Buddhist monks in the mountains of northeast India are offering 100 million prayers for the return of the Karmapa, the young Tibetan leader who escaped Chinese rule but remains banned from setting foot at his headquarters here.
The 17th Karmapa had been the highest ranking Tibetan religious figure backed by both Beijing and the exiled Dalai Lama, but at age 14 in December 1999 he chose to abandon China, setting off on a risky nine-day trek through the Himalayas to India.
The Karmapa was granted asylum by India but walked into a new dispute. The base of his Kagyu school of Buddhism is in Sikkim, which China has only recently accepted as part of India, and he is not allowed to visit.
At the Karmapa's Dharma Chakra monastery in the Sikkamese town of Rumtek, only 80 kilometres (45 miles) from the border with Chinese-ruled Tibet, monks have pledged this month to chant 100 million mantras for the well-being of the Karmapa and the Dalai Lama.
While Buddhism frowns on displays of anger, many here are visibly dismayed that the Karmapa, who was born Ugyen Thinley Dorjee, remains in the Dalai Lama's base of Dharamsala in what they call "house arrest" by India.
"India has no right to stop the Karmapa from taking his rightful seat at the Dharma Chakra," said monastery curator Takchu Tsering.
The monastery is home to such fabulous wealth that visitors are barred from its treasure troves, which include the Karmapa's sapphire-studded black crown that gives him his moniker "the black hat lama."
The 16th Karmapa, who had fled Tibet in 1959 and died in 1981, had with the support of India set up base in Sikkim, whose chogyal kings had close cultural ties with Tibet.
The last chogyal, Palden Thondup Namgyal, was deposed in 1975 when India annexed its former protectorate Sikkim.
Chinese official maps marked Sikkim as an independent country until last year, after then-Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Beijing and reaffirmed that New Delhi regarded Tibet as part of China.
Sikkim's leader, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling, said the warming ties with China should create an atmosphere for the Karmapa to move to Sikkim as his presence here would not harm the Asian giants' relations.
"This is the Karmapa's headquarters and the 17th lama should come here as this is the aspiration of the people," Chamling told AFP in the state capital Gangtok.
Officials in New Delhi said any change on the Karmapa would need to await until policies are formed by the left-leaning government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was sworn in on May 22 and has pledged to carry on reconciliation with China.
Ugyen Jigme Shrestha, chairman of the management council of the temple here, urged Singh not to bow to Chinese pressures.
"The Karmapa's return is very, very important as Buddhists across the world are asking why he is not being allowed to be returned to his home-in-exile," the scholar said.
"Without the Karmapa we are incomplete and only when he is enthroned will we be one in mind, body and soul," Shreshta said.
"Everybody -- governments, peoples, religions -- should come together to bring the Karmapa here. We must ignore China and its policies," he said.
He said the Dalai Lama, who with some controversy had approved the choice of the boy as the Karmapa, should also play a role in letting him come to Sikkim.
"We are asking all monasteries across India and in Tibet to perform special prayers to fulfill our dreams," Shrestha said.