World Tibet News -- January 8, 2000 Special Issue 17th Ka
WTN Editors
## aus der Gruppe: c.wie...@lm102.link-m.de
_________________WTN-L World Tibet Network News _________________
Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee
Editorial Board: Brian Given, Conrad Richter, Nima Dorjee,
Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup
WTN Editors: wtn-e...@tibet.ca
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Saturday, January 8, 2000
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ISSUE ID: 00/01/08 Compiled by Nima Dorjee
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Contents:
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1. Boy lama flees across Himalayas to escape Chinese (The Telegraph)
2. Boy lama can trace his lineage to 1283 (The Telegraph)
3. Tibetan Lama flees to India (BBC)
4. Tibetan Leader Defects From China (AP)
5. Rumtek head flees Tibet reaches Dharamsala (UNI)
6. Lama's flight embarrasses Beijing (BBC)
7. Tibetan 17th Living Buddha Leaves China (Xinhua)
8. Buddhist leader flees Tibet to join Dalai Lama (Guardian)
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1. Boy lama flees across Himalayas to escape Chinese (The Telegraph)
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By David Rennie
BEIJING, January 7, 2000 (The Telegraph) -- THE teenage head of one of
the four great sects of Tibetan Buddhism has escaped from Chinese
Communist rule to India after a trek through the Himalayas, sources said
yesterday.
The 17th Karmapa stumbled with four attendants into Dharamsala, the seat
in exile of the Dalai Lama, after an epic journey at the worst time of
the year. The 14-year-old is now recovering from his ordeal. It is not
clear how he started his 900-mile journey from his remote monastery
home, 30 miles north-west of the capital, Lhasa.
He completed the last week on foot, crossing mountain passes in heavy
snow, before arriving at Dharamsala at 10.30am on Wednesday. "He's
extremely exhausted," a source in Dharamsala said last night.
The Karmapa is being shielded from visitors and the Chinese authorities,
who will be enraged at losing a religious leader they had been rearing
as a "patriotic" tool in their 50-year campaign to suppress Tibetan
independence. So delicate is the situation that the Tibetan
government-in-exile has yet to confirm that the Karmapa is in
Dharamsala, though an announcement is expected in the next two days.
The young Karmapa is the head of the powerful Kagyupa sect, often
nicknamed the "Black Hat" sect, which was one of the first to gain
Western devotees in large numbers. There are major monasteries and
centres in places as far apart as Woodstock, in America, and Eskdalemuir
in Scotland. The president of the North American branch of the sect,
Tenzin Chonyi, said yesterday that the news of their leader's escape was
"like a miracle".
Tenzin Chonyi, who was the personal attendant of the 16th Karmapa and
fled with him from Tibet in 1959, received "reliable information" on
Wednesday from disciples in Dharamsala that the Karmapa had arrived with
four companions. "We have received information that he has met the Dalai
Lama," added Tenzin Chonyi, who has met the 17th Karmapa several times.
He described the young priest as a great religious leader and the
reincarnation of his former master. He said: "From the first time I met
him, when he was eight years old, you could tell."
The boy met the 14th Dalai Lama, the effective leader of all four sects
of Tibetan Buddhism, on the day he arrived, said Tenzin Chonyi. The two
would almost certainly have never met if the Karmapa had not risked his
life to cross the Himalayas. The Dalai Lama is reviled as a "terrorist"
by the Chinese authorities, who routinely beat and detain monks for
displaying his picture inside Tibet.
The Dalai has not set foot in his mountain homeland since he fled during
a failed uprising in 1959, eight years after his capital Lhasa was
"liberated" by Chinese forces. In contrast, the 17th Karmapa had seemed
a valuable puppet of Beijing until his escape. The boy, Ugyen Trinley
Dorje, was the first high lama ever to be officially approved in 1991 by
the Chinese authorities.
He has been a guest at state ceremonies in Beijing. In 1995, his remote
monastery was declared outstandingly patriotic and law-abiding by the
authorities. The young Karmapa appears to have left his family behind in
Tibet, unlike the Dalai Lama, whose long years of exile were eased by
the presence of his mother and siblings in Dharamsala. The Dalai Lama's
brother, Tenzin Choegyal, who is know as TC, still runs a guesthouse in
the small Indian hilltown.
