His Holiness the XVIIth Gyalwa Karmapa, In India
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The Tibetan Information Network (TIN) release which sparked worldwide attention to the reported detention by Beijing of the Karmapa's parents was posted in full at the TIN website. Unfortunately, we continue to hear nothing at all about the situation of His Holiness' family remaining in Tibet.

The TIN release contains a wealth of detail that is not elsewhere available. Though we cannot verify a number of details in the report, the extensive report rewards a close reading.

Based on reports to TIN from unidentified sources, TIN notes a number of incidents which indicated that the Karmapa was increasingly unable to comply with Beijing's expectations as to the conduct of his religious affairs:

"He consistently refused to make a public statement giving recognition to the boy appointed by the Chinese as the Panchen Lama in May 1995, Gyaltsen Norbu. Unofficial reports indicated that during a meeting on 4 July last year, the Karmapa showed some reluctance to prostrate before nine-year old Gyaltsen Norbu. According to an official report of the meeting, which took place at Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse, the Panchen Lama's traditional seat, the Karmapa and the Chinese-selected Panchen Lama 'exchanged greetings and souvenirs' (Xinhua, 4 July 1999). According to a further reliable report, the Karmapa also refused to denounce the Dalai Lama during a political meeting conducted at Tsurphu before his escape." 

The Karmapa's birth in Tibet can only be understood within the context of the Tibetan Buddhist system recognizing the voluntary reincarnation of religious leaders, which we refer to on this website as the tulku system.  The tulku system is primarily spiritual in nature, and deeply implicated in the Tibetan Buddhist belief system. There are certainly political aspects to the tulku system, some of which we have recently noted, yet the tulku system is authentically spiritual in nature, and we think that Tibetan Buddhism cannot be understood without acknowledging the spiritual dimension of this extensive system of voluntary rebirth.

The tulku system provides profound spiritual benefit to Tibetans and other followers of Tibetan Buddhism. In speaking of the ability of the Dalai Lamas to choose the location and timng fo their rebirths, Newsweek's Liu noted that many claims about the ability of tulkus to control their rebirths "may sound like the most preposterous of superstitions. But Tibetans believe the Dalai Lama can do exactly what he says. And that makes it as good as true."

The ability of the Karmapas to control their rebirth is the stuff of legend. As the Telegraph's Brown points out, the "Karmapas are the great miracle workers of Tibetan Buddhism . . . .The third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, was said to able to speak on the day of his birth. The eighth, Mikyo Dorje, carved a stone statue that was able to speak and left clear footprints in solid rock - a skill apparently shared by the 16th, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, who fled from Tibet in 1959 when the Chinese gained control of the country."

For believers in the spiritually authentic version of the Buddhist tulku system, it is now very clear why the 17th Karmapa chose to be reborn in Tibet. For Tibetans, it signalled the return to Tibet of the 16th Karmapa. For 14 years His Holiness provided spiritual sustenance for the millions of Tibetan faithful remaining in Tibet. One cannot overestimate the enormous blessing his physical presence provided while he was there.

Unfortunately, the restrictions on the Karmapa's spiritual path eventually made it impossible for him to stay in Tibet. That the 17th Karmapa was eventually forced to leave is in some ways a tragedy for the faithful remaining behind, and a blessing for those who are not in Tibet. The Karmapa now brings his physical presence to the West and the East outside China, but for his flock, the Karmapa's spiritual presence is not bounded by any geographical limitation. Believers in Tibet may be saddened, but are unswayed in their conviction that the Karmapa has the ability to provide personal spiritual guidance, no matter where he is located. The Tibetan Information Network news release is at the TIN website.

Newsweek's International edition, published in Asia with a picture of His Holiness Karmapa gracing the cover, features an additional article by Melinda Liu, entitled The Day of the Living Buddhas. The article focuses on the Tibetan tulku tradition, whereby leaders of religious institutions are chosen by identifying reincarnations of prior leaders. Liu also provides a historical perspective, noting that Beijing has tried to control the tulku process for centuries:

"Two centuries ago, Tibet's nobles begged for China's help in repelling a Nepalese invasion. The Manchu emperor (also an ardent Buddhist) obliged. In exchange, he demanded a say in selecting both the Dalai Lama and Tibet's second highest religious leader, the Panchen Lama. From then until the naming of the 12th Dalai Lama a century ago, the spiritual leaders were chosen by drawing lots from a ritual Golden Urn in Lhasa. Some Tibetans thought it was a good way to cut down on the endless squabbling between rival monastic factions."

In the year 2000, Beijing is the arch-enemy of the Dalai Lama and the so-called "Yellow Church" of the Gelugpa (named after the color of the hats), and is hardly a supporter any more of Buddhism in Tibet. Nevertheless, some current parties seemed to have missed out on the fact that Tibet is radically changed from the Tibet of 1792.

