And he's a possible Dalai Lama successor
SIDHBARI, India — Give the magnetic personality and hunky good looks of a rock star to a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and the result might be Gyalwang Karmapa, the third-highest lama in the Tibetan religious firmament.
The Karmapa, as he is known, is getting more than his share of attention these days.
He's being talked about as a possible transition figure for when the Dalai Lama, who's the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, dies. The Dalai Lama, 73, was hospitalized last month to have gallstones removed.
At 23, the Karmapa has some unique characteristics that make him appealing to a broad cross-section of Tibetan Buddhists, and even to China, which now claims the right to approve or veto all reincarnations born to become "living Buddhas" — or senior lamas delivered to help alleviate human suffering. Reincarnation, or rebirth, is a basic tenet of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Karmapa is the first Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation to be recognized by both the Dalai Lama and Communist Party authorities of China. He made headlines in January 2000, at age 14, with his flight from Chinese-ruled Tibet into exile, traveling by foot and horseback, then by jeep and helicopter to India. Allegations of espionage, intrigue involving a forgotten amulet and squabbling within a monastery marked his early years in India.
Exuding self-assuredness, the solidly built, 6-foot-tall Karmapa received several foreign journalists in a rare interview over the weekend at the university that's his temporary home near the mountain headquarters of the Dalai Lama. The Karmapa talked of his love of music, his future role for Tibetan Buddhists and the lack of human rights in China.
He criticized the Chinese government, which he said wanted "to create this ethnic conflict" that exploded in deadly rioting in Tibet in March. However, he spoke tenderly of the Chinese.
"Since I am born as a Tibetan, I really care about the Tibetan people and Tibetan community. At the same time, I also love the Chinese," he said.
He sat cross-legged on a sofa in a large meeting room with Tibetan thangkas, or religious paintings on the walls. Outside, crimson monks' robes flapped from clotheslines in the warm sunshine, and crows cawed loudly from tree branches.
Some Tibetan exiles say the Karmapa has a magnetic hold on Tibetans.
"He's young, he's charismatic and he's smart," said Lobsang Sangay, a Tibetan exile who's a senior fellow at Harvard Law School. At meetings among hundreds of senior exiles in nearby Dharamsala last week, Sangay said the Karmapa's name repeatedly emerged as a central figure in a post-Dalai Lama era.
"Some people like to say he's going to take over the helm of the Tibetan movement when the Dalai Lama passes on," echoed Phil Void, a musician and one-time Ph.D. candidate in Buddhism at Columbia University who now resides in Dharamsala.
The Dalai Lama, asked about the Karmapa at a news conference Sunday, described him as "young, energetic and of course (with) a lot of experience in Tibet" but declined to go further in elaborating on his future role.
