Karmapa's Great Escape
Meticulous Planning

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Meticulously Planning an Audacious Flight

Karmapas are motivated solely by their pledge to liberate all beings. When the conditions in Tsurphu threatened to obstruct the XVIIth Karmapa's activity of liberating beings, planning commenced for a daring escape to India.

The plan involved enormous risk. The Chinese had allowed disciples to rebuild Tsurphu, but from the beginning had also instituted security measures to keep the Karmapa and monks under state control.  Security guards were constantly outside the door of any room he occupied. He was forbidden to leave the monastery unless he secured permission from a government administrator. His mail and foreign visitors were monitored by security agencies. Reportedly, some monks at the monastery were paid to report suspicious activities to the authorities, and there were undoubtedly fully qualified intelligence agents amidst the monastic population.

As the Karmapa got older, Beijing increased security and tightened the restrictions on the Karmapa's movement. Still, things were not impossible. He was, after all, the Karmapa.

At the end of September, 1999, His Holiness directed a very close disciple to make plans for His Holiness to escape Tsurphu before Losar, February 5th. This disciple took two other close disciples of the Karmapa into his confidence, and the three formed a Karmapa escape team, swearing an oath together to tell absolutely no one of their plans. Had the plan to escape been discovered, the participants faced certain arrest. The Karmapa himself could be arrested, or at a minimum subjected to round-the-clock security, which could forever end whatever small opportunity he had remaining to evade his watchers.

Over the next two months, the three monks scouted different escape route options. Tsurphu is located about 40 miles northwest of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The closest border exit point was 200 miles distant. Crossing at that point would subsequently require the Karmapa to cross over a glacier-covered pass near Mount Everest. Another option was to cross into Mustang, which involved traveling over 400 miles inside Tibet, then traveling through Mustang and somehow crossing over the Annapurna mountain range at its northwestern edge.

The latter exit point was much further away, but it had some advantages. Mustang was a traditional location of many Kagyu monasteries, and less than two hours over the China-Nepal border was Lo Manthang, a village located at the top of the Kali Gandaki river valley. The Kali Gandaki valley area north of Kagbeni--the traditional area known as Mustang--has been opened by special permit for trekkers since 1992, and below Kagbeni, at the southern end of the valley, was the western leg of Nepal's famed Annapurna trekking circuit, and modern travel facilities

Under Chinese law, Tibetans did not need a visa to go to Mustang, and could enter by permit if they could show a valid business purpose. Two of the Karmapa's escape planning team did obtain permits in December, in anticipation of the escape, and went into Mustang to do some scouting. They brought back photos of the area for the Karmapa to review.

The Mustang route was decided on, and preparations were completed just before the western New Year. On December 28, 1999, the first stage in the plan sprang to life, a three-prong strategy to get the Karmapa outside the front gate of the monastery undetected.

One member of the escape team had made arrangements earlier to leave for a business trip. After picking up provisions for a 15 day journey, on December 28th he left with another driver, in a taxi. They headed towards Lhasa, where they were dropped off on the main highway near the Tholung River, closer to Lhasa. There they waited.

Simultaneously, a senior lama who also was a member of the escape planning team, prepared to leave on a fundraising trip in western Tibet. The trip had been earlier announced and approved. For this lama's journey, the monastery had acquired a new Mitsubishi S.U.V., to sensibly replace an old truck that had formerly been used for fundraising. It was time for a new car, and neither the fundraising trip or vehicle purchase raised any suspicions. The lama chose to leave for his trip on December 28. He waited outside the monastery gate, purportedly for his driver. In actuality, the Mitsubishi was close by, with the driver waiting at the wheel.

Unbeknownst to anyone in the monastery other than the escape team and the cook and attendant for the retreat, two additional members of the traveling party on "the fundraising trip" were to be the Karmapa and his elder teacher. Both drivers for the escape were told of the plan only on the 28th, when the three-prong initiating strategy was underway.

The third prong of the meticulously planned escape had begun a few days earlier, when the Karmapa had announced he was going into a solitary retreat for eight days. In such circumstances, his security guards would routinely wait outside the retreat quarters. They would not expect to physically see the Karmapa for the duration of the retreat. Only his cook and attendant would see him each day. This was a not uncommon occurrence.

The Great Escape

Darkness came late to Tsurphu, but by zero hour--December 28, 1999, 22:30 hours--it was night. While the rest of the world prepared to celebrate the new millennium in traditional ways, the Karmapa prepared a different type of activity.

The Karmapa rapidly changed from his monk's habit into brown trousers, a down jacket, a hat and a scarf. The third member of the escape planning team entered the room, his elder teacher, also ready to leave. They opened the window and the Karmapa and his teacher carefully climbed out, then worked their way onto the roof of the adjoining Mahakala shrine. The party edged their way to the end of the roof, with the aim of making a short drop at the low point of the roof into the courtyard unobserved. The night was freezing, and the remaining monks at Tsurphu should have been preoccupied with activities inside. It was critical that no one saw the two figures leaving the monastery, for disaster would have been the result of recognition.

Down in the courtyard, the "fundraising-trip" member of the team spotted something that would make one's heart leap into one's throat: another monk stepped into the courtyard where the escaping Karmapa was headed. For all he knew, this curious monk was part of the covert Chinese surveillance apparatus. Keeping calm despite extraordinary pressure, the lama yelled out "Have you seen my driver?" The cry served as a warning to the Karmapa and his teacher, who remained out of site until the curious monk went back inside. The danger had passed.

No one else was out on that chilly night, and the Karmapa and companion dropped down the ten feet from the roof, crept to and through the courtyard and made it out the front gate unobserved. Leaping into the waiting Mitsubishi, they sped off towards Lhasa, where at the entrance to the main road they picked up the other two companions waiting at the river.

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This article is part of the contents published in Bodhi Issue 5 (Spring 2000). You can purchase this issue or subscribe to Bodhi at the Bodhi Dharma Store.

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References

Isabel Hilton, "The Flight of the Lamas," The New York Times Magazine, March 12, 2000.

Rita Beamish, "Escape from Tibet," ABCNEWS.com, March 10, 2000.

Sudip Mazumdar and Melinda Liu, "A Buddha Busts Out," Newsweek, March 6, 2000.

Mick Brown, "Battle of the Lamas," The London Telegraph, March 4, 2000.

Nalandabodhi, "Verification Report," www.nalandabodhi.org , February 5, 2000.

Karmapa: the Sacred Prophecy (Kagyu Thubten Choling 1999)

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