Liu notes that the current Shamar Rinpoche opposes the Karmapa, and has attacked as a forgery the prediction letter of the Sixteenth Karmapa identifying the Seventeenth, going so far as to anoint "a candidate of his own to be 17th Karmapa. The Sharmapa's camp has spread rumors that the Dalai Lama and the recently escaped Karmapa may be secretly in cahoots with Beijing." To see a conspiracy between the Dalai Lama and China speaks of an odd blindness to current events.  Newsweek (Asia International Edition) article is available online at the Newsweek website.

-The Telegraph (London) (article text)

The Indian Express

A major investigation of the Karmapa's escape and basis for the faction's attacks has been conducted by the The Telegraph (London) (article text).  Mick Brown provides by far the most comprehensive and in-depth investigative journalism that has been published on this topic to date. We do not agree with all his conclusions, and wish that certain points had received different emphasis, but this exhaustive article is undoubtedly the definitive journalistic analysis in the press to date.

The article is unfortunately entitled "Battle of the Lamas." Brown's comprehensive story provides a valuable service in bringing the perspective of outside observer to the facts. Though some might disagree, this website has also tried to provide information and analysis, rather than purely rhetorical argument. Many issues in the dispute have been discussed in these pages and we encourage those interested to use the search mechanism at this website to research the issues, to gain information, and to make their own decisions.

Though Brown's extensive piece has many points and covers a lot of ground, we draw your attention to two key conclusions. The first:

Shamar Rinpoche's following lies principally among some monks in Bhutan and Nepal - he has a negligible following among Tibetans; but he has waged an energetic promotional campaign in the Western press with the help of a significant, if somewhat improbable, ally - a Danish Buddhist named Ole Nydahl, whose own group, 'The Diamond Way', commands a large following in Germany and eastern Europe. [H]e is close to Shamar Rinpoche and has been unstinting in mobilising support among his students [in Europe] for Shamar Rinpoche and his candidate. [Accordingly,] for as long as the Karmapa was in Tibet, Shamar Rinpoche could maximise the attention for his own candidate.

As further background to this point, between November 30 and December 3, 1992, the leadership of 95% of the Kagyu institutions in the world convened in Rumtek and effectively voted Shamar Rinpoche out of power. Shamar Rinpoche had until that date consistently 1) rejected the Karmapa Urgyen Trinley Dorje's in the Kagyu order outside Tibet; 2) asserted that the Karmapa Charitable Trust had administrative authority in Rumtek; and 3) allied with Topga Yulgal, his cousin and senior administrator at the monastery. At the meeting, the Kagyu order 1) affirmed the recognition of the Karmapa, 2) declared that the Trust had no administrative authority, and 3) fired Topga Yulgal. The Nectar of Dharma: Kagyu International Newsletter , vol. 3, no.1, pp. 7-11 (January 1993). 

The anti-Karmapa faction likes to tell its naive audience that it peacefully controlled Rumtek until it was displaced by violence in 1993. Yet the undisputed record shows that the anti-Karmapa forces were long gone by the end of 1992. The anti-Karmapa group's newest spokesman in India has again recently asserted that it was unjustly displaced from Rumtek by an "infamous violent attack unleashed against the Kagyu sect in 1993". This claim is internally inconsistent, since the Kagyu order had already asserted its authority over Rumtek by stripping Shamar Rinpoche of his administrative power. The actual incident is described very differently in an open letter dated August 1, 1993 to Shamar Rinpoche signed by most of the Sikkimese community in Rumtek, which we have reprinted at this website. Many of the signatories were eyewitnesses to the events.

The Telegraph, based on its own historical research, raises the history of the Shamar Rinpoche line:  

In the 18th century, the 10th incarnation of Shamar Rinpoche is said to have brought disgrace on his line by inciting the army of Nepal to invade Tibet to loot a monastery. Condemning him as a traitor, the Dalai Lama of the day forbade any further incarnations of Shamar Rinpoche's line. His monastery and land were confiscated and his ceremonial red hat buried at the entrance to the monastery, where everybody would step on it. Shamar Rinpoche took his own life with poison.

For the next 200 years, his successive incarnations were kept a closely guarded secret by the Karmapas, who had apparently forgiven him for his treachery; but his ascendancy in the lineage was overtaken by the line of the Tai Situ. Not until the birth of the present Shamar Rinpoche (the 14th) was his line formally reinstated by the Dalai Lama.

It is fanciful, perhaps, to speculate that the present Shamar Rinpoche, who was born in 1953, has been nursing a grudge for 200 years.

The Kagyu order is now regularly described as being at war, in battle, or fighting. We suggest that the overwhelming majority of the Kagyu order is peaceful, but in trying to be so in the modern generation has run afoul of a martial spirit that has filled the headlines with reports of disharmony. It is for each reader individually to inquire within one's own heart as to the answer to the following question: who must take the first step to end the bitterness now affecting the once peaceful Kagyu order. The Telegraph article is at the Electronic Telegraph site.

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