Karmapa seeks easing of ‘restraints', complicates India's Tibet card

NEW DELHI: India's Tibet strategy faces a challenge with the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, seen as the most influential Tibetan Buddhist religious leader after the Dalai Lama, conveying to the government his unhappiness over "restraints" on his travel and his disinterest in any political role.

Though the Karmapa — who fled from China to India in dramatic circumstances in 2000 — does not spell it out clearly, his discontent seems linked to his reluctance to return to India from his US visit in May last year. He has pitched camp in New York where he meets followers amid public engagements.

Karmapa's differences with the Indian government have lingered despite suspicions having ebbed over time that his flight to India was "facilitated" by the Chinese and his stature as a leading religious figure in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, particularly the Kagyu lineage, giving him an international salience.

Though Karmapa recently said he will be back in India in November, perhaps after attending the world Hindu conference in Chicago next month — a commemoration of the 1893 "parliament of world religions" addressed by Swami Vivekananda — his long absence is beginning to jar on Indian authorities who seem to be running out of patience with him.

On his part, the Karmapa is understood to have made it clear that he is chafing over being supervised at all times when in India. He needs permissions to address events and travel from his base at a monastery near Dharamshala is closely monitored. He has not been allowed to visit Southeast Asia. His desire that "constraints" be eased indicates he wants India to make up its mind about his loyalty or lack of it.

He has also said that he does not see a political role for himself and that he will be guided by the Dalai Lama.

The 33-year-old Tibetan leader's presence bolsters India's claim as a cradle and home of Buddhist thought at a time when China is promoting Buddhism and wooing influential clergy with an eye on the post-Dalai Lama scenario. Beijing would be keen to see the centre of Tibetan thought, embodied in the Dalai Lama, moves to China to consolidate the spiritual authority its political control lacks.

The Karmapa is unable to visit his traditional seat at Rumtek monastery in Sikkim as it is disputed by a rival group. At the same time, he has emerged as a more confident leader and sees himself as the legitimate successor to the widely respected 16th Karmapa who passed away in the US in 1981.

Looking to counter India's formidable links to Buddhism, China has promoted a "world Buddhist conference" and repeatedly offered to develop Lumbini in Nepal, arguing the Buddha's birthplace is the most important marker of his life rather than Bodh Gaya in India where he achieved enlightenment.

It is in this intense, and significant, jockeying for geo-political influence, that Karmapa has a role to play. China's administrative and military control over Tibet is complete, but the fight for spiritual ascendancy is far from over and remains the only, though not minor, lever in India's hands.