North Sikkim rallies for the Karmapa

WANGCHUK BHUTIA

MANGAN, 03 FEB: Around 1,500 devotees joined a candlelight peace rally at Thingchim-Mangshila in North Sikkim on Thursday evening in support of Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
The rally was organized by the Thingchim Development Committee, a Thingchim-based NGO, and was joined by the people from all walks of life. The rally started from Thingchim monastery and covered nearly 16 kms to Namok via Mangshila and back to the monastery.
People came in from Mangshila, Namok and Swayem to join the monks from Thingchim monastery.  Special prayers were offered by the monks before the rally began.
Speaking to NOW! last evening, the Dugey Lama from Thingchim Monastery, who led the rally, asserted that the cash recovered from Gyuto Monastery at Sidhbari near Daharmsala were donations made by the Karmapa’s devotees from all over the world and it that only vested interest could infer this to suggest that the Karmapa was a Chinese agent, as a large section of the media was speculating.
He demanded that a proper CBI enquiry be conducted into the incident and expressed confidence that this would clear the Karmapa’s name and expose those who played this unsavory trick on the Dharma.
The peace rally at Thingchim was also joined by Zilla member, Thingchim Mangshilla, Jomin Limboo and panchayat Secretary Sarki Bhutia.
Similarly, a peace rally was also taken out here in the North district headquarter town of Mangan and was joined by people from all communities and all walks of life. The rally marched from the bus stop to Lower Mangan Bazaar and was headed by the Rigzing Choling Monastery Acharya, Pema Dorjee, Monks, lay people, youth, people from all faiths, members of the SDF Cheli Morcha and councilors, Mangan Nagar Panchayat, joined the rally.