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UNITED NEWS OF INDIA
GANGTOK, Oct 21: The six-year-old row over the selection of the ``reincarnated'' head of Sikkim's famous Rumtek monastery is set to snowball. A Delhi court has issued a show-cause notice to the CBI on a complaint filed against Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and six others for ``conspiring'' to dismember Sikkim from India to align it with the Tibetan autonomous region of China.
Early this month, Delhi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Prem Kumar directed the CBI to file a formal reply on the matter by October 26 after the investigating agency submitted that a petition of a similar nature was pending in the Supreme Court. The court's directive came in response to a complaint filed by a member of the Rumtek monastery, Narayan Singh.
In his plea, Singh has accused the Dalai Lama; former Sikkim chief minister and Sikkim Sangram Parishad chief Nar Bahadur Bhandari; controversial Buddhist monk and a former Rumtek regent, Tai Situ Rinpoche; Gyaltsab Rinpoche; Gyalo Thondup; Kunsang Sherab; and SonamTopden of conspiring to separate Sikkim from India.
Singh has alleged that the seven named by him were misusing religion for ``subversive Chinese propaganda'' and urged the court to summon a confidential report prepared in May 1997 by the then Sikkim chief secretary, K.S. Rao, to ``expose'' the conspiracy and the role of the Dalai Lama and others.
Located around 24 km from Gangtok, the Rumtek monastery is the headquarters of the Kagyupa sect of Tibetan Buddhism and believed to be India's wealthiest and one of the world's richest monasteries. It was built in 1730 by the ninth Gyalwa Karmapa and rebuilt after a fire. The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa had established the ``Dharma Chakra Centre'' here in 1959 after the Chinese overran Tibet.
Since the death of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa in 1981, the world-renowned monastery has been without a head. In 1992, four monks -- Samar Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, Jamgonkongtrul Rinpoche and Tsurpu Gyaltsab Rinpoche who were looking after the monastery while searching for itschosen head split into two groups.
The group led by Tai Situ Rinpoche and Tsurpu Gyaltsab Rinpoche identified nine-year-old, Tibet-born Ogyen Thinley Dorjee as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa. However, the other faction led by Samar Rinpoche insisted that the 11-year-old, India-born Thinley Thai Dorjee was the rightful heir. Once the Dalai Lama gave his approval to Ogyen Thinley Dorjee, Jamgonkongtrul Rinpoche set out for Tibet to bring the boy to Rumtek. However, he was killed in an accident on the way in April 1992.
On June 27, 1992, the Chinese authorities proclaimed Ogyen Thinley Dorjee as the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa. However, India refused to identify him as that.The rivalry between Tai Situ Rinpoche and Samar Rinpoche, meanwhile, took an ugly turn, forcing the deployment of central paramilitary forces inside the Gumpa complex. After clashes between the two groups, the two monks were barred from entering the complex. In August 1994, Tai Situ Rinpoche was declared an ``anti-Indian'' and banned fromentering the country. He is now allowed to travel freely except in Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir and the North-east.
In his complaint, Singh has alleged that the recognition of a Sino-Tibetan boy as the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa was based on ``fabricated'' evidence. He also feels Jamgonkongtrul Rinpoche's car had been tampered with, leading to the accident in which he died.
Singh also points out that Bhandari had brought his personal mechanic from Delhi in April 1992 to look after a car owned by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. During maintenance work in April 1992, the powerful car had rammed into a tree, killing the Rinpoche, Singh says.
Even as the monks fight among themselves, the Buddhist community in Sikkim has been pressing the state Government to urge the Centre to take steps to bring the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa from Tibet to Sikkim as well as to allow Tai Situ Rinpoche's into Sikkim.
Last month, Chamling met Tai Situ Rinpoche in Delhi and reportedly assured the monk that he would talk to the Centre.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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