The 17th Karmapa was born in 1985 to nomadic parents in the Lhathok
region of Tibet. He was nicknamed Apo Gaga, or "happy brother" by his
older sister. His early life was divided between his family and a
monastery, where he was given the special education of a boy believed to
be the reincarnation of a previous lama. In 1992, a party of monks,
using a letter handed down by the 16th Karmapa before his death in 1981,
reputedly found him with his parents in a camp he had chosen.
The letter had been lost but was mysteriously found inside an amulet 11
years after the death. It was the centre of a bitter dispute over the
child's authenticity. However, in a gesture of co-operation that has
never been repeated, the Dalai Lama and Beijing both approved the boy.
The Dalai Lama's blessing has been conspicuously withheld from Beijing's
other chosen boy-priest, the Panchen Lama, who is widely dismissed by
many Tibetans as a fake.
The Karmapa's authenticity in the eyes of the Tibetans made him a hugely
valuable weapon in Beijing's fight to destroy the Dalai Lama's
authority, by aggressive "atheism campaigns", and by raising their own
"patriotic" lamas under Communist control. When the Dalai Lama, who is
64, comes to die, there will be a fierce battle over his rightful
reincarnation. The row will probably dwarf anything seen before, as
Beijing strives to find its own credible candidate.
However, the Dalai Lama has already said that he will not be reborn in
territory under Chinese control. Leading lamas like the Karmapa, and the
Panchen Lama, will carry immense sway. The 14-year-old who staggered
into Dharamsala this week is a prize that Beijing will regret losing for
a long time to come.
12 November 1999: Panchen Lama 'unharmed' 19 June 1999: Beijing woos
Tibet with its chosen reincarnation 30 November 1995: Beijing tightens
grip on Tibet by choosing Lama
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Boy lama can trace his lineage to 1283 (The Telegraph)
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By David Rennie
Boy lama flees across Himalayas to escape Chinese
BEIJING, January 7, 2000 (The Telegraph) -- THE 17th Gyalwa Karmapa is
the ruling lama of the Karma Kagyupa sect, one of the four great sects
of Tibetan Buddhism.
The boy, born in 1985 and identified in 1992 as a reincarnation of the
16th Karmapa, can trace his lineage back to a lama who died in 1283.
The Buddhist sect led by the Dalai Lamas, the Gelugpa, was not founded
until more than 100 years later. For some years, the Kagyupa sect was
the more powerful, thanks to alliances with neighbouring Mongol kings.
The Kagyupa sect still remains a major force within Tibetan Buddhism.
Finally, in the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama forged an alliance
with a powerful Mongol warlord, ensuring the final victory of his
Gelugpa sect. The tenth Karmapa was deposed as priest-king of Tibet, and
the fifth Dalai Lama took his place, beginning three centuries of
undisputed rule, only brought to an end by Communist China, and the
flight into exile of the 14th and current Dalai Lama in 1959.
The fifth Dalai Lama honoured his religious tutor by granting him the
title Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lamas have since then been the second
most important lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, playing a key
role in the identification of new Dalai Lamas.
The current Panchen Lama is a subject of bitter dispute. In May 1995,
China arrested a seven-year-old Tibetan boy identified as the 11th
Panchen, who had been authenticated by the Dalai Lama from India. The
boy, often described as the world's youngest political prisoner, has not
been seen since. In his place, Beijing-backed Tibetan clerics chose
another boy, who is being raised in China as a patriotic servant of the
Communist Party.
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3. Tibetan Lama flees to India (BBC)
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Source: BBC
Friday, 7 January, 2000, 13:50 GMT
One of Tibetan Buddhism's most powerful figures has escaped from Tibet
to meet the movement's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in India. The
Karmapa Lama is the only senior Tibetan Buddhist officially recognised
by the Chinese authorities and his escape is certain to be an
embarrassment.
The 14-year-old Karmapa Lama left his monastry in Tibet's capital,
Lhasa, telling guards he was going to a hill-top retreat. He then
trekked across the frozen Himalayas to reach Dharamsala, in northern
India.
It is not yet clear whether his intentions are to leave Chinese-ruled
Tibet permanently or if it is a temporary measure in order to receive
further religious teaching.
He was accompanied by a small band of monks on the expedition that
lasted at least five days.
