Fists fly over living god's crown

[emad]

Fists fly over living god's crown

One million followers and £600m in assets are at stake in fight for title of 17th karmapa

Randeep Ramesh in Gangtok
Tuesday October 4, 2005
The Guardian


On a narrow winding lane on a Himalayan mountainside, past Indian army soldiers and burly, shaven-headed monks, lies a monastery at the centre of a feud which has split normally gentle Tibetans who revere a living god crowned with a black hat.

Two rival factions of Tibetan Buddhism are fighting for control of the 75-acre site of the Rumtek monastery, a few miles outside Gangtok, capital of the Indian state of Sikkim. The rivalry is such that there have been violent brawls between the monks, accusations of graft and corruption and a travel ban placed on the protagonists by Indian authorities, who want to keep a lid on Tibetan passions. The result is that Indian security forces guard the monastery and the priesthood is split by a bitter legal battle.


The fight is over Rumtek's crown, the 20cm-high "black hat" said to be woven from the hair of female deities. When the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 the Buddhist clergy relocated their religion's seats of power and holy relics. Rumtek, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, became the headquarters of the Kagyu sect. Wearing the Kagyu's black hat, the head of the order - known as the karmapa - presides over a sect with assets estimated to be worth £600m, the allegiance of 350 monasteries worldwide and 1 million followers.
Observers say much of Rumtek's reputation was built up in the 1960s, when hippies made pilgrimages there and built up monasteries in America.

"It is a mystery as to Rumtek's exact wealth. But that it is worth fighting over, that is clear," said Vijay Kranti, a journalist who has written extensively on Tibetan affairs. "In the community religion is the major activity and occupies a very big space in people's lives. The previous karmapa had built up a huge following in the west."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1584281,00.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Does the winner of the fight get a belt and a purse, too?

Sorry, I know it is irreverent, but the idea of Buddhist monks going at it like prize-fighters....