World Tibet News -- January 9, 2000
Christian Wiedemann
## 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
______________________________________________________________________
Sunday, January 9, 2000
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ISSUE ID: 00/01/09 Compiled by Nima Dorjee
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Contents:
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1. Lama's Flight Dashes Hope for Tibet-Beijing Accord
2. Boy Lama makes first public appearance after fleeing China
3. EDITORIAL The South China Morning Post
4. Reprisals feared after boy escapes
5. Caution `shows Beijing hoping living Buddha will return'
6. Karmapa appears in Public
7. Karmapa Lama reaches McLeodganj
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1. Lama's Flight Dashes Hope for Tibet-Beijing Accord
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LA Times 8 Jan 2000
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000108/t000002401.html
Religion: Spurning patrons in China, Karmapa joins exile movement in India
led by Dalai Lama.
By DEXTER FILKINS, Times Staff Writer
NEW DELHI--A Tibetan lama's dramatic escape from China this week appeared to
dash whatever hopes remained for a compromise between Beijing and Tibet's
traditional Buddhist leadership.
The 17th Karmapa, a 14-year-old boy who occupies one of the most exalted
positions in Tibetan Buddhism, arrived in the northern Indian city of
Dharamsala with blistered feet and bloodied hands from an arduous trek
through the Himalayas to join thousands of fellow Tibetans in exile.
The elevation of the 7-year-old in 1992 had been seen as a last-ditch
attempt by some Tibetan religious leaders to reach an accommodation with
their Chinese overlords that would allow Tibetans to worship freely.
A circle of influential Buddhist scholars secured the unprecedented
agreement of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government for his ascension.
But some Tibetans, especially those in exile, criticized the approval of the
17th Karmapa, whose given name was Ugyen Trinley Dorje, as a sellout to the
Chinese.
By making his secret journey to India, the Karmapa not only spurned his
erstwhile Chinese patrons but also fled into the arms of the exile movement
led by the Dalai Lama, who left China in nearly identical fashion 41 years
ago. As the leader of the Kagyu branch of Tibetan Buddhism, the 17th Karmapa
joins the leaders of the other three branches now living outside their
homeland.
"This was the last hope for a decent agreement between the Tibetans and
Chinese," said Robbie Barnett, a research scholar at Columbia University in
New York. "This is terribly embarrassing for the Chinese to have him walk
away."
The Communist government in Beijing, criticized across the globe for its
suppression of Tibetan culture and religion, tried to put the best face on
the young lama's departure. The official New China News Agency reported that
the Karmapa had left behind a note saying that he had left the country to
retrieve musical instruments for a Buddhist Mass and a type of black hat
traditionally worn by the leaders of his Buddhist sect.
The Karmapa did not mean to "betray the state, the nation, the monastery or
the leadership," the New China News Agency said.
The 17th Karmapa left the 800-year-old Tsurphu monastery in central Tibet
late last month, telling his guards that he was going on a religious
retreat. Later, disguised as a commoner, he and a group of attendants
trekked for days across the mountains toward the border with Nepal. At some
point along the journey, Tibetan sources said, they were able to use jeeps.
The group made its way across Nepal and into India.
On Friday, Tibetans in Dharamsala, the seat of their government-in-exile,
celebrated the arrival of the newest defector. The Karmapa, whose line
stretches back even further than that of the Dalai Lama, is staying at a
guest house in the Himalayan town.
Wearing a maroon gown and yellow cape, the Karmapa, who is believed to be
the reincarnation of a revered Buddhist teacher, blessed well-wishers who
came to see him by placing his palm on their heads.
"We told him, 'You look very fine, and we are glad you are here,' " said
Pema Lhundup, editor of Rangzen, a Tibetan newspaper. "The Chinese have not
allowed him to practice his religion freely. He needs to be here."