After arriving in Dharamsala, he is reported to have met the Dalai Lama,
who fled from Tibet using a similar route 40 years ago.
The Karmapa Lama, the third most powerful person in Tibetan Buddhism, is
the only person among the religion's senior figures accepted by both the
Beijing and the Dalai Lama. He is said to have evaded his Chinese guards
in Tibet by telling them he was going on a religious retreat.
Beijing has issued a statement saying the Karmapa left a letter
explaining he was collecting religious artefacts and did not intend to
betray the Chinese state.
Correspondents say the statement deliberately avoided criticising the
Lama in order to leave the way open for him to return.
But Robert Barnett, a Tibetan expert at Colombia University, New York,
said: "It leaves China's religious policy in Tibet in complete
disarray." The BBC has been told that the Karmapa Lama had become
increasingly frustrated with a lack of access to religious teachers in
Tibet.
He is said to have wanted either permission to travel abroad for lessons
from Lamas from his school of Buddhism, or for permission from Beijing
for a teacher to visit him.
Chinese recognition
The Karmapa heads the Karma Kagyu - Tibetan Buddhism's second most
important, after that headed by the Dalai Lama.
He was the first Tibetan reincarnation to be recognised by the Chinese
authorities. He is also accepted as the true reincarnation by the Dalai
Lama; a fact that has given him status among Tibet's religious leaders.
In 1992, he agreed to stay in Tibet in return for Chinese recognition.
China used the agreement as proof of the legitimacy of its rule in the
disputed region.
China considers the Dalai Lama to be an enemy of the state, and there is
dispute between him and Beijing over who is the reincarnated Panchen
Lama, the religion's second most powerful figure.
Disputed Lama
Last year the Karmapa appeared in public with another controversial
reincarnation, the boy who China decided was the Panchen Lama, passing
over the Dalai Lama's choice.
Beijing and the Dalai Lama chose their different candidates for the
Panchen Lama in 1995.
The Dalai Lama's choice, now 10, and his family have not been seen in
public since. Human rights groups believe they are under house arrest.
Beijing's choice was installed by Tibetan monks, surrounded by Chinese
officials, in Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Shigatse.
But he is regarded by many Tibetans as a fake
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4. Tibetan Leader Defects From China (AP)
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The Associated Press Friday, Jan. 7, 2000; 4:13 a.m. EST
NEW DELHI, India -- In the most significant defection from Chinese-ruled
Tibet in decades, the 17th Karmapa, 15-year-old leader of one of Tibetan
Buddhism's most prominent sects, has fled to India, officials said
today.
"He has come," said Desang, Cabinet secretary in the exiled
administration of the Dalai Lama, in a telephone call from Dharamsala in
northern India. Desang, who uses only one name gave no other details.
Chinese leaders installed the boy as the head of the Karma Kagyu
religious order and used him as a symbol of their rule over Tibet. He is
the most important Tibetan figure to defect since the current Dalai Lama
and many senior Buddhist clerics fled to India following an abortive
anti-Chinese uprising in 1959.
China's State Council Information Office acknowledged the Karmapa had
left his monastery in central Tibet with a "small number of followers,"
the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
The report said the Karmapa had gone abroad to get musical instruments
and the black hats used by his predecessors and cited a letter saying he
did not mean to "betray the state, the nation, the monastery or the
leadership."
Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University in New York, said
the Karmapa left the 800-year-old Tsurphu monastery on Dec. 28 with a
handful of attendants and walked to India, arriving Wednesday in
Dharamsala.
The Karmapas virtually ruled Tibet until they were supplanted by the
Dalai Lamas and the Gelugpa order 350 years ago.
The 17th Karmapa was chosen as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa
after a divisive battle among senior disciples in the group's exiled
headquarters in Sikkim, India. The winning disciples then worked with
the Chinese leadership to see the boy installed at Tsurphu, traditional
seat of the Karmapas.
Policy papers issued by the Chinese government have pointed to the 17th
Karmapa's investiture and the restoration of Tsurphu as examples of
Beijing's support for Tibetan Buddhism.
Last year the Karmapa appeared in public with another controversial
reincarnation, the boy whom China forced Tibet's clergy to name as the
Panchen Lama, passing over a rival candidate named by the Dalai Lama.
