Category: Urgyen Trinley Dorje
GANGTOK, Sept 27 – A massive silent rally was organised here by the Karmapa Reception Committee and Joint Action Committee to press for the demand to bring back Ogyen Trinley Dorjee to his seat at Rumtek Monastery.
The organisers said that it has been a long demand from the people of Sikkim to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for allowing the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee to assume his seat in exile at Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim.
The rally also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Pawan Chamling and Governor Balmiki Prasad Singh. The Chief Minister assured that MPs from the State will raise the issue in both houses of the Parliament soon.
The rally was the largest peaceful religious congregation till date in the State, totaling about 30,000, from across 64 Monasteries.
A spokesperson of the reception committee informed that Ogyen Trinley Dorjee was recognised as the 17th Karmapa by the Dalai Lama and subsequently by the Chinese authorities. Dorjee fled Tibet and took refuge in India in January 2000. Born in 1985 to a nomadic family in Lhatok in eastern Tibet, Apo Gaga (Ogyen Trinley Dorjee) was recognised as the 17th Karmapa, the supreme head of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism at the tender age of 7years. He was enthroned in the Tolung Tsurphu Monastery in central Tibet on September 27, 1992 with Chinese permission and participation of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) officials, making him the only reincarnate Lama to be officially recognised both by Dalai Lama and Beijing.
He fled from Tibet as he was unhappy with the restrictions imposed on his movements by the Chinese authorities which prevented him from pursuing his religious studies and activities freely. His requests to go to India or alternately, for the lineage masters to be allowed to come to Tibet were denied by the Chinese authorities. Therefore, he escaped to India to complete his spiritual studies.
Since his arrival in India, Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee has been staying near Dharamshala in a temporary facility. Numerous Buddhist delegations from the Himalayan region had called on Prime Ministers Narsimha Rao, A B Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh, seeking their support for the settlement of the Karmapa in his monastery at Rumtek, Sikkim, which was built by his predecessor the 16th Karmapa as the head quarter of the Karmapa Lama and Kagyu lineage in India.
Former Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari and the present Chief Minister Dr Pawan Chamling also wrote to the then Prime Ministers supporting the demands of the delegations.
Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, who has officially been allowed to stay in India by the Government of India, is holding a certificate of identity issued by the Government of India but is not allowed to travel freely within the country or travel abroad.
“The people of Sikkim are not concerned with international politics and the Karmapa is a religious figure, hence should be free to fulfil his religious role”, said Topden.