Officials with the Tibetan government-in-exile confirmed the Karmapa's
arrival in Dharamsala but said little more. They stressed that the Dalai
Lama, the spiritual and political leader of the exiled Tibetans, had no
knowledge of the Karmapa's planned escape. Some officials said they expect
the boy to ask for asylum in India.
"We had no idea that he was coming," a Tibetan official said.
The escape of the 17th Karmapa comes at a critical time for Tibetan exiles,
many of whom fled after the Chinese invasion of the country in 1959. Since
then, human rights organizations have documented widespread abuses by
Chinese authorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture and the
suppression of religious worship.
Today, 100,000 Tibetans live outside their homeland, and with the Dalai Lama
in his mid-60s, many believe that time is running out for a return to a free
Tibet. Some are calling for an accommodation with the Chinese, while others
push for confrontation. The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in
1989, espouses the "Third Way"--nonviolent resistance with the goal of
securing independence from China or autonomy within.
Tibetan leaders have long accused Chinese leaders of trying to co-opt the
leadership of Tibetan Buddhism--as with the disputed choice in 1995 of the
Panchen Lama, the second-highest Tibetan lama.
To many Tibetan experts, the 1992 agreement that led to the ascension of the
17th Karmapa represented an attempt on both sides to try to live together.
The arrangement called for the Karmapa to recognize the dominance of the
Chinese in exchange for being allowed to travel abroad and practice his
religion.
For a time, the deal seemed to hold. The 17th Karmapa appeared with
President Jiang Zemin at National Day ceremonies in 1994.
Tibetan experts say that the deal soured because the Chinese didn't live up
to the bargain. The Chinese forbade the Karmapa from traveling, and they
stepped up repression of Tibetan Buddhists. According to Amnesty
International, Chinese authorities now routinely demand that Tibetan monks
and nuns denounce the Dalai Lama and submit to Chinese preeminence if they
want to continue worshiping.
"Initially, the Karmapa thought it was possible to remain in Tibet and still
be effective," said Donald S. Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan
Studies at the University of Michigan. "He obviously decided it wasn't."
The Karmapa's is the most publicized of recent flights from Tibet. In 1999,
about 4,000 Tibetans left their country on foot across the Himalayas, most
of them going to Nepal and India. It's a treacherous journey: Many die along
the way, and others lose limbs to frostbite. Most, like the Karmapa, are
fleeing repression in their own land.
"Tibetan Buddhists look at a lama the way people in America would see an
astronaut, a presidential candidate and a religious leader--all in one,"
said Robert Thurman, professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia. "For
lamas to be able to flourish in freedom--and for people to have access to
them--is considered crucial to the survival of their culture."
Anthony Kuhn of The Times' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.
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2. Boy Lama makes first public appearance after fleeing China
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JAN 8, 2000
Straits Times SINGAPORE
DHARMSALA (India) - Tibet's third highest lama appeared in public on
Saturday for the first time since trekking across the snowbound Himalayas
from China to India.
His supporters said that the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama had fled religious
repression and China's refusal to give him an exit visa.
China insisted however that the boy had not meant to betray the Chinese
state, while a rival Tibetan faction said that he had come to India as an
agent of Beijing.
Karmapa Lama was smiling after a visit with the Dalai Lama on Saturday as he
participated in prayers and recuperated from his arduous trek.
It was the second meeting between the Karmapa Lama and the Nobel
Prize-winning Dalai Lama this week.
They met on Wednesday, soon after the Karmapa Lama's arrival from his
week-long journey from Lhasa, capital of the Tibet region governed by China.
His defection cheered Tibetan exiles, embarrassed Beijing and surprised the
Indian government.
The flight of the 17th Karmapa Lama and his five followers, including his
24-year-old sister, a Buddhist nun, is the most significant exodus since the
Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans departed their homeland after a
failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Tibetan officials said that they would talk with the Karmapa Lama next week,
when he was rested, to discuss his plans for the future.
Those close to the Dalai Lama's administration said that the motive for the
journey appeared to have been the Karmapa Lama's frustration at not being
allowed to meet with his teachers to obtain the instruction necessary for
his religious position.