(c) Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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5. Rumtek head flees Tibet reaches Dharamsala (UNI)
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United News of India
Gangtok, Jan.6 - The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa has escaped from Tibet's
Tshurpu monastery and trekked to Dharamsala, it was confirmed today.
The news has been welcomed by many at Sikkim's Rumtek monastery, where
controversy has raged for eight years over whether the 17th Karmapa is
its "reincarnated" head.
Officials of the Tibetan "government-in-exile" at Dharamsala said over
telephone today that the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjee (15), reached the
hill town in Himachal Pradesh yesterday.
He is believed to be at the Chonor guest house in McLeodganj,
Dharamsala, where he reportedly met the Dalai Lama today.
Unconfirmed reports said the "reincarnated" Karmapa trekked for more
than 11 days and entered India from Nepal. Officials of the Tibetan
"government-in-exile", however, refused to reveal details of the flight.
The Karmapa is the religious head of the Kagyupa sect of Tibetan
Buddhism, which has its religious seat at Tshurpu monastery. The sect
has its headquarters-in-exile at Sikkim's Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre.
The Rumtek monastery has been wracked by controversy - ever since its
founder, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa died in 1991 - over who his "real
incarnate" is.
The confirmation of the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa's arrival in India has been
greeted with fanfare across Sikkim. Delighted monks at Rumtek plan a
celebration tomorrow.
Monastery sources said a team would leave for Dharamsala tomorrow to
meet the Karmapa. The team will then meet the chief minister, Mr PK
Chamling, and request him to take the matter up with the Centre and
bring the Karmapa to Rumtek as soon as possible. The Joint Action
Committee of the 37 Buddhist Organisations of Sikkim was more guarded in
its reaction. The committee, which has spearheaded the movement to bring
the Tibet-born Karmapa over to Rumtek, said: "It is still too early to
comment. The details of His Holiness's arrival are still sketchy.
"The committee will, however, meet soon to discuss the latest
development and chalk out its course of action," said Kunzang Sherab,
JAC president.
The Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek, 24 km from here, was established by
the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa in 1959 after the Chinese overran Tibet. The
centre is affiliated to Nalanda University. The 9th Karmapa had earlier
built a monastery at Rumtek in 1730. It was destroyed in a fire.
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6. Lama's flight embarrasses Beijing (BBC)
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Friday, 7 January, 2000, 17:17 GMT
By regional analyst Tenzin Zega
The escape of a teenage boy regarded as the third highest ranking Lama
of Tibet has come as a surprise to thousands of his followers across the
world.
The flight of the Karmapa Lama, the 14-year-old head of the Kagyu
lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, has also complicated an already delicate
political situation for China in Tibet.
His arrival in India to join Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama ,
is equally sensitive for the Tibetan Government-in-exile in the north
Indian town of Dharamasala.
They have given a guarded reaction to his escape and have refused to
release any details, beyond saying that the Karmapa is exhausted after
his week-long trek across the Himalayas, and that he has met the Dalai
Lama.
China maintains the boy left with a group of monks to retrieve religious
artefacts his predecessor had left in India.
Beijing says the Karmapa left a note behind saying he did not mean to
betray the state or the leadership.
'Puppet'
Born to a nomadic family in eastern Tibet, the Karmapa was officially
recognised as the 17th reincarnation of the previous Karmapa by both
Beijing and the Dalai Lama in 1992.
Tibetans therefore consider him the most significant person to leave
Chinese-ruled Tibet since the current Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959.
The Chinese authorities groomed the boy as a patriotic servant of the
state.
But the Tibetan Government-in-exile have accused Beijing of using him as
a puppet to gain more credibility among Tibetan people.
The fact that he had Beijing's seal of approval, and has now decided he
needed to leave Tibet, will certainly cause China considerable
embarrassment.
Reports say that the Karmapa fled because he was denied access to higher
studies and the possibility of meeting his masters in India.
His supporters say this was despite previous assurances by the Chinese
that he would be free to do so.
Repression
The Kagyu lineage has been the most successful among the four sects of
Tibetan Buddhism.
It has established hundreds of religious centres in the West and has a
huge following, largely due to the work of the previous (16th) Karmapa
who died 15 years ago in America.
