The 17th Karmapa, Another Political Prisoner?

With all the recent publicity surrounding the long overdue and welcome release and reinstatement of Aung San Suu Kyi, the story of another "political prisoner" has gone largely unnoticed. Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism resides in India, "the Worlds largest democracy".

However he is forbidden from leaving India and travelling abroad without the permission of the Indian government. In fact it was only in March of last year that he was allowed to leave Dharamsala and take a month-long pilgrimage to Bodhgaya, and to Varanasi, the Buddha's winter retreat. His Holiness is viewed by many as the natural successor to the Dalai Lama as leader in exile of the Tibetan people.

He was recently described by dissident Chinese author Liao Yiwu as being a virtual prisoner. Liao said that he had invited the Karmapa to visit him in Berlin where he now lives after having escaped from China. He went on to say that he didn't hold out much hope that his Holiness would be allowed to make the trip.

Karmapa Cleared

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that on Friday Indian authorities cleared Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, Tibetan Buddhism's third most important leader, in a probe into $1.35 million in cash discovered last month at his headquarters in northern India.

Rajwant Sandhu, the top civil servant in Himachal Pradesh state, said the money found during a raid on the Karmapa's monastery had been donated by his followers just as was stated at the time by the Karmapa's office.

Last week, state police probing the case said the Karmapa's followers violated Indian tax and foreign currency laws in collecting the donations. Also the Karmapa Office of Administration has had to adamantly deny Indian media reports that the Buddhist leader might be a Chinese agent sent to India to control exiled Tibetan Buddhists who have made their home there.

This does all reek of a campaign to discredit his Holiness, couldn't have anything to do with the ongoing dispute over the proposed land purchase by Tibetan exiles in the region, could it?

SEE ALSO......

Indian Media Accuse The 17th Karmapa of Being Chinese Agent!

The authorities in India have taken it upon themselves to investigate nearly half a million pounds worth of
foreign currency "found" in the Gyuto monastery, the home of Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa.

The money was in nearly two dozen foreign currencies, including a large amount of Chinese yuan,the Karmapas' office pointed out that they received support and donations from followers in many countries including Tibet hence the Chinese currency!

It seems that the motivation here may be Indian antagonism against Tibetan exiles purchasing land in the Himalayan region of north India. There has been a long running smear campaign in the Indian media against his Holiness with the suggestions of his being a "Chinese Agent".

Police raided the Gyuto monastery on Thursday and arrested a monk on suspicion of trying to illegally buy land in the region.

The raid followed the arrest of two Indians a day earlier who were found carrying 10 million rupees (£14,000) in cash, said Santosh Patial, a superintendent of police. On questioning, the two said they had received the money from the monk, an Indian national, to buy a plot of land in Himachal Pradesh where Dharmsala is located.

The Inequality of Women in Buddhism

In the latest edition of BuddhaDharma there are a number of articles on the subject of full female ordination, the Bhikkhuni question. The first is by three former Buddhist nuns—Thanissara, Jitindriya, and Elizabeth Day, and is entitled "The Time Has Come". The second, "That Was Then, This Is Now" is by Buddhist scholar Janet Gyatso and the last is a report by Llundup Damcho on the Seventeeth Karmapa’s vow to reinstate full ordination for women in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, it is titled, “I will do it”.

On the same subject there is an excellent article on the same subject, again by Thanissara, in the latest edition of Present, which is published by the "Alliance for Bhikkhunis". It is, "Take it or Leave it and the Ground Between" and is downloadable from this link as a PDF file.

Karmapa & Dalai Lama's Travel Restricted

I've just been sent this link from Jenny in Cowes; "His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa will address a teaching to the Kagyu sanghas and his students in Europe on Thursday, May 27th 2010 via a Live Webcast.

The teaching will take place starting from 7:00 PM BST. His Holiness will be teaching in Tibetan and live English translation will be provided by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. The site is http://www.livingthedharma.eu/, apparently the talk will be available for download afterwards.

I'm somewhat bemused by this as the Indian government recently banned the Karmapa from touring nine European countries from May to July for a series of teachings, lectures and initiations. It would seem that the Indian government can only be bowing to pressure from their powerful Chinese neighbour.

Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who was named the Karmapa Lama at the age of 7, is a particular bête noir to the Chinese, who gave him recognition as Tibet's first living Buddha and had hoped to groom him as an influential and patriotic Tibetan leader, giving him gifts including a color television and a car. He ranks as the spiritual leader of the Black Hat sect, one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, behind only the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama in the Tibetan spiritual hierarchy.

However, to Chinese fury, in December 1999 the Karmapa, then 14, pretended to go into seclusion but instead slipped out a window of the Tsurpu Monastery with a handful of attendants. He began a daring 1,450-kilometer winter trip across some of the most forbidding terrain on the planet by foot, horseback, train and helicopter to Dharamsala, making world headlines and embarrassing Beijing. He was given refugee status by India in 2001.

I can only assume that the power of the web has thwarted yet another authoritarian, anti-democratic move by the Chinese to suppress free Tibetan views.

Unfortunately Chinese pressure and intimidation has successfully forced the Thai government to refuse an entry visa for the Dalai Lama. “His Holiness the Dalai Lama last visited Thailand in 1993 when a group of Nobel Peace laureates held a solidarity meeting for fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,” Tenzin Taklha said. “Since then, His Holiness has not been able to visit Thailand because of the refusal of the necessary visa from the Thai government, for reasons known to them.” China is one of Thailand's largest trading partners.