Chinese authorities had repeatedly denied a visa to his principal teacher,
Tai Situ Rinpoche, who has a monastery near Dharmsala. - Reuters, AP
Saturday, January 8, 2000
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3. EDITORIAL The South China Morning Post
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Saturday, January 8, 2000
Religious freedom
The tight limits on religious tolerance on the mainland have again been
demonstrated this week. First came the ordination of five new bishops by the
state-backed Catholic church. This seemed like a snub to Pope John Paul,
coming just hours before he ordained 12 bishops at a ceremony in Rome.
Now comes news of the escape of Tibet's third-highest lama to India, in one
of the most significant defections in decades. While the reasons for the
14-year-old Karmapa Lama's flight are unclear, human rights groups claim
fresh restrictions have recently been imposed on religious freedom in Tibet.
At the very least, it will put paid to any hope of restarting China's
dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
With the crackdown against the Falun Gong spiritual group, these are clear
signs of Beijing's continued refusal to tolerate any mass movement outside
the Communist Party's control.
While disturbing, this is unlikely to have any immediate fallout for Hong
Kong. Despite recent signs of impatience at their high-profile protests,
China has for the most part scrupulously honoured the "one country, two
systems" concept by not pressing for the Falun Gong to be banned in the SAR.
Some anxiety among the local Catholic community is inevitable, following the
ordinations in Beijing. But there is not the slightest reason to suppose
China will try anything similar in the SAR.
A more legitimate concern is that this event has dealt a severe blow to
efforts to normalise relations. By openly challenging its authority, Beijing
is hardly acting in a way likely to encourage the Vatican to break its ties
with Taiwan. Yet until it does this, there can be no rapprochement with
China. Nor will it be possible for the Pope to visit Hong Kong.
That is something eagerly awaited by many local Catholics, including
Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. But the sad reality is that the
day when this can happen now looks like receding even further into the
distance.
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4. Reprisals feared after boy escapes
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VIVIEN PIK-KWAN CHAN and AGENCIES
The secret flight to India of a "living Buddha," one of the most revered
figures in Tibet an Buddhism, could spark further Chinese repression in
Tibet, a pro-Tibetan rights group warned yesterday.
The 14-year-old Ugyen Trinley Dorje had fled the Tsurphu monastery in Tibet
to join the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in the northern Indian town of
Dharamsala, the Tibetan government-in-exile confirmed.
"There are concerns that there will be a security clampdown in Tibet and
retaliation against his monastery," said Jane Caple, a spokeswoman at the
London-based Tibet Information Network.
"We don't know what will happen to the people who were around him."
A Tibetan policy adviser based in Beijing said that security at the Tsurphu
monastery and on the China-India border would now be tightened.
The Karmapa Lama is the spiritual leader of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan
Buddhism and is third in the Tibetan spiritual hierarchy behind the Dalai
Lama and Panchen Lama.
Both the Dalai Lama and Beijing officially approved Dorje as the 17th
reincarnation of the Karmapa Lama in 1992 and the mainland has been grooming
him as a "patriotic" lama ever since.
State media carried reports of the boy chanting for Chairman Mao Zedong's
soul during a trip to Beijing and pledging allegiance to the Communist
Party.
His flight would be a blow to Beijing's Tibetan policy as it suggested
Beijing's strategy to stabilise communist rule in ethnic minority regions by
"grooming several leaders to check and balance each other" was not working
well, the adviser said.
"Central leaders had not attached enough importance to the role of the 17th
Karmapa although he was the first living Buddha mainland communist leaders
recognised as reincarnated," he said.
He said the 14-year-old Karmapa might get involved in politics.
"The 16th Karmapa did not get involved in politics and only engaged in
spreading Buddhism, even after he fled to India.
"But the Dalai Lama has been calling for unity of the different orders of
Tibetan Buddhism and the 17th Karmapa might now be incorporated."
