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by Victor and Victoria Trimondi
An excerpt from "The Shadow of the Dalai
Lama"
A spectacular example of how the Kundun is
able to turn the divisions within the other sects to his advantage is
offered by the so-called “Karmapa affair”. The turbulent events played out
between various factions within the Kagyupa sect since the start of the
nineties have included radical confrontations and court cases, violent
brawls and accusations and counter-accusations of murder.
The cause of this un-Buddhist disagreement
was that in the search for the 17th incarnation of the new Karmapa, the
leader of the Kagyupa, two principal candidates and their proponents
confronted one another — on the one side, Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsab
Rinpoche, who advocated a youth in Tibet, on the other, Shamar Rinpoche,
who proposed a boy in India. Shortly before the decision, a third abbot,
Jamgon Kongtrol Rinpoche, whose voice would have been very influential in
the choice, was the victim of a mysterious fatal car accident. Shortly
afterwards, the remaining parties accused one another of having brought
about the death of Jamgon Kongtrol via magical manipulation. Brawls
between the two monastic factions and bloody heads resulted in India,
shots were even exchanged, so that the Indian police were forced to
intervene (Nesterenko, 1992).
Situ Rinpoche advocated a Sino-Tibetan boy
(Urgyen Trinley) as his Karmapa candidate, who also had the support of the
Kundun and the Tibetan government in exile. Shamar Rinpoche, however,
presented his own Karmapa (Thaye Dorje) to the public in Delhi on March
17, 1994. Since that time a great rift has divided the Kagyupa lineage,
affecting the numerous groups of western believers as well. Superficially,
one could gain the impression that Situ Rinpoche represented the Asian,
and Shamar Rinpoche the Euro-American segment of the Red Hat followers.
However, closer inspection proves this to be an erroneous picture, then
Shamar Rinpoche has established a notable power base in the kingdom of
Bhutan and Situ Rinpoche also has many supporters for his candidate in the
West. There are no small number of groups who would like to mediate
between the two rivals. But one knows full well what is at stake for the
Kagyupa lineage in this fundamental difference. At the end of an open
letter by “neutral” Red Hat abbots is to read, that if the differences
continue then it is certain that no side will emerge as the 'winner' or
the 'loser'. The sole loser will be the Karmapa Kagyupa lineage as a whole
(Tibetan Review, October 1993, p. 8).
But this split among the Kagyupa is useful
for the Dalai Lama. Since the dawn of Tibetan history the Karmapa has been
the main opponent of the Kundun and has already been involved in military
conflicts with Lhasa on several occasions. He was his major enemy in the
Tibetan civil war described above.
This rivalry did not end with the flight of
both hierarchs from Tibet. From the outset (since the end of the sixties)
the Kagyupa sect have been incomparably more popular in the West than the
orthodox Yellow Hats: the Red Hats were considered to be young, dynamic,
uncomplicated, informal, and cosmopolitan. The unconventional appearances
of the Kagyu tulku, Chögyam Trungpa, who in the seventies completely
identified himself with the artistic avant-garde of Europe and America
also set an example for many other masters of the sect. Up until the
mid-eighties, Western pupils of Buddhism in any case preferred the red
order. Here, in their view, an autonomous counterforce, independent of
rigid traditions, was emerging, at least this was how the Kagyupas
outwardly presented themselves. They developed into a powerful opponent of
the Gelugpa, who likewise attempted to attract proselytes in the West.
Among others, this would be one of the reasons why the Kundun allied
himself with “detested” China in supporting Situ Rinpoche’s candidate,
Ugyen Trinley, who is resident in the Tsurphu monastery on Chinese
territory.
But in the meantime the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama has succeeded in binding the Kagyupa (Situ and Gyaltsab lineages) so
strongly to himself that it seemed more sensible to place the young
Karmapa under his direct control. At first, Ugyen Trinley appeared to
function completely as the Chinese intended. In October 1995, the former
nomadic boy was the guest of honor during the national holiday
celebrations in Beijing and conversed with important Chinese government
leaders. The national press corps reported at length on his subsequent
journey through China, organized for the young hierarch with much pomp and
circumstance. He is supposed to have exclaimed “Long live the People’s
Republic of China!”
It is noteworthy that Beijing is attempting
less and less to explain the history and basic doctrines of Tibetan
Buddhism and is instead deliberately and with more or less success
establishing and encouraging a “competing Lamaism” or “alternative
Lamaism” directed against the politics of the Dalai Lama. The most
powerful incarnation supported by China is undoubtedly the young Eleventh
Panchen Lama, about whom we will come to report later. On January 17,
2000, the South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese had
discovered a reincarnation of Reting Rinpoche who had died in February
1997. The two-year-old boy was given a Buddhist name and ordained in front
of a statue in the Jokhang Temple (in Lhasa). The ceremony took place in
the presence of Chinese party officials. Reting Rinpoche is considered to
be one of the few lamas who in the event of the Dalai Lama’s death could
assume the regency until his reincarnation came of age. It is obvious that
the “China-friendly Lamaism” is setting a completely new tone in the
relationship between the two powers (China and the Tibetans in exile).
