SIDBHARI, India, April 27 (AFP) - The teenaged Karmapa Lama, one of the highest ranking figures in Tibetan Buddhism, gave his full backing Friday to the Tibetan freedom movement led by the Dalai Lama, but ruled out a political role for himself.
The 16-year-old Karmapa, who made a dramatic escape from Tibet to India little more than a year ago, also said he would never return unless it was in the company of the Dalai Lama -- in Indian exile since 1959.
"Concerning the future path of Tibet and the Tibetan people, I endorse and fully support everything that His Holiness the 16th Dalai Lama stands for," the Karmapa said in his first press conference since arriving January 5 last year in the nearby Indian hill station of Dharamsala -- seat of the Dalai Lama's exiled government.
"Embodying universal love, compassion and non-violence, he is the supreme leader of Tibet and the champion of world peace and human rights," he said.
While recognising his duty to assist the Dalai Lama in protecting Tibetan culture and religion, the Karmapa indicated that he had no political aspirations of his own.
"In the past, the Karmapas did not engage in political activity and I can do nothing but follow in their footsteps," he said.
Recognised by both the Dalai Lama and Beijing as the 17th Karmapa, his escape was a major embarrassment for China, which had regularly promoted him on television as a patriotic model for Tibetan Buddhists.
India granted the Karmapa refugee status in February this year.
"Having come to India as a refugee and having received the status of a refugee, I will only go back to China with his Holiness the Dalai Lama," he said.
As the head of the powerful Kagyu sect, which has its seat at the Rumtek monastery in the northeastern state of Sikkim, the Karmapa is viewed by some as the third highest ranking lama in Tibetan Buddhism.
When the news of his escape broke, the Chinese authorities said he had left a note, saying he had only left temporarily to collect the "black hat" -- the 'crown' of the Kagyu sect -- and various sacred musical instruments.
At Friday's press conference, the Karmapa ridiculed the Chinese version.
"I said in the letter that I had asked for permission to travel internationally and not received it," he said.
"I did not mention the black hat and musical instruments. Why would I want to bring them back from India to China? The only reason I would want to do that would be to place the hat on (Chinese President) Jiang Zemin's head."
The Karmapa's refusal of a political role is significant, as many observers had tagged him as a possible successor to the 65-year-old Dalai Lama as leader of the Tibetan movement.
Confident and smiling, the Karmapa spoke through an interpreter during the press conference in Gyuto Ramoche Tantric Monastery in Sidbhari, some 40 kilometers (27 miles) south of Dharamsala.
The monastery was under tight security, organised by his personal bodyguards and Indian security personnel, who frisked journalists before the event.
The Karmapa appealed to the Indian authorities to let him travel to the seat of his Kagyu sect at Rumtek.
India has so far barred such a move because of a bitter dispute within the Kagyu school, which has a rival claimant to the Karmapa title -- supported by one of the four powerful Rumtek regents.
The dispute, fuelled by the immense wealth of the Kagyu sect, boiled over into violence in the early 1990s, when India had to send troops to Rumtek to pacify the quarreling factions.
"From my point of view, going to the Rumtek monastery would be like returning home to continue the activities of my predecessor," the Karmapa said, referring to the 16th Karmapa Lama, who founded Rumtek in exile in the 1960s and died in 1981.