Dorje was born to a nomadic family in 1985 and enthroned the 17th Gyalwa
Karmapa in September 1992 at Tsurphu monastery, 35km outside the Tibetan
capital Lhasa, where he had been living ever since.
JASPER BECKER in Beijing and AGENCIES
Beijing yesterday officially reported the departure of the third-highest
ranking Tibetan spiritual leader - the most significant defection from the
region in decades.
The 14-year-old 17th Karmapa Lama reached India on Wednesday with blistered
feet and scraped hands after a week-long trek over the Himalayas in the
depths of winter, Tibetan sources said.
The boy is the only lama recognised by both Beijing and the exiled Dalai
Lama.
He is the most important Tibetan figure to defect since the Dalai Lama and
the 16th Karmapa fled in 1959. The boy's flight deals a blow to mainland
efforts to control the appointment of new incarnations.
Beijing confirmed that the 17th Karmapa, born as Ugyen Trinley Dorje, had
gone abroad, but gave no details. Xinhua said the boy, the head of the Kagyu
sect of Tibetan Buddhism, left a letter saying he did not mean to betray
"the state, the nation, the monastery or leadership".
The report said he had gone with "a small number of people around him to get
musical instruments and the black hats used by his predecessors".
Details of the flight from Tsurphu Monastery, 60km north of Lhasa, were
sketchy. It appeared the Karmapa had eluded his increasingly watchful guards
by declaring his intention to go on retreat.
He and a few monks set out across the mountains on December 28, tramping for
days along rocky paths, bordered by thorny bushes that scraped their hands.
One leg of the journey was made in a jeep.
"He has come," said Desang, cabinet secretary in the exiled administration
of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, northern India.
The escape came as a surprise to many Tibetans, including Tenzin Chonyi, the
former personal attendant of the 16th Karmapa.
"We're all in a state of shock, but we're very joyful - not just us but the
whole of the Himalayas and the world," he said. "Every follower has been
waiting for the chance to receive his blessing."
The Karmapa became the first officially sanctioned reincarnation since 1959
when he was enthroned in 1992 with the blessing of the Communist Party.
In 1994, the 17th Karmapa was welcomed to Beijing as President Jiang Zemin's
guest of honour during the October 1 National Day celebrations.
"I will study well and will always follow the Communist Party," the boy
reportedly promised the President.
Gyalwa, the 16th Karmapa, eventually settled in the disputed former Tibetan
Kingdom of Sikkim, which was annexed by India.
There he settled at the Rumtek Monastery and built a huge following among
Westerners, attracting as many as 200,000 disciples, before dying of cancer
in Chicago in 1981.
Sources said there was a secret agreement that if reincarnations, like the
Karmapa, were found in China, they would be free to travel to India to
receive teaching, or teachers living abroad would be allowed to visit and
instruct him. It now appears the agreement was not honoured. Although the
17th Karmapa has travelled in China and met the Panchen Lama, he could not
visit India. His teachers had not been permitted to come to China.
Last summer, a number of Buddhist monks asked Beijing to request that the
boy's teachers in India be allowed to visit China to continue his religious
education.
The followers of the Kagyu sect appear to have concluded there was no choice
but to organise his flight. The sect, known as the "Black Hats", was once
Tibet's most politically powerful.
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5. Caution `shows Beijing hoping living Buddha will return'
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Hong Kong Standard 8 Jan 2000
By staff reporters and agencies
STORY: THE Central Government yesterday confirmed that the 17th Karmapa Lama
has left Tibet for India, but remained cautious not to denounce the flight
of the 16-year-old leader of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism as a
defection.
Ugyen Trinley Dorje, who is considered to be a ``living Buddha'', left the
Tsurphu monastery in Lhasa with ``a small number of people around him'', a
spokesman for the Information Office of the State Council, or Cabinet, said.
He left a letter at the monastery that, the spokesman was quoted by the
state-run Xinhua News Agency as saying, said he was going ``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''.
