Shocked and Hurt in Rumtek

Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, 31 Jan 2011

The gate to the Rumtek Monastery, 31 Jan 2011

Rumtek, a 40-minute drive from Sikkim’s capital Gangtok, is where the XVIth Karmapa settled in exile after he fled Tibet in 1960. The Dharma Chakra Centre there was inaugurated in 1966 and became the Karmapa’s seat in exile. The place thus has a very close attachment with the Karmapa even if not all the people living there are Karma Kagyu, or even Buddhists for that matter. TSERING EDEN visits Rumtek to get a sense of how this town is responding to the entire drama being played out on national TV…

GANGTOK, 01 Feb: The XVIIth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, the supreme spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, is in the midst of a controversy; a controversy made worse by the far-fetched speculation which the media has indulged in to colour an already complicated haul of cash from the Gyuto Monastery at Sidhbari [where the Karmapa has been residing for the past ten years]. Being a religious leader, the Karmapa has millions of devotees in India and across the world, but it is at the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek that he has his seat in exile and where he is still not allowed by the Indian authorities to reside. In order to get a feel of the atmosphere around the place with regard to the still spooling controversy, NOW! visited Rumtek to speak to the locals there.

There was a palpable gloom in the area. Maybe it was the tourist off-season, or some psychological factor playing on our minds, but the area also appeared deserted. What also soon became obvious was a reluctance among the people to speak or comment on the issue.  This was obviously because of the sensationalism the media at large has approached the whole issue with. Candlelight vigils and rallies being held for the Karmapa are as much to convey moral support to the Karmapa as to register the feeling of hurt over the media’s handling of the issue.

Approaching the monastery, we finally came across two monks, who, after a little coaxing and much cajoling said: “We devotees have no issues with the process of investigation which is necessary since it is the duty of the concerned authorities. We however have full faith in the Karmapa and do not believe the allegations to be true. It is just the fact that Karmapa received devotees from border areas like Sikkim and Arunachal that some people are making assumptions of his being a Chinese agent. How can he help it if his followers reside in these areas?”

“We, however, are very disappointed with the way the national media has covered the issue,” they added.

Right near the entrance of the monastery we met Lhawang Dorjee, a Rumtek resident, who said, “The Chinese currency found in the raid, on which their allegation of the Karmapa being a Chinese agent is based, is ridiculous. His devotees are spread out across the globe and they make donations, does that make the Karmapa an agent of all these other countries as well?”

He also resonated what the monks had earlier said regarding the manner in which the issue has been portrayed in the media.

A candle light vigil in the area was also planned in support of the Karmapa yesterday.  

Notice announcing a candlelight vigil at Rumtek