Amid row over his return to India, Karmapa puts ball in govt court

Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 23

Amid the ongoing row over the possible return of the 17th Karmapa to India, Ogyen Trinley Dorje has passed the buck to the Indian authorities.

In a video message released on the occasion of the important annual Tibetan Buddhist festival of Kagyu Monlam, the Karmapa has claimed that he did approach the New York consulate last year with his newly-acquired Dominican passport to seek an Indian visa. This is contrary to Indian sources that argued that the Karmapa was not denied a visa because he did not apply for one in the first place. 

On December 27 last, official sources said, "Instructions had been given to Indian missions in the United States to grant a visa to the Karmapa, but the first step had to be taken by him."

However, in his latest 35-minute video sermon recorded in Tibetan language in Germany and uploaded on YouTube with English voice overs, the 33-year-old Karmapa says "I have a new passport. Once I got the new one, my old document, the IC (Identity Certificate) became invalidated", referring to the Identity Certificate issued to Tibetan refugees to allow them to travel abroad without a national passport. 

However, if the holder obtains a passport, like the Karmapa who is now a Dominican national, the IC becomes automatically invalid and has to be surrendered to the nearest Indian passport issuing authority which could be a mission or a consulate. "As that was the case, as soon as I got the new document, I went to the Indian embassy in New York to turn it to them. I went there and told them that I wanted to turn in my old document and further requested them to grant me visa in the new passport. But the people in that office said they were not authorised to do so and needed to ask the offices in Delhi about it. There was a lot of back and forth which took a bit of time and in the end, I could not get things done," adds the Karmapa in the message. 

The Karmapa who has been overseas on grounds of 'medical treatment' for more than a year now, was to return to India in November last year for the 13th religious conference on Tibetan Buddhism in Dharamsala. In his sermon he talks about his 'great wish' to attend the conference and also to meet the Dalai Lama as well as 'some people of the Indian government'. The conference, however, was postponed due to the death of the seventh head of the Nyingmapa tradition, Kathok Getse Rinpoche. His return is an important issue given the Dalai Lama's frail health and questions around future of Tibetan Buddhism.