BODH GAYA, India (AP), March 8 - Authorities ordered an investigation Thursday after teen-age Tibetan leader Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, was accused of committing sacrilege at one of Buddhism's most revered sites.

An influential leader of Buddhist monks alleged that the Karmapa, who escaped Chinese-controlled Tibet last year, was wearing his shoes when he visited the sanctum sanctorum of the Mahabodhi Temple in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The Karmapa is one of the highest-ranking monks in Tibetan Buddhism.

Bhadant Anand, the general-secretary of the All India Monks' Association, demanded the Karmapa be punished for "trampling" upon the Vajrasana, the place where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment. He also asked the Karmapa to apologize for the alleged sacrilege.

Anand questioned the credentials of the Karmapa, the only senior lama to be recognized by both Beijing and the exiled Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama. His critics and senior Indian intelligence officials claim he is an agent of the Chinese government, speculation that the Dalai Lama has slammed.

"This is surely not the trait of an incarnation of Lord Buddha," Anand told reporters.

The Karmapa arrived in Dharmsala in northern India in January 2000 after an arduous 875-mile (1,400-kilometer) journey through the snowbound Himalayas. He heads the Karma Kagyu sect and is considered by his followers to be the reincarnation of his predecessor.

The monk spent 13 months restricted to monasteries near Dharmsala, the headquarters-in-exile of the Dalai Lama, until Indian officials granted him refugee status last month.

Centuries-old conventions in Hinduism, India's principal religion, prohibit devotees from entering temples wearing shoes. Although there is no restriction on wearing shoes inside a temple in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a 1949 law that governs the Mahabodhi Temple bans footwear inside the complex. Those defying the law may be fined 100 rupees (dlrs 2.20), according to the law.

Amrit Lal Meena, the administrator of the Gaya district where the temple is located, ordered a magistrate to inquire whether the allegations were true. Meena is also the chairman of the temple's management committee.

The Karmapa was defended by Tenzing Lama, the monk-in-charge of the Tibetan monastery in Bodh Gaya, who said the Buddhist leader's alleged act did not constitute religious impropriety.

"It is the heart and not the shoes that is important," the monk said