By JULIAN GEARING
Asia Week Thursday, April 12, 2001

Is an amicable solution to the Karmapa controversy in sight? That is the question some devotees of Tibetan Buddhism are asking in the wake of the Dalai Lama's return to India from his controversial nine-day visit to Taiwan, a religious trip that tip-toed dangerously close to Chinese political sensitivities. Touching down once more on Indian soil April 9, the Dalai Lama hinted to a local journalist that history points to the possibility of a settlement of the tussle between rival claimants to head the powerful Tibetan Buddhist Karma Kagyu sect.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said such a clash of claimants had happened in the past and had been resolved amicably. "During the sixth Dalai Lama's tenure 300 years ago, the seventh Karmapa was accorded recognition following a similar controversy," he said. "But it was ultimately resolved and the issue was settled."

Ears pricked up. The Tibetan spiritual leader backs the 15-year-old lama Urgyen Trinley as the 17th reincarnation of the Karma Kagyu sect's spiritual head, the Karmapa. The youth's flight from Tibet at the beginning of last year sparked international interest and question marks over whether he might eventually become a new spiritual figurehead for the Tibetan people. Yet there is another boy, 17-year-old Thaye Dorje, who also claims the position. Such comment from the Dalai Lama has encouraged hope among Thaye Dorje's supporters that a solution to the standoff that has split one of Tibetan Buddhism's four main sects, and triggered a crisis among the religious hierarchy, can be found.

There is some irony that the Nobel Peace Prize winner was again attacked by China on his Taiwan visit as a "splittist," claiming he is trying to split the territory of Tibet from China, when at home - meaning his constituency of exiled Tibetans mostly in India - some charge he is a religious "splittist" for interfering in the affairs of a key Tibetan Buddhist sect. The Dalai Lama, on the contrary, would like to think he is drawing Tibetan Buddhist followers together.

In an attack on the man who is revered as the Tibetan's spiritual light, representatives claiming to represent 500 Karma Kagyu monasteries from around the world met in Kathmandu last month to formulate the toughest-worded response to date to what they portray as the threat to their sect and the sacred lineage. Given that Tibetans refrain from publicly questioning the actions of their spiritual leader, Tibetan religious affairs seldom get more heated than this.

Citing long-held aggression by the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa sect against the Karmapa's Karma Kagyu sect, members of the "International Karma Kagyu Forum" sent an open letter to the Tibetan's spiritual leader demanding he "bow out of the internal conflict of the Karma Kagyu school." Angry with what they see as unjustified meddling, they said the Dalai Lama "deliberately endorsed wrongful claims and actions" of a group "of corrupt Kagyu lamas. This interference is absolutely unacceptable to the Karma Kagyu School."

The open letter also called for a forensic examination of the "so-called prediction letter," which was used by one of the Karma Kagyu lamas, Tai Situ Rinpoche, to "find" what they claim is the "Chinese Karmapa" Urgyen Trinley - a candidate recognized by China as well as the Dalai Lama. Supporters of rival Thaye Dorje claim the letter was forged by Tai Situ, and that, therefore, Urgyen Trinley is not the true reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa, who died in 1981. Tibetans have developed a practice - started with the first Karmapa - of searching for the reincarnation of their leading lamas, who are considered bodhisattvas, or enlightened beings.

Who is the "true" Karmapa? Urgyen Trinley has been under a quiet pall of controversy since he left Tibet, with the Indian authorities seemingly reluctant to accept him, only recently granting him refugee status and maintaining controls over his movements. He resides near the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. Rival Thaye Dorje is less fettered, having had opportunities to give teachings abroad, and appears set to spend the next few years studying in Kalimpong. Both have their eye on the Karmapa's exile seat at Rumtek Monastery in the Himalayan Indian state of Sikkim. Both have many supporters.

A solution to the controversy appears to lie in the hands of the Dalai Lama. The question is what he means by his recent statement that the issue can be amicably resolved. Some observers are confused. Says one: is this a smoke signal that there may be some movement? Or is it a smokescreen to conceal some more political maneuvering to get Urgyen Trinley recognized as the sole and true Karmapa? Is he obliquely responding to the strong criticism that came out of the Kathmandu conference?

Careful study of Tibetan history shows a trail of conflict and broken promises between the line of Dalai Lamas and Karmapas. Such conflict pains to this day. The Dalai Lama, a religious leader but also a politician, sees a close alliance with the leader of the Karma Kagyu sect as crucial in his bid for unity - a unity he sees as so vital as he tries to find a negotiated settlement to the Tibetan issue that might allow him and his people to return home.

As a religious leader, he knows there are questions of truth over the recognition of Urgyen Trinley. As a politician, he know Urgyen Trinley can more easily be used as a tool in his drive for unity. But at what cost? Political interference in the hierarchy of Tibetan lamas is nothing new. Yet the fight over the two boys could have serious repercussions on the religious and political future of Tibet. As the Dalai Lama says, 300 years ago a similar controversy was ultimately resolved. Millions of devotees of Tibetan Buddhism around the world are waiting to see whether the 14th, and current, reincarnation of the Dalai Lama can solve this standoff.