But what he may find really difficult is to allay suspicions about his links with Beijing and get a clear endorsement from the Indian government to his claim to be the Karmapa — the spiritual leader of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Not that the neatly packed bundles of Chinese yuan found in the monastery have suddenly triggered suspicion about his collusion with Beijing. Ugyen can indeed claim he received the foreign currencies as offerings from his devotes, who come not only from the Tibetan refugee settlements in India and other countries, but also from Chinese-occupied Tibet. There are, however, other reasons for which New Delhi has not been comfortable with Ugyen. And the doubts date back to January 2000, when he arrived in Dharamshala after a dramatic ‘escape’ from Tolung Tsurphu monastery in central Tibet.
Many in New Delhi’s security establishment were not ready to buy Ugyen’s thriller-like story of escape to India — purportedly evading the security rings of the People’s Liberation Army and China’s intelligence agencies. They felt it would not have been possible for the 14-year-old boy monk and his entourage to hoodwink the Chinese security agencies, unless of course Beijing deliberately looked the other way and let him escape to India.
In 1992 the Dalai Lama had confirmed Ugyen as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. The Chinese government too accepted him as the 17th Karmapa — perhaps the last such instance in which Beijing concurred with Dalai Lama. Three years later, the Chinese government propped up Gyaltsen Norbu as the reincarnation of 10th Panchen Lama, against Dalai Lama’s choice Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
Despite doubts that his ‘great escape’ might be stage-managed, New Delhi did open its door for Ugyen, as was advised by Dalai Lama himself. Having recognised him as the Karmapa, Dalai Lama in fact could not have risked an outrage from the Kagyupas by advising New Delhi to slam the door on their highly-revered leader. That was the time when Dalai Lama was spearheading the process to further democratise the Tibetan government-in-exile and the next year — 2001 — was to see the refugee community around the world for the first time directly electing a Kalon Tripa or prime minister. So he needed unstinted support from the Kagyupas. Besides, it was believed that even if Ugyen was working for Beijing, he could do less harm to the struggle against Chinese rule over Tibet, if he was allowed to come to India.
Though Ugyen finally got refugee status in 2001, New Delhi never publicly recognised him as the Karmapa. Significantly, neither did it ever reject Ugyen’s challenger Trinley Thaye Dorje’s claim to the title.
Under constant watch
Over the past 11 years, Ugyen has been living in Dharamshala, under New Delhi’s constant watch. Though he travelled around the country, the Indian government never allowed him to visit Sikkim’s Rumtek monastery. The monastery, built by the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje in the 16th century, was the principal seat of the Karmapas in India. The dispute over the 17th Karmapa triggered legal battles as well as violent clashes among the monks in the monastery. Its treasure trove included the traditional black crown of the Karmapa. No wonder, Ugyen is keen to go there and don the crown to consolidate his claim. But New Delhi is unlikely to let him do that anytime soon.
New Delhi has also been reluctant to let him travel abroad. He was allowed to go to the US only once in 2008. His request for permission to travel to the US and Europe again in early 2010 was turned down.
With the probe into the source of the foreign currencies found in the Gyuto tantric monastery still on, it may be too early to call Ugyen ‘a Chinese spy’. However, that Beijing had a plan to use him to lessen Dalai Lama’s influence in Tibet was admitted by Ugyen himself in an interview to ‘Time’ in 2001.
Ugyen, as the Karmapa, indeed fits well into Beijing’s plan to fizzle out the Tibetans’ struggle by taking advantage of the chaotic situation, which is likely to prevail after the demise of the current and 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. There may be many claims and counter-claims over the next incarnation of Dalai Lama, who has so far been the global face of the Tibetans’ struggle for genuine autonomy for Tibet. In the absence of any consensus on the next Dalai Lama, Beijing may indeed try to project Karmapa as the new leader of Tibet, as there is a dispute over Panchen Lama’s incarnation too.
The Chinese government may also have plans to use the Karmapa to dig out and breathe fresh life into the long-buried enmity between Kagyupas led by him and the Gelug sect that the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama belong to.
Tibet is the most important strategic card India holds to manage its complex relation with an increasingly assertive China and it has to be kept relevant beyond the lifetime of the reigning 14th Dalai Lama. It must pre-empt the Chinese attempts to fizzle out the struggle of the Tibetans by taking advantage of disputes over incarnations and pitting one sect against another. The best way is to support Dalai Lama’s ongoing efforts to democratise the exiled Tibetans so that the democratically elected people can rightfully inherit the political leadership of their struggle after the 75-year-old monk breathes his last.