1. Karmapa — The Living Buddha

This is the chronicle of rogues in robes, and it has the ingredients of a racy potboiler depicting the seamy, uncompromising struggle in which the protagonists — high-ranking and respected Tibetan Buddhist lamas — are embroiled in clashes, machinations and mud-slinging that would better suit the temporal world of crooked politics than the spiritual world to which the top echelons of religious institutions profess to belong.

The study unfolds an uninterrupted chain of events and circumstances starting several centuries ago in Tibet leading to the present-day Tibetan camps and monasteries in the Himalayas of Nepal and India, Tibet, China as well as to modern Tibetan Buddhist centres in the West.

Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug are the four principal orders of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama once did enjoy the status of the temporal leader of Tibet. His religious writs however, run only in his own Gelug order.

Strength-wise, among the four orders, Kagyu has the largest following in the West. The number of its non-Tibetan followers all over the world is over three hundred thousand according to a conservative estimate. Besides, the number of followers of this order in Tibet under Chinese occupation is estimated at one million.

The head of the Kagyu order is the Karmapa by an edict or Shey Bam of the VIIth Dalai Lama. Strictly he is the head only of the Karma Kagyu tradition. On November 5, 1981, the XVIth Karmapa died of cancer in Chicago, USA, leaving behind property worth about US $.1.2 billion, a network of more than 430 centres worldwide, and a money-spinning machine where donations poured in incessantly.

Only a reincarnation of the Karmapa could inherit the title — and the wealth. The issue of reincarnation of the Karmapa has the main regents of the Karma Kagyu order at loggerheads. They are divided into two vying camps and, at the moment, at least two candidates continue to claim the title.

One is Ugyen Trinley who supposedly 'escaped' from Chinese captivity Dec 1999 reaching India at the turn of the millenium. Shamar Rinpoche, the Senior Regent of the Karma Kagyu order, has described the escape of Ugyen Trinley Dorje as a Chinese ploy to claim the property of the Karmapa. Situ and Gyaltshab Rinpoches have investigated his antecedents. The Dalai Lama too has put the seal of approval on him. Ugyen Trinley is supported by several lamas within the school and has been accepted by a section of the disciples of the late Karmapa. Curiously also, though avowed atheists, the Chinese too made a conciliatory gesture towards the faithful in Tibet by recognising Ugyen Trinley as a 'living Buddha', being the first person to be recognised as such. It was the first such endorsement by China since the abortive Tibetan revolt of 1959 against the Chinese Communists. However, the announcement by China stressed that the Karmapas had regularly paid tribute to the (Chinese) emperors of the Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and had received imperial titles many times. Thus, on the one hand, while China shows a facade of tolerance towards religious tradition, on the other, it is obsessed with creating new evidence of its ancient sovereignty over Tibet and therefore pays special attention to Karma Kagyu matters.

The Kagyu order in toto predates the Gelug, the order of the Dalai Lama, by about 300 years. (See Appendix C for more details.) A tame Karmapa under Beijing's control would be a boon for China, as it would allow it to dominate his followers. With the young Karmapa's acquiescence, China would, at a stroke, legitimise its current claim of rule over Tibet dating back to the twelfth or thirteenth century. It was a near takeover by Communist China of the Kagyu order by proxy in which Chinesepolitical expediency saw fit to create a unanimity of views with the Dalai Lama though the fact remains that the confirmation by the Dalai Lama of Ugyen Trinley as the reincarnation of the XVIth Karmapa came a full three weeks before the Chinese 'approval' and that too while he was still in Rio de Janeiro.

The Dalai Lama's coterie was already itching to settle scores with the Karma Kagyu in particular. It was also deluding itself with hopes of getting concessions from China regarding the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second in hierarchy in the ruling Gelug order of the Dalai Lama. To the disappointment of the coterie, China did not oblige.

The only Buddhist lama who sidestepped the Chinese trap was Shamar Rinpoche, the Senior Regent in the Karma Kagyu order. Brushing aside all overtures of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, he searched out Trinley Thaye Dorje, a Tibet-born boy and, before declaring him as the reincarnation of the Karmapa, had the boy smuggled along with his parents into India. Trinley Thaye Dorje has been approved by several teachers within the Karma Kagyu order and by a sizeable section of the students of the XVIth Karmapa in western countries.

India, a secular country, does not interfere in sacerdotal traditions. However, it could not remain aloof from this controversy. The headquarters of the Kagyu order is at Rumtek in Sikkim, a state bordering China, and China continues to refuse to recognise Sikkim as an integral part of India. Were the 'Karmapa' recognised by China to be allowed access to Rumtek, the headquarters of the Karmapa in Sikkim (India), the decision would certainly have far reaching political repercussions for India. Understandably, India is covertly siding with Shamar Rinpoche while the Sikkim politicians, despite their differences, by and large, are kowtowing to Situ Rinpoche, the number three in the hierarchy of the Karma Kagyu order. The reasons for the latter is quite naturally, the infusion of impressive amounts of funds into the state.

