INDIAN police said today they had raided the monastery of a top Buddhist monk seen as the possible next spiritual leader for Tibet and had seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
Police swooped on the Karmapa’s monastery in Dharamshala, a hill station in northern India, yesterday and returned today to question staff about the origins of local and foreign bank notes discovered on the premises.
An aide has been arrested and $600,000 (£) bills has been discovered as well as currencies from another 25 countries, senior policeman PL Thakur told reporters in Dharamshala.
The police acted after two men were stopped earlier in the week in Himachal Pradesh carrying Rs10m ($219,000/£) that they said belonged to one of the trustees of the monastery.
The trustee, named as Rabgay Chosang, is thought to have been involved in a land deal, police said, adding that he had been arrested and remained in police custody.
“The Karmapa has no role in it. The investigations will lead us to a further course of action,” Thakur told reporters without elaborating.
At his Gyotu monastery in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, the 27-year-old Karmapa receives visitors on a regular basis, many of whom leave offerings or donations in cash.
The Tibetan is one of the most revered religious figures in his homeland and is seen as one of a handful of candidates who could step forward to lead the community once the charismatic Dalai Lama dies.
He has lived in exile in India since fleeing his homeland in 1999 – an eight-day journey by foot and horseback across the mountains – but he remains recognised by China, Tibetans in Tibet and the community in exile in India.
He could never become a Dalai Lama, which is a title given to a child chosen as the reincarnation of the previous version, but he could emerge as the next leader.
The 75-year-old current Dalai Lama has said the institution might be abolished after his death and any choice over his successor is likely to take time and be bitterly contested by Tibetans and the Chinese authorities.
A source in the monastery, who asked not to be named, said that 15-20 police were present today and that they had seized “a few things”. The Karmapa was in his residence, though the source did not say if he had been questioned.
“We don’t want to comment at this stage because it is still ongoing,” he told reporters by telephone. “They (the police) are still here.”
Dharamshala has been home to the Tibetan community in exile, including the Dalai Lama, since 1960, when India granted the community land and facilities.
The Karmapa fled Tibet because he was concerned that Beijing would force him to turn against the Dalai Lama, who has acted as a father-like figure for him in Dharamshala.
China regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist and has sought to groom monks who would accept Tibet as being an integral part of China and drop all claims for an independent state.
