Prominent Tibetan lama flees to India

January 8, 2000
Web posted at: 2:38 a.m. HKT (1838 GMT)

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DHARMSALA, India (CNN) -- A 14-year-old boy believed to be the 17th living Buddha, and who leads one of Tibetan Buddhism's most prominent sects, has fled to India in the most significant defection from Chinese-ruled Tibet since the Dalai Lama fled 40 years ago, officials said Friday.

"He has come," said Desang, the Cabinet secretary for the exiled Dalai Lama's administration in Dharmsala, India. Desang uses only one name.

The Dalai Lama is leader of Tibetan Buddhists and established his Indian government-in-exile in 1959, along with the 16th Karmapa and thousands of other Tibetans, after China took over Tibet.

RESOURCES The Dalai Lama

Born Ugyen Trinley Dorje in June 1985, the boy was installed as the 17th Karmapa, the reincarnation of his predecessor, in a 1992 ceremony attended by 20,000 Tibetans and backed by the Chinese.

The Karmapa, who is the highest lama of the Karma Kagyupa branch of Tibetan Buddhism, is the only prominent lama who has been recognized by both China and the Dalai Lama as an incarnation of the Buddha.

The Karmapa's flight is seen as deeply embarrassing to Chinese leaders, who used him as a symbol of Chinese rule over Tibet.

His defection could compound Chinese officials' anger with exiled Tibetans and prod them to press an already stern four-year campaign to purge monasteries of supporters of the Dalai Lama.

Aides say the Karmapa fled with four monks from his 800-year- old Tsurphu monastery outside the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on December 28 and traveled through the snow-covered Himalayas across Nepal and into India. The trip was made by jeep and on foot. He reportedly arrived Wednesday in Dharmsala -- exhausted, with blistered feet and scrapes on his hands.

Few people had spoken to him by Friday, but those close to the Dalai Lama administration said he had been unable to get the training and instruction in China that his religious position requires. Chinese authorities had repeatedly denied a visa to his principal teacher, who resides in Dharmsala.

The Karmapa is said to be resting at the home of the Dalai Lama.

China's State Council Information Office acknowledged that the Karmapa had left with a "small number of followers," the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

The Karmapa had gone abroad to get musical instruments and the black hats used by his predecessors, the Xinhua report said, citing a letter the Karmapa left at the monastery that said he did not mean to "betray the state, the nation, the monastery or the leadership."

But Buddhist scholars in India met the official explanation with deep skepticism. They say Chinese authorities had increased surveillance on the boy's monastery and his movements, claiming there had been an attempt on his life.

The Karmapa's Kagyupa sect, known as the "Black Hats," was once Tibet's most politically powerful and has a major monastery in Woodstock, New York. The sect was supplanted in Tibet by the Gelugpa school of the Dalai Lamas 350 years ago.

The 16th Karmapa died in 1981 in exile in Sikkim, India. The 17th Karmapa then was chosen as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa after a divisive battle among senior disciples in the group's headquarters in Sikkim.

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.

The Karmapa is the first leading "tulku," or reincarnation of a holy person, to be officially recognized by the modern Chinese state, in a deal arranged with his teacher, Tai Situ Rinpoche, in 1992. Under that agreement, the Karmapa reportedly was to be allowed to travel outside China.

The Karmapa's presence in India is a diplomatic problem for the Indian government, which has been working to improve relations with China.

Correspondent Kasra Naji and The Associated Press contributed to this report.