Isolation has been a distinctive feature of Tibet for centuries. The country's geographical inaccessibility and the genuine desire of its inhabitants to have few contacts with outsiders created an ideal situation for seclusion. However, the asylum of Tibetans in India, Nepal, Europe and America was crucial for the survival of Tibetan culture. Considering that the Tibetans fleeing Tibet had little experience of the outside world, they managed the transition from obscurity to modernism well to a certain degree. However, in exile they have had to work hard to protect their culture from that of their host countries. This has resulted in a creation of cultural fusion to a certain degree. In India this should not really come as a problem as the consciousness of the Tibetan varies little from that of the Indian.

This problem was exacerbated by the very success Tibetan Buddhism achieved outside Tibet and India as well. Tibetan Buddhism did not isolate itself in exile. Instead, by the late 1960s, it emerged as an active proselytizing movement in the West. For people with spiritual inclinations in the West who were not drawn towards the institutionally less embedded Hindu Gurus and were more fascinated with 'miracles', Tibetan Buddhism appeared as an authentic and authoritative Asian religious alternative. Unfortunately westerners, in their ardour to embrace Buddhism, assumed naively that the host Tibetan culture was simple and constructed around Dharmic principles! The events mentioned in this book demonstrate the exact opposite -- that Tibetans are as human as the rest of the world!

The present-day loyalties, rivalries, and hostilities among the Himalayan lamas have a direct connection with what happened inside Tibet and also China during the last several hundred years. Tibetan history presents a tangled web of religion, politics, myths and miracles brewed into a magnificent mosaic. It is critical to separate these threads to distinguish facts from fiction. (See Appendix D for Tibetan history.)

Little wonder, actions and thoughts of majority of Tibetans are governed, to a large extent, by episodes from the past. Tibetologists say that the intervening period between the death of a high lama heading a monastic order and confirmation of his reincarnation has, particularly since the Vth Dalai Lama, been invariably been characterised by rivalries, struggles, intrigues and machinations. The whole process of reincarnation of lamas and the metaphysical transmission of religious and temporal authority in a Tibetan monastic order possibly has political undertones. This politicisation took place in the 16th century when the Mongolian Chieftain Alta Khan claimed of himself to be the incarnation of Kublai Khan instating the IIIrd Dalai Lama as that of Avalokiteshwara. Incidentally the title given to Sonam Gyatso was Taala'i Lama meaning 'ocean of wisdom' which perhaps he was!

The social fabric of Tibet then came to be very much determined by the institution of the trulku, the tradition of recognising a lama's consecutive rebirths. The idea of reincarnation is a unique Tibetan religio-political institution dating back to the twelfth century in the Karma Kagyu order. Until the advent of the Karmapas it was accepted that a particular Lama was the reincarnation of a particularly personality in the past. However, it was institutionalised by the IInd Karmapa as a spiritual fact. Later when borrowed by the Gelugpas it became transformed into a religio-political institution open to use and abuse.

The Nyingma order faced competing reincarnations in 1992. The Dalai Lama backed a Bhutanese boy from Kathmandu as the reincarnation of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, the elected Head of the Nyingmapa tradition. He was duly instated in 1992 in Kathmandu. Later Ven Jhadhral Rinpoche of Pharping, Kathmandu, recognised another candidate living in Tibet as the Dudjom incarnation. Fortunately the Nyingmapas en masse accepted both the incarnations as genuine even though due to internal problems with the family of the previous Dudjom, the Tibetan incarnation has gained precedence.

The head of the Sakya tradition has always been a tantric practitioner, like many Nyingmalamas. He is required to marry and keep his plait of hair. As a true follower of tantric doctrine, he is required to develop control over the nadis, vayus and bindus. However, if he feels it necessary to have a successor, he invites the consciousness principle of a holy person to enter into the womb of his consort-wife. In former times, the Sakya lamas sent too many such invitations, leading to the division in the 'celestial family' into two parts. Later on, quarrelsome rifts generated by their ignorant staff created an unhappy relationship between the two divided families.

The present reigning lama Ngawang Kunga Thecgchen Rinpoche (Sakya Tridzin) is from the House of Drolma Phodrang. He stays at Dehra Dun in India. The other, from the House of Phuntsog Phodrang lives and teaches in Seattle, USA. The Sakya Lama's priesthood is hereditary.

The head of the Gelugpa order, on the other hand, hands over the throne of the Ganden Thripa to a successor chosen by him before his death. The tradition continues till today. The 99th successor of the Ganden throne and the religious head of the Gelug order is Yeshe Dhondrub. He lives in exile at the Ganden monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka (India).