The lineage traces its origins to the Buddha through Marpa, the Great
Translator who travelled to India to bring authentic Buddhist teachings
back to Tibet.
The Kagyu lineage has been headed by a succession of reincarnations of
the Gyalwa Karmapa. The line of Karmapas is said to be self-announced,
because each incarnation leaves a letter predicting his next rebirth.
The Karmapa's arrival in India follows persistent reports of Chinese
repression of Buddhism in Tibet.
The Tibetan Government-in-exile says that thousands of Tibetans attempt
the hazardous journey over the Himalayas to reach freedom in India.
The arrival of the Karmapa will inevitably draw Western attention to
another Tibetan boy, the Panchen Lama.
Dialogue
He is also revered by many in Tibet as second only to the Dalai Lama,
who has personally recognised him.
His whereabouts are currently unknown: China says that a different child
is in fact the Panchen Lama.
The guarded response from both Beijing and Dharamsala to Karmapa's
arrival from Tibet could indicate there is room for the two sides to
resolve their differences through dialogue.
However, some analysts fear that his escape to India may result in a
security crackdown in Tibet.
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7. Tibetan 17th Living Buddha Leaves China (Xinhua)
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Xinhua is an official press agency of the Peoples Republic of China
BEIJING (Jan. 7) XINHUA - O'kying Chilai Doje, the 17th living Buddha of
Garmaba, the white sect of Tibetan Buddhism, left the Curbo monastery in
Lhasa of Tibet recently together with a small number people around him,
a spokesman for the Information Office of the State Council said here
today.
In his letter left at the monastery, O'kying Chilai Doje said that he
went abroad this time to get the musical instruments of the Buddhist
mass and the black hats that had been used by the previous living
Buddhas of Garmaba. This did not mean to "betray the State, the nation,
the monastery or the leadership," he said in his letter. The
15-year-old O'kying Chilai Doje became the 17th living Buddha of
Garmaba at a ceremony of ascending the holly throne in the Curbo
monastery in September of 1992 with the approval of the Administration
of the Religious Affairs of the State Council. Copyright 2000
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8. Buddhist leader flees Tibet to join Dalai Lama (Guardian)
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Source: The Guardian, London, UK
Mary Finnigan Friday January 7, 2000
A young boy regarded by Tibetans as a living Buddha of equal political
and religious status to the Dalai Lama has escaped from a monastery in
central Tibet, despite being kept under permanent surveillance by
Chinese minders. Senior lamas from the Tibetan exile community have
confirmed that 14-year-old Urgyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa,
accompanied by a small group of monks, slipped past his guards at
Tsurphu monastery on December 28. The party walked across rugged
mountain terrain to reach northern India yesterday morning.
The young Karmapa has joined the Dalai Lama at his residence in
Dharamsala.
Urgyen Trinley Dorje was born into a nomad family in the village of
Bakor in eastern Tibet on June 26 1985, four years after the death of
the 16th Karmapa, who fled to India following the Chinese takeover of
Tibet in 1959.
Magical manifestations, including triple suns, rainbows and unearthly
music, are said to have occurred as the present Karmapa was born.
He was recognised by the Dalai Lama in 1992 and subsequently enthroned
at Tsurphu monastery, in an elaborate ceremony sanctioned by the Chinese
authorities and attended by thousands of Tibetans.
While the flight of the young Karmapa - head of the rich and powerful
Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism - is a cause for joy among the tens of
thousands of Kagyu disciples in the west, it is deeply embarrassing to
the Chinese and a major setback to Beijing's campaign to divide Tibetan
allegiances.
Richard Oppenheimer of the London-based Tibet Information Network said a
severe security crackdown appeared inevitable. "The Chinese have always
promoted the 17th Karmapa as a pro-Chinese patriotic figure and they
have made a point of trying to drive a wedge between him and the Dalai
Lama," he said.
It is not known why Urgyen Trinley Dorje chose to leave Tibet, but the
young Karmapa had been requesting permission to be with his guru, the
exiled Tai Situ Rinpoche, for some time. Direct personal contact between
young lamas and their spiritual teachers is integral to the oral
tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
The lineage of the Karmapas is older than that of the Dalai Lamas, and
in old Tibet their prestige equalled that of the Dalai Lamas in the eyes
of a large percentage of the population.
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