``This does not constitute a betrayal of the state, the nation, the
monastery or the leadership,'' the government spokesman quoted the Karmapa
as saying in his letter.
The official statement confirmed the Hong Kong Standard's exclusive report
on Thursday about the 17th Karmapa's move.
Analysts said Beijing's cautious reaction showed it did not want to quickly
close the door on the possibility that the boy may return.
The Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile, based in the northern Indian
hill town of Dharamsala, also confirmed the Karmapa had arrived on
Wednesday, but refused to give any details of his travel or his future
plans.
``The first we knew of this was when he arrived here on 5 January,'' a
spokesman for the exiled government said. ``Please appreciate that this is
an extremely sensitive matter and we cannot give out any more information at
this stage.''
Taiwan followers of the Kagyu sect welcomed their leader's arrival in India
and said they planned to invite him to visit Taiwan.
``We hope to invite Karmapa to visit Taiwan. We will also continue to offer
him financial support,'' said the director of the Karma Kagyu Monastery,
Chuang Pi-hsun, in Tainan, south Taiwan.
The director of the London-based Tibet Information Network, Richard
Oppenheimer, described the Xinhua account as an ``extremely muted
response'', adding that Beijing was certainly very concerned but was trying
hard not to make the situation seem too dramatic.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman R S Jassal said he was ``aware'' of the
Karmapa's arrival, but refused to comment further.
The United News of India carried a statement by the Joint Action Committee
of Buddhist organisations in Sikkim, which had been spearheading a campaign
to bring the 17th Karmapa to Rumtek.
``It is still too early to comment on the issue as the details of his
holiness's arrival to India are still sketchy,'' the statement said.
His arrival in India came as a surprise to many Tibetans, including Chonyi,
the former personal attendant of the 16th Karmapa Lama who fled Tibet in
1959 with the Dalai Lama.
``We're all in a state of shock, but we're very joyful _ not just us but the
whole of the Himalayas and the world,'' Chonyi said. ``Every follower has
been waiting for the chance to receive his blessing.''
Tibet experts said they were unsure of the significance of the Karmapa's
move.
Some said the boy appeared to have fled into exile in a repeat of the Dalai
Lama's 1959 escape to India after an abortive and bloody uprising nine years
after mainland troops took over the region.
However, some Kagyu sect members said the boy had been wanting to go to
India for some time to collect the black hats and musical instruments
because they were crucial symbols of his office, the possession of which
would undermine a rival claimant to his role.
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6. Karmapa appears in Public
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[Muzi Dailynews (http://dailynews.muzi.com): 2000-01-08] DHARAMSALA,
India - Tibet's third highest lama appeared in public on Saturday for the
first time since trekking across the snowbound Himalayas from China to
India.
Supporters said the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama had fled religious repression
and China's refusal to give him an exit visa. China insisted however the boy
had not meant to betray the Chinese state, while a rival Tibetan faction
said he had come to India as an agent of Beijing.
The Karmapa Lama got out of a car and briskly climbed the stairs to a
closely guarded rest house in Mcleodganj, about nine km (six miles) from
Dharamsala, after meeting the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
Security men pushed aside dozens of reporters and photographers at the
scene.
It was the second meeting between the Karmapa Lama and the Nobel
Prize-winning Dalai Lama this week. They met on Wednesday, soon after the
Karmapa Lama's arrival from his week-long journey from Lhasa, capital of the
Tibet region governed by China.
Tashi Wangdi, minister for religion and culture in the exiled Tibetan
government based in Dharamsala, said the youth travelled with a six-member
entourage including his 24-year-old sister and two monks. His other
relatives remain in Lhasa.
The Karmapa Lama, born Ugyen Trinley Dorje, is the only leading Tibetan lama
approved both by China's Communist government and the Dalai Lama.
China officially reported the Karmapa Lama's departure, suggesting that it
was leaving the door open to his return despite his reported meeting with
the Dalai Lama, who is vilified in Beijing as a violence-supporting
``splittist.''
