Tibetan students voice Karmapa support
.
Jan 31: In an unkempt lawn adjoining an aging building near Chetpet, about 100 Tibetan students gathered together, squatted and participated in a candlelight vigil after sunset on Monday. Some of them carried Indian and Tibetan flags while a group of young women held a banner that said 'Karmapa No Chinese Spy'.
"We conduct a candlelight vigil during bad times," said Wangdue Tsering, president of the Tibetan Students Association of Madras (TSAM), a tiny group of about 200-odd Tibetan student s who live and study in Chennai. "We were shocked to read reports on Karmapa suspected of being a Chinese spy. The raids and the allegations have rattled our community," he said.
A number of these students were born and raised in Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama presently lives. Many have walked their way to India through rugged, mountainous terrain to escape Chinese rule as children. "Karmapa Ugyen Trinlay Dorje is the head of the Kargyu sect, one of the four major sects in our religion and is a respected person in our community. He could never be a spy or carry illegal money," said members of TSAM.The students believe that since Karmapa has followers across the world including many in China, he could have received funds from some of them. "It is probably an accounting error. We are certain that he will come out clean at the end of the investigation.
Meanwhile, we want to appeal to the Indian government and the investigation agencies not to tarnish the image of the Tibetan exiles and our religion before any malpractice is established. We are a fringe community living between two major powers and even minor incidents such as these could threaten our existence," they said.
After candlelight vigil, the boys and girls chanted Buddhist mantras. Later, they prayed for all Sentient Beings (Buddhist term for all living things) and dispersed into the crowd.
DC Correspondent
Deccan Chronicle
Karmapa money scam, a frenzy of media speculation
ReplyDeleteThe whole world knows the escape of His Holiness the seventeenth Karmapa to India, and he has been in India for last nine years but in a very restricted situation. He is not allowed to visit his own monastery back in Sikkim, and now, his house is raided by the Indian police and labeled him as a suspected Chinese spy by the Indian media. It’s a kind of putting someone down on the floor, and now kicking on it. It is a big insult to the followers of His Holiness Karmapa, and a shock to the whole world that a very responsible, and sensitive democratic country like India is giving such a gift to the highly valued and worldly respected Karmapa lama.
I wonder if it is a preplanned accusation of some people or some groups backed up by the Chinese government, and creating such illusion of drama that even Indian government is also confused, and left nothing to do but to raid the house of His Holiness karmapa, and label him as a link to the Chinese government.
Else, it must be a political strategy of some Indian politicians who are accused of some scams, and now they planned this drama in order to divert the media attention, and we know the Indian media, most of the time sensitizing and speculating.
At one point, media has no choice, I guess, because the core interest of the general public is like that only, and the media people always go after what public want to hear rather than what people really need to hear.
Till now, honestly, I used to admire the Indian media because most of the time, they do highlight the riots whenever it happens in Tibet, and cover up the stories of protests done by the Tibetans and its supporters. I really used to admire the Indian media a lot except one newspaper ‘Hindu’ which is supposed to be the leading newspaper in India, and the greatest Chinese puppet felt and labeled by the Tibetans in India.
Yet, today, when something happens to me, I can feel the over speculation of Indian media, and feel shame to be a part of this family. But, anyhow, Indian media; being over speculation and sensitizing issues is always better than Chinese media; censorship and banning press freedom.
In India, at least, we have a say, and we can contradict it back to the media if we feel it is being unfair, and unjust.
Tibetans and followers of Karmapa know him very well, and their trust in him is as strong as their faith in his teachings, and labeling him as a Chinese spy must have hurt the hearts of millions of its followers.
Offering of money as a token of respect to such high lamas is not uncommon, but the monastic institutions also must have been careful when it comes to dealing with finances. It doesn’t mean that these monks want to be in trouble or to break the Indian law, but due to their over concentration on their day to day Buddhist philosophy studies might leads to the carelessness of such mismanagement of money.
Accountancy and booking of donations made to the monasteries by their devotees must be taken care of in accordance to the Indian law and tax revenue, and this money scam accusation should be a big lesson to all the monastic institutions.
In fact, a change is needed not only in our government but in our monasteries also when it comes to governing and management. Young and educated ones must come up, and our older generations must openly and warmly welcome the youngsters to rule the government, and even let them work as secretaries, managers, and accountants of such big monasteries.
Hopefully, the upcoming kalontripa and chithue election will bring up more fresh, young and educated ones to change our government, and there by our monasteries and our society.