Reviving ancient bonds across border

When the Karmapa came calling

At a teaching on love and compassion at the India International Centre the other day by the 18-year-old Karmapa Lama, Ugyen Trinley Dorji, the scene was one of controlled calm. Dorji sat in front of a golden statue of the seated Buddha, in turn surrounded by translucent bowls of water, speaking through a translator about the egalitarianism of human beings, of how the Self’s desire for well-being and freedom from suffering cannot come at the expense of other people.

It was easy to ignore the two plain-clothed policemen who stood behind Dorji on the stage, next to the Buddha statue, even if they wore shoes on the sacred stage (sacred, at any rate, to the audience in the hall). Home Ministry rules clearly envision that the Karmapa, who escaped from his Tsurphu monastery in Chinese-controlled Tibet four years ago, cannot be left publicly alone for even one second. Back home at his monastery in the foothills of Dharamsala, the policemen not only search the persons of all devotees coming to be blessed by the Karmapa, but do not allow cameras, tape-recorders, etc without prior permission. Even as you speak to the Karmapa, four policemen stand on guard. In a word, there’s no privacy.

At the IIC stage, then, all was well with the Karmapa police — until a mobile phone on one of the men, rang. The policeman turned to exit behind a door on the stage, but wouldn’t perform the simpler act of simply putting the phone off. It rang and rang, breaking off the Karmapa in mid-sentence. The young lama smiled self-depreciatingly. The subject at hand had come close home.

Not a very Happy New Year

THE Chinese seem to have cracked down so completely on Nepal, that a traditional celebration of Losar, the Tibetan New Year, was not allowed this year at the Boudhnath temple in Kathmandu. Last year, unmarked police vans picked up 18 Tibetans, including a few children, who had just made the arduous trek from Lhasa to Nepal, and took them back across the northern Nepal-China border. Since, it is believed, some of the Tibetans were picked up by the Chinese, put into detention camps and severely tortured. The return of the Tibetans triggered off severe reactions in Washington, including the threat to withhold special trade status for Nepalese goods into the US. Kathmandu then promised not to undertake similar action against the hundreds of Tibetan refugees who keep making the trek to their country. Last week at Losar, Buddhists in Nepal were forced to move their annual rituals inside the compound of the Samtenling monastery. The Nepalese Home Ministry ordered the banning of all photos of the Dalai Lama outside the temple prayer halls, telling the Tibetans that the photo was a de facto political statement.

All about the new UN human rights chief

THE appointment of Louise Arbour as the new UN human rights chief has sparked off some consternation in developing world capitals, including New Delhi. The Canadian Supreme Court judge is known for her proselytising ways, which often perverts the perception of justice when seen from other parts of the world. The classic conundrum is about ‘‘one man’s terrorist being another man’s freedom-fighter’’, even if after 9/11, the West seems somewhat more understanding of the price of terrorism that nations like India have paid. Arbour was also once the chief UN prosecutor on the crimes committed during the Balkar wars — and in this capacity indicted Slobodan Milosovic, currently on trial at the International Court of Justice at The Hague — and Rwanda. Interestingly, neither India nor the US are members of the ICJ.