NEW DELHI - A Tibetan boy lama recently granted refugee status by India arrived in Delhi Wednesday at the start of a cautious Buddhist pilgrimage shrouded in security amid concerns the government may curb his movements.
The Karmapa lama, the only senior lama to be recognized by both Beijing and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, waved to a horde of reporters and photographers in a suburban hotel after meeting a group of lawmakers behind closed doors.
The 15-year-old lama clad in dark maroon robes smiled and folded his hands in traditional greeting but said nothing.
The 17th Karmapa Lama, head of the Karma Kagyu sect, arrived in Dharamsala in north India in January last year after an arduous 875-mile journey through the snow-bound Himalayas.
Lawmakers who met the monk said he affirmed that his agenda was spiritual, religious and cultural, but appeared to be facing restrictions on traveling to Sikkim, a northeast Indian state which is home to the main monastery of the sect he heads.
New Delhi is widely believed to be under pressure from Beijing to restrict the activities of the lama.
"I am one of those who thinks it is very silly to tell him not to meet his devotees," upper house lawmaker and former government minister Ram Jethmalani said.
Pawan Kumar Chamling, Sikkim's chief minister, told reporters that he would discuss with the federal government plans for the lama to visit the Rumtek Monastery, which is located atop a mountain that overlooks the state capital of Gangtok.
BEIJING PRESSURES INDIA
P.T. Gyamtso, an upper house lawmaker from Sikkim, told Reuters that there was an impression that the Indian government was bowing to Beijing's demands on restricting the lama.
"On the one hand you (government) are giving him refugee status. On the other hand you are not allowing him to go to Sikkim," he said.
Thinlay Topgay, a spokesman for the lama's pilgrimage, told Reuters that there was no restriction imposed on the lama's visit to Sikkim by New Delhi, but added that it was not on the agenda anyway.
He said the Karmapa lama will arrive at a monastery at Sarnath near the holy city of Varanasi Thursday, and spend the Tibetan New Year day there Saturday.
He will be in Sarnath until March 5 and arrive the next day in Bodh Gaya, the town in the eastern state of Bihar where Buddha is said to have attained spiritual enlightenment.
After seeing a holy places in Bihar, he is scheduled to return to Delhi on March 13 and spend four days in the capital.
The young monk is currently based in Dharamshala, from where the Dalai Lama runs a Tibetan government in exile.
On arrival in Dharamsala last year, the young monk said he had fled Tibet because China had not lived up to its promises of free travel and access to Buddhist teachers.
Thousands of Tibetans led by the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, nine years after the Chinese army entered Tibet and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy there.
09:29 02-21-01
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