Sikkim Minister Seeks Meeting with Karmapa to Facilitate India Return
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 5 Sept: Ven Sonam Lama, Sikkim’s minister for ecclesiastical affairs, public health engineering (PHE), and water resources, has said he will officially meet the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, once the spiritual leader’s location is confirmed, as part of the state’s renewed effort to facilitate his return to India since his departure in 2017.
According to Northeast Live, the minister has declared the Central Government of India’s support for the ongoing efforts by the Sikkim government to facilitate the Karmapa’s return to India and visit to Sikkim on Wednesday.
Minister Lama said that while the state, with support from the Central Government, is prepared to meet the Karmapa, the lack of clarity about his exact whereabouts has so far prevented such a visit.
He added that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured full support for the visit if the Sikkim Government can establish contact with the Tibetan spiritual leader. According to multiple reports, Sikkim’s minister for ecclesiastical affairs has met with Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi on 25th August. At the meeting, the duo reportedly discussed several important issues concerning Sikkim, one of them being Sikkim’s efforts to facilitate the return of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, to the state since 2014.
“The Sikkim state government and I are making efforts to meet His Holiness. I have no restrictions on meeting him; the challenge is that I do not know his exact whereabouts, and I do not have the reach or access to find out.”
The Minister further added that the state government has even allocated a budget to facilitate the Karmapa’s visit. A document from the Government of Sikkim’s website, dated April 1, 2022, confirms that during the Budget Session for the financial year 2022-23, a sum of ₹1 crore was allocated to make it convenient for the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, to visit Sikkim.
For the uninitiated: In India, a central government order passed by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in 2000 had banned the Karmapa from traveling to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim and other areas of strategic importance like Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh without permission. However, the CCS headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi allowed the Karmapa to visit Arunachal Pradesh in December 2016, much to the dismay of China, which calls the region South Tibet and lays claim to it.
The Karmapa left India in May 2017, before the travel ban was lifted, for a trip abroad for a medical treatment. Later, he acquired a passport from the Commonwealth of Dominica in 2018.
As a result, his return to India became a new legal and diplomatic issue requiring a visa to visit India. While India has publicly maintained that it is willing to issue a visa to the Tibetan spiritual leader, according to a report in The Print dated 28 Oct 2018, a staff member at the Indian embassy in New York reportedly told him that they “were awaiting instructions from Delhi”.
As such, despite the ongoing efforts by the Sikkim government and others to facilitate his return to India, as of now, he remains outside the country.
The Karmapa, the head of Tibetan Buddhism’s Kagyu tradition, was born in eastern Tibet on 26 June 1985. The 14-year-old Karmapa fled Tibet and escaped to India, reaching India just a few months before his 15th birthday on January 5, 2000.
