse linkage, China continues to find ways to make its domestic policy on Tibet a concern for India's foreign policy. Continuing this linkage makes little sense for China or India.

For two main reasons, the relationship between China and India should be quite independent of the issue of the Karmapa. First, China's interest in reconciling on some level with India is based on important strategic values unconnected to the Tibetan issues about which it continues to bluster. As David Gardner described it writing for the Financial Times (London)

In addition, successful visits to India last year by the leaders of the US, Russia and Japan - the three countries that most preoccupy China - appear to have woken Beijing up to India's potential as an emerging economic and strategic rival. The rapprochement between Washington and Delhi, at loggerheads throughout the cold war, appears to have given Beijing a particular jolt.

"Beijing was strategically discomfited to find that every other major country was 'engaging' with India and she was being left out," says Bharat Karnad of the Centre for Policy Research, a leading Delhi thinktank. "China wants a 'strategic dialogue', as with the other P5 [permanent Security Council] countries."

Second, India cannot help China with the root of its Tibetan problems. Isabelle Hilton, writing in The Guardian, recently commented that:

[R]egardless of the guarantees in the Chinese constitution of equal respect for all nationalities within the People's Republic - and even an early promise by Mao that any ethnic group that wished for independence would have it - all attachment to non-Han culture and tradition was defined as reactionary. Religious belief, needless to say, was the most reactionary of all.

That era has passed and Maoism has been abandoned by the very party that once took the notion of thought crime to new heights. Why then, has there been no progress on the question of Tibet? After a brief period of liberalisation in the 80s (which led swiftly to increasing nationalism and street protests against Chinese rule) conditions remain tough. The practice of religion is permitted, but under strict party control. In recent years, a string of disasters - from the debacle of the search for the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most significant religious leader after the Dalai Lama, to the dramatic defection in January of the 17th Karmapa, the leader of the Karma-Kagyu school - have exposed the absurdity of China's claims that Beijing is winning the battle for Tibetan allegiance.

The full text of the articles are at the respective websites of the South Nexus, the Indian Express , the Hindustan Times, The Tribune, the Financial Times (London), the China Times, the Washington Post, Indian Express ,  Hindustan Times, the Asia Times and Guardian. The Reuters article is at Alta Vista's site and the Dalai Lama's transcript at WTN .

Tibet Information Network news release
News On The Seats Of The Karmapas

The Tibet Information Network reports on the anniversary of His Holiness Karmapa's escape that conditions at Tsurphu Monastery "remain tense," but prospects for the Karmapa's return to his exile seat in Rumtek Monastery, are a bit better.

According to TIN's sources, the Chinese authorities have clamped a tight lid over Tibetans connected to the Karmapa. New monks are not permitted to join Tsurphu Monastery, two monks arrested by Chinese authorities after the Karmapa's departure are apparently still in detention, and those monks that have been allowed to stay at the monastery are under continuing pressure to decrease their religious studies in favor of patriotic Chinese activities. The Karmapa's parents are said to remain under surveillance in their home prefecture of Chamdo, after they were removed there from Lhasa.

Of particular worry is the fact that Pawo Rinpoche, the young reincarnation recognized in Tibet by the Karmapa, has been removed from his monastery and forced to enroll in normal school. The Pawo Rinpoches are important Kagyu figures. For instance, a Pawo Rinpoche was the Eighth Karmapa's main disciple and authored a number of texts important to the lineage.

TIN also quotes extensively from Tibetan government in exile Religious Affairs Minister Tashi Wangdi about the Karmapa's position in Tibet. Wangdi says the government in exile is of the opinion that the Karmapa has been given permission to stay in India, and the only remaining question is how to normalize his stay there: "The position is that the Karmapa can stay in India. It is not correct to say that he needs a legal status; the government is allowing him to stay. However the government of India does not wish his stay in India to be high profile and it seems that they wish things to move cautiously, particularly in terms of diplomatic exchange and in the light of forthcoming visits by senior figures in the Chinese Communist Party to India - Li Peng, Chairman of the Chinese National People's Congress, is due to visit this month and Premier Zhu Rongji may also travel to Delhi soon. But we are optimistic that the Karmapa will go to Rumtek sooner rather than later – possibly within the next six months. The government of India has a positive attitude towards his future." We note that the Indian press previously reported that the Karmapa was not expected to be discussed during Li Peng's visit beginning January 9. PTI/South Nexus.

It is hard to reconcile Wangdi's statements that the Karmapa does not need a clarification of his legal status with restrictions on his ability to leave Gyuto monastery. We are under the impression that legal status in India conferred on an individual basic freedom of movement, among other rights.

One of the story lines in some Indian media is that the Karmapa's movement is restricted because of a continuing investigation into whether he may be a Chinese spy. In view of the security crackdown and widely reported embarassment in China over the Karmapa's escape, such speculation simply leaves informed observers agape. Recently, William C. Triplett II, writing in the Washington Post, summed up the impact of the Karmapa's escape as follows: "Beijing's hard line is stimulated by the escape of the young Tibetan religious leader Gyalwa Karmapa from Tibet in January. There are few Quislings among the Tibetans, but Beijing hoped that its years of indoctrination of the Karmapa would pay off. Now the Chinese know that they cannot trust any Tibetan to betray his or her country."

Triplett describes the crackdown as follows: "The current Communist Chinese program in Tibet has a number of parts. First, religious and cultural repression have increased to the point that the Tibetans are calling it a "Mini-Cultural Revolution," harking back to the 1966-75 period when Communist mobs destroyed a substantial portion of Tibet's cultural heritage. Lately the atheism laws have been more fiercely enforced and violators more severely punished. Monasteries have become the targets of police attention, and some have been closed down. Even Tibetan-style architecture is under attack as the People's Liberation Army and police bulldoze traditional buildings and dwellings. All of this is accompanied by a heavy external propaganda program designed to confuse pretense with truth.

The Telegraph earlier summarized as follows: In January the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama - head of one of Tibet's four Buddhist sects - walked 900 miles across the Himalayas to freedom in India. His escape was an immense snub to the Chinese, who had been trying to use him as an in-house propaganda tool in their campaign against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence." The Toronto Star/Associated Press described the Karmapa as "the most significant defector since his predecessor, the Dalai Lama, fled in 1959."

Nevertheless, TIN, one of the world's most respected authorities on China's activities in Tibet, apparently believes that the Indian establishment needs to be reminded of the evidence once again: the Karmapa was not a Chinese agent, and was known to have resisted Chinese attempts to make him conform to party wishes in Tibet. TIN states, unremarkably, that "There is no evidence to support speculation that has appeared in the Indian press that the Karmapa's escape was stage-managed by the Chinese authorities." Though such speculation is a consistent refrain of factions opposed to the Karmapa, no evidence is ever cited to support it.

Regarding the Karmapa's return to his seat in Rumtek, TIN quotes the Dalai Lama as follows: "Together with the Indian government we have started discussions on the issue of resolving the Karmapa's residence status in India. I told the Indian government that the original seat of the Karmapa is in Tsurphu in Tibet, and the second seat is in Rumtek, Sikkim. It is logical that the 17th Karmapa after arrival from Tibet should go directly to Rumtek and will naturally regain the second seat of his predecessor." Tashi Wangdi is also quoted as stating that

The full text of the release is available at TIN's website .

March 7-9

February 28-March 3

Click here to go to the news archive containing references to articles on His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa dated February 28-March 3, 2000