RIVAL SAYS JOURNEY TO INDIA IS ``POLITICAL PLOY''
A statement published on Saturday on the official U.S. website of the
Karmapa Lama's Kagyu sect said he had left behind a letter at his monastery
in Tibet saying he was forced to flee China because authorities repeatedly
refused him an exit visa to travel abroad as head of the sect.
In New Delhi, Shamarpa Rimpoche, second highest lama of the sect but a
supporter of a rival claimant to the Karmapa Lama's title, described the
apparent escape as a ``political ploy.''
``I believe he came here in agreement with the Chinese government, with
their support,'' Rimpoche told reporters. ``Ugyen Trinley, an innocent boy,
should not be used as a political instrument.''
China's official Xinhua news agency said the Karmapa Lama wanted to go to
India to collect black hats and musical instruments which are symbols of his
office and would undermine the rival claimant, now in the northeast Indian
state of Sikkim.
The Press Trust of India news agency quoted an Indian Foreign Ministry
spokesman as saying India was looking into the circumstances and
consequences of the lama's arrival.
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7. Karmapa Lama reaches McLeodganj
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Hindustan Times 7 Jan 2000
Dharamsala/Shimla, January 7 (HT Correspondents)
The 14-year-old Karmapa Lama Ugyen Trinley Dorje, who escaped from Tibetan
capital Lhasa last week, has reportedly arrived at McLeodganj along with six
"highly revered monks." They have sought political asylum in India.
The Lama, who is the 17th incarnation of Karmapa Lama, is the head of one of
the four main sects of Buddhism.
According to highly placed Tibetan sources, the group arrived at the
headquarters of the Tibetan Government-in-exile near Dharamsala on January
5. The sources equated this development with Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet
in 1959.
The 14-year old Lama and the monks are reported to have walked most of the
distance through Tibet and Nepal while avoiding Chinese forces. He was
brought to Dharamsala from Nepal under security.
Sources said that the Lama was being kept under tight security in a
guesthouse in Mcleodganj.
The Lama is considered a leading figure in the Tibetan hierarchy and is
recognised by the Chinese Government. China has already confirmed the escape
of the Lama from his monastery near Lhasa.
The Lama was reportedly being groomed under Chinese supervision at a
monastery near Lhasa. Reports from Lhasa said that the Lama escaped due to
his "frustration" with the Chinese.
A Tibetan official in the Department of Information and International
Relations, however, neither confirmed nor denied the arrival of the Lama.
Efforts to contact senior Tibetan officials failed. Tibetan Cabinet
Secretary Tesang held a high-level meeting on the issue today.
VIJAY DUTT ADDS FROM LONDON: Beijing is said to be highly embarrassed by the
amazing escape of the 14-year-old Ugyen Trinley Dorje to Dharamsala.
He is said to have covered 900 miles journey from his monastery, 30 miles
northwest of Lhasa. He walked the whole of the last week on foot, crossing
mountain passes in heavy snow and extreme weather conditions.
British media reports allege that the 17th Karmapa almost collapsed on
reaching Dharamsala at 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday. He was extremely exhausted,
a source said.
He, however, reportedly met the Dalai Lama on the day he arrived. The
reports say that the 17th Karmapa is being shielded from visitors and the
Chinese authorities.
The 14-year-old had been 'reared' by Beijing as 'patriotic' to the country
in contrast to the Dalai Lama who was branded as a 'terrorist'. He was the
first high Lama ever to be officially approved in 1991 by the authorities in
China. He was invited to state ceremonies in Beijing.
Dorje has, according to reports, left behind his family unlike the Dalai
Lama. The British followers have welcomed the news, and are awaiting more
details before issuing a statement.
But, generally everyone feels that Beijing will regret for a long time
losing a carefully chosen 'patriot'.
It has in effect lost a deadly weapon to destroy Dalai Lama's authority and
will have to restart thinking about the 'reincarnation' once he dies.
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