The main secular function of trulku was to institutionalise the charisma of some individual lamas with extraordinary achievements. The idea is based on the Buddhist (or Hindu) concept of rebirth, which all persons are supposed to undergo after death. However, bodhisattvas, whose reincarnations most of the high lamas claim to be, are superior beings who are on the threshold of enlightenment but who have deliberately postponed it in order to be present in the world and help the suffering human beings to become enlightened.

What has set Tibet apart from the rest of the world is the fact that the country was able to continue the unbroken and living transmission of the Dispensation of the Buddha. This include the highest instructions about the ultimate nature of reality along with methods of its realisation. And while the average Tibetan goes about his or her business without giving much thought to the highest truth — leaving all such, exalted matters to the attention of their lamas and venerated institutions — a small number of individuals use the unique techniques available and achieve better results. Out of a few million people, a precious handful of lamas andyogis are able to fulfill, generation after generation, the highest potential of the human mind.

As such, Tibetans believe that such high lamas have a certain degree of freedom over death and rebirth, especially when it comes to when and where to be reborn. It is this mysterious jigsaw puzzle that lamas try to solve after the death of every high lama — through dreams and visions, oracles and divinations, mysterious signs and close observations.

The Karmapa has kept coming back in an unbroken sequence of embodiments that has spanned 900 years until now. Similarly, other highly realized lamas started to reincarnate consciously and were then recognised by their accomplished disciples. Life after life, a lama's enlightened qualities came into contact with his students. Hundreds of different trulku lines manifested throughout Tibet and the whole system served as a unique mechanism for preserving an unbroken transmission of the Buddha's teachings.

Over the centuries, however, monasteries and their trulkus have grown in wealth and wield considerable influence over the social and political life of the country. A number of trulkus have assumed the role of political figures augmenting their role as religious teachers. To locate and deliver the new reincarnation of a prominent trulku to his old monastery means gain of power. Since in many cases the criteria, according to which reincarnates are recognised leave much room for manoeuvre, the process becomes an instrument for political infighting. The traditional method of scrutiny whereby the young hopefuls have to identity objects belonging to the predecessors is often bypassed. Outstanding Masters are not always consulted. Political influence, money or the edge of the sword have become the decisive factors instead, and the number of authentic trulkus has begun to dwindle.

It is not at all uncommon to have two or more candidates — each backed by a powerful faction — openly and violently challenging a well-known trulku seat. While the young aspirants may have little idea about the fray that goes on behind their backs, their mighty patrons are even ready to go to war to see their choice prevail.

Once the throne of a truIku for a contestant is won, his education begins, strictly in accordance with the role he has to play in his mature years. Surrounded by an all-male entourage of hereditary tutors and servants, the young reincarnate is generally subjected to severe discipline and left exclusively in the custody of his circle of zealous attendants. This is to enable the trulku to receive a transmission of the Buddha's teachings in its purest form, as much as it is to guard him as the monastery's most valuable possession. More often than not, consequently, the seclusion results in the trulku's somewhat vague knowledge about life outside his monastery's walls. At the same time, those around him play a far more dominant role than the benefit of his seat would require, pursuing sometimes their vested interests over the head of their master. Such a state of affairs is, of course, fertile ground for foreign interference.

With foreign as well as domestic meddling close at hand, the religious choice for a trulku has, over the centuries, become an exception rather than the rule. Authentic lamas have, of course, manifested. Tibetan history is rich in examples of highly accomplished trulku lines and, in theory, the whole system is geared towards bringing forward and taking care of such things. Yet, the same system, after centuries of abuse, has allowed a great number of reincarnates to become political puppets or absolute princes. They become instruments in the hands of their households whose members, while fervently guarding access to the former's ears, scheme their own intrigues. Reincarnates often behave like politicians and remain accountable to none. Advised by whosoever has gained their favour, they plunge often unprepared into the choppy waters of political passion. As a consequence, a throng of inept individuals often governs the affairs though their only qualification is the possession of a title or affiliation to a name.

The narrative that follows is to be perceived against this peculiar setting. The inflammable mixture of personal animosity, hostility and, eventually, hatred has added spice to an otherwise dry historical process.

The emerald-green mountains and the snow-white clouds above the Rumtek monastery turn dark gray as sunlight dissolves in the distant horizon. The deepening darkness renders the base murky. The bells toll a sombre note and the traditional ornate gongs resound at a slow and graceful pace. The multi-coloured prayer pennants flutter in the gentle breeze that whiffs around the majestic monastery nestling on the mountain. An air of oriental mysticism pervades the place and spontaneously evokes feelings of deep devotion and awe. Tibetan monks and their disciples are there. So are the murals, tapestries and thangkas (scroll paintings) embroidered with traditional and religious motifs. But, the pristine serene atmosphere of the gompa has soured to the extent that it seems to be beyond redemption. The canker has set in and, like gangrene, inch by inch, the flesh is putrefying though the spirit is ever so willing.