China is waiting for the charismatic leader
to die, and the Dalai Lama has had to think seriously about the issue of
succession, not just of his own reincarnation, but also the individual who
as regent will represent his state and religion whilst he is still a
minor. The successful and purposeful policy of integration which the
Kundun has been pursuing for years within the context of the individual
schools makes it possible that upon his death a Kagyupa hierarch could
also take on the task of representing all the sects just as the chief of
the Gelugpas (the Dalai Lama) de facto does. At any rate these are
speculations being discussed in the Western press. Time Magazine says of
Ugyen Trinley, “He has the potential to become a leading figure for the
next generation, just as the Dalai Lama is for the current one. … What
counts today is one who embodies the Tibetan religious identity and the
national claims – and can be a focus for Western sympathy. If the Karmapa
continues to show the courage and charisma which he has shown up until
now, then he could make an excellent symbol of the resistance to the
occupation of Tibet by China” (January 24, 1999; retranslation).
The current incarnation issue bring the
undisguised power interests of all involved out into the light of day. [8]
And these have a long tradition. For example, the power political
competition between the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the Sixteenth Karmapa is
the reason why the rumor has persisted in western Kagyupa circles that the
Kundun used magic practices to murder the Karmapa (Tibetan Review, August
1987, p. 21).
This “accusation of murder” calls to mind
not just the Tibetan civil war but also another mysterious incident. After
the death of the Fifteenth Karmapa (in 1922), a powerful Gelugpa minister
wanted to push through the recognition of his own son as the next
incarnation of the Kagyupa hierarch against the will of the Red Hats. This
autocratic decision was ratified by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the
monks of the Tsurphu monastery were forced against their will to accept
the Yellow Hats’ boy. But it did not take long before the child
inexplicably fell to his death from the roof of a building. There was
never an explanation of the “accident”, at any rate it was of benefit to
the genuine candidate of the Red Hats, who was now recognized as the
Sixteenth Karmapa.
Incidentally, the official chronicles of
the Gelugpas accuse the tenth incarnation of Shamar Rinpoche, of having
incited the Nepalese to war against Lhasa in the 18th century. Thereupon
his assets were either seized or razed to the ground. A subsequent
reincarnation of the great abbot was not accepted by the Yellow Hats.
"Merit was becoming less and less!”, the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa has
commented upon this period. "There was much political interference. Black
was becoming white. The real was becoming unreal. At that time it was not
practicable to have any Sharmapa recognized or enthroned. Everything was
kept secret” (Nesterenko, 1992, p. . Not until the year 1964, following a
lengthy meditation and on the basis of dreams, did the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama permit the official reinstatement of the Shamarpa lineage. The Kundun
should have known that according to his own doctrine history repeats
itself and that old conflicts do not just flare up afresh, rather, the
laws governing incarnation determine that time and again the same
individuals stand opposed to one another (in this case the Shamarpa versus
the Dalai Lama).
Accordingly the relations between the
god-king and the Nepalese are very tense once again. Nepal has over many
years established good contacts with its neighbor, China, and currently
(1998) has a “communist” government. Tibetan refugees are constantly
expelled from the country. In the past there were several armed conflicts
between the Royal Nepalese Army and Tibetan underground fighters (ChuShi
GangDrug).
Accusations against The Dalai Lama and the
Gelugpas of imposing their will upon the “red sect” (the Kagyupa) and
attempting to split them are also heard from government circles in the
kingdom of Bhutan. The so-called “Switzerland of the Himalayas” and its
ruling house (who today are in cooperation with the Shamarpa)
traditionally belong to the Kagyupa school, and have therefore had in part
very serious disputes with Lhasa for hundreds of years. The Yellow Hat
monasteries and their abbots, which have been tolerated in the country as
refugee settlements since the sixties, are accused by the Bhutanese of
nothing less serious than the politically motivated murder of the Prime
Minister, Jigme Dorji, (in 1964) and a long-planned revolt in order to
seize control of the country.
In this, the “Yellow Hats” are supposed to
have attempted to liquidate the Bhutanese heir to the throne. Alongside
one of the king’s mistresses who was under the influence of the Gelugpas,
the Dalai Lama’s brother, Gyalo Thondrup, is also supposed to be involved
in this assassination attempt, discovered before it could be carried
through. In the light of such accusations it is immediately apparent why
the Bhutanese have backed Shamar Rinpoche’s decision in the dispute about
the new Karmapa, and reject Ugyen Trinley, the candidate of Situ Rinpoche
ratified by Dharamsala, as a marionette of the Dalai Lama.
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