The Tibetan boy monk who made a dramatic escape on foot from his homeland more than a year ago has been granted refugee status by India, according to reports.
The 17th Karmapa Lama, one of the highest-ranking monks in Tibet's Buddhist hierarchy, arrived in northern India in January of last year after making a gruelling 1,400 km trek through the snowbound Himalayas. He was 14 at the time.
Despite persistent warnings from China to tread carefully over the issue of granting political asylum to the monk, it was reported yesterday that the Karmapa Lama has been given permission to stay in India like other Tibetan refugees. Mr Tashi Wangdi, Minister of Religion and Culture in the Tibetan government-in-exile, said they had received a communication from the Indian government allowing the Karmapa Lama to remain in India.
There was no comment on the matter from Indian foreign ministry officials or from China yesterday. The much-publicised escape of the Karmapa Lama last year seriously embarrassed China. However, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, had urged the Indian government to allow the Karmapa Lama - now aged 16 - to stay in India.
The 17th Karmapa Lama left Tolung Tsurphu Monastery with a handful of attendants on December 28th, 1999, and travelled over the Himalayas on foot. He arrived in Dharamsala in India on January 4th, 2000, and met the Dalai Lama.
The Karmapa Lama is the religious head of the Kagyupa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which has its religious seat at Tshurpu monastery. He is the spiritual leader of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered the third most important spiritual elder of the religion.
The boy monk's journey has revived memories of the Dalai Lama's escape to India a little over four decades ago.