Will return to India this year: Karmapa

Smita Sharma 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 7

The 33-year-old Karmapa Lama, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, has said he is all set to return to India later this year. According to sources, the Karmapa over the past few months has signalled through various actions, including celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday to sharing stage with representatives of Central Tibetan Administration as well as Chinese dissidents, that he is one with the Dalai Lama and with the Tibetan cause.

The young Karmapa who has been in the US for the past one year citing medical treatment, has a cramped accommodation in Dharamsala where he was housed under intense security for 18 years since he fled Tibet in December 1999. Post 2013 though his movement in an out of the country was eased. 

The Karmapa, head of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, was last week in Washington DC to attend a ministerial on religious freedom sponsored by State Department where he focused on plight and freedom of Tibetan people.

Later in an interview to Voice of America, he said, “I did have plans to return at the end of June, but then there were many rumours around, saying I was going to stay in the US or I was going to China, and also in some departments of the Indian government’s secret services were giving out confusing reports about me. I have no plans whatsoever to return to China, and I will return to India in the near future.” 

Sources say the Karmapa is in touch with Indian government representatives and discussions are on to offer him better accommodation in the national capital region and greater freedom to gloss over past mistrust issues. Amitabh Mathur, adviser to Ministry of Home Affairs, who has had a long association with the Karmapa and met him recently during a personal visit to the US, says the timing of the return is not so important. “I did meet him in a personal capacity. I was carrying no brief nor did he assign any brief to me. He said he intends to return to India. And I have no reason to doubt him,” Mathur told The Tribune.   

In another recent interview with the Tibetan service of Radio Free Asia (RFA) in Washington, the Karmapa underlined that in principle there is agreement to return to India in November to participate in a meeting called by the Dalai Lama. “In November of this year, there will be an important meeting of the heads of the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions in Dharamsala. Therefore, I must attend,” the Karmapa told RFA. 

Blessed by the Dalai Lama, the 17th Karmapa Lama has in the past spoken to the media about alleged ill-treatment by the Indian government and security agencies. “Previously, I was held to be a Chinese spy and there were other false accusations. These we cleared up and the Ministry of Defence adopted a new position, so I was able to visit places, such as Sikkim, where previously I was not permitted to go,” the Karma told VOA.