Karmapa's Great Escape
This article excerpt is based on a number of stories in the press, published in such places as The New York Times, ABC News, the London Telegraph, Newsweek and the Nalandabodhi website, and a review of photographs, which have been assembled in great quantity on the web by numerous trekkers who have passed through these parts. Most of the information was kindly supplied by Nalandabodhi website editors and researchers. Since the Karmapa and his escape team have been publicly
silent about his escape route and motivations, and I have no access to inside information, my reconstruction no doubt contains inaccuracies. However, investigative journalists have exhaustively probed the story, and I have done my best to put together a coherent account based on those reports. I list the major news accounts on which I have relied at the conclusion of this article.
- - - - - - -
by Martin Marvet
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|
In springtime a cuckoo will come to Tibet.
Its lovely song will strike sadness in your heart.
Then you will wonder where the man Rigdröl is.
Will not you, who depend on me, know untold grief?
On the day the swan circles the edge of the lake
And leaves its fledglings in the darkening swamp,
The day the white vulture soars in the depths
of the sky,
You will wonder where the man Rigdröl is. O Fledglings, I feel untold grief for you.
Now I will not explain much; this is but a jest,
Yet unified with ultimate reality.
When the Lord of the Path is held by the
king of birds, In prayer I aspire that we gather in great joy.
For this life, take this as the essential point to be heard:
Speech is indestructible sound like an echo.
Mind is empty, free of material concerns.
-Excerpt from a song written by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa (1944), translated by Michelle Martin.
Translation © Michelle Martin 1994.
Background: The XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa is forced to leave Tibet In 1944, before Mao Zedung had prevailed in China, and long before the Chinese army entered Tibet in force, His Holiness Karmapa predicted that he ("Rigdröl") would soon be required to leave Tsurphu, his monastery in Tibet.
In a poem in 1944, he mentioned his "untold grief" in parting and in leaving his "fledglings" (disciples) behind, but he promised he would meet again with his students "in great joy" in Tsurphu "when the Lord of the Path is held by the king of birds," that is, in 1993. (Interpretation of the song provided to Michelle Martin by Thrangu Rinpoche.) Tsurphu has been the home of the Karmapas since the time of Dusum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa, who lived at
Tsurphu from 1184 until his parinirvana in 1193. Karma Pakshi, the second Karmapa, built Tsurphu into an imposing presence. Over the centuries other Karmapas continued to expand Tsurphu, and sometimes to rebuild it when it suffered destruction by earthquake and conquerors. Dezhin Shekpa, the fifth Karmapa, predicted that "although Tsurphu will be destroyed and rebuilt many times, this monastery will be in existence until the end of this world." Hugh Richardson, a British diplomat
and scholar, described the entrance to Tsurphu Monastery based on a visit he had made in 1946: The monastery stood in the shelter of a scrub-covered hill on the north side of a high, bare and narrow valley. In front, flowed a small tributary stream of the Tolung River. After passing through a narrow gate in the high wall surrounding the monastery, one came to a wide paved courtyard with buildings on three sides, the west side being open. In the center stood a stone pillar dating from the
reign of Ralpachan and describing the foundation of a temple at Changbu in Tolung. It is opposite a flight of steep stone steps leading to a doorway, with a chain curtain, into what was perhaps a Gönkhang (Mahakala Prayer room).
The
Karmapas resided at Tsurphu until 1959, when His Holiness the XVIth Karmapa
fled to India. He eventually settled in Rumtek, Sikkim, which was to become
the seat in exile for the Karma Kagyu. During the cultural revolution in
the mid 1960s, the monastery was
systematically dynamited until all the buildings were destroyed. The cultural
revolution was not the first time Tsurphu had been damaged, and it has always
later been rebuilt under the direction of the Karmapas.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Next>> |
