There's trouble at temple. As if the Chinese occupation of their country were not sufficiently testing for the Tibetan people, cracks have begun to appear in the previously united front of their government in exile under the Dalai Lama.

Certainly, it went against all preconceptions of Buddhism as a religion of the placid spirit when rival factions pelted each other with yonnies and brinnies at the enthronement of the Karmapa in Delhi. The Karmapa is second only to the Dalai Lama in importance and the conflict derived from the fact that there was already a Karmapa holed up in Tibet.

Since the Karmapa is the one reincarnated soul whose identity is foretold in a prediction letter by his predecessor, the system is vulnerable to accusations of fraud and political chicanery that have attached to the latest spiritual transmigration. The whole shemozzle might have remained a Mexican stand-off had not the Tibetan Karmapa fled across the roof of the world in an escapade worthy of John Buchan, and landed in India.

Now it is Karmapas at 10 paces. What is most puzzling for Tibetan Buddhists, however, is the reluctance of the 17th Karmapa the intrepid one to get political. In fact, he eschews all truck with the trappings of power. Which, when you think on it, is an interesting position for a religious leader to take up.

As Karmapa - The Tibetan Boy King (SBS, 8.30pm) makes clear, this 900-year-old soul is not going to be allowed to ignore the material world in the traditional divide between things that are God's and those that belong to Caesar.

In the meantime, the Karmapa gives audience to those Westerners who come to India seeking the truth and declare themselves enlightened by spiritual formulae which would not look out of place in a greeting card.