A file picture of the meeting between Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorji (left) and Kunzig Shamar Rimpoche

Gangtok, Jan. 15: The meeting between Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorji and Kunzig Shamar Rimpoche in New Delhi on January 9 has evoked mixed reactions.

While one lobby has expressed concern since “the Shamarpa cannot be trusted”, the other is happy as it feels that it is a step towards reconciliation between two warring factions. Little, however, is known about what transpired between the two.

The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje, has been recognised both by the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa and a claimant to the Rumtek monastery, the original seat of the head of the Karma Kagyu sect. The other claimant to the Rumtek seat is Trinley Thaye Dorje, recognised by Shamar Rimpoche and other prominent lamas.

The recent meeting between the two monks has also triggered questions as to who had approached the other first. Both camps have been claiming that the first emissary had been sent by the other.

However, it has been learnt that the meeting was arranged by two mediators, Tenzing Chunyi of the Woodstock Centre in the US, and Chokyi Nima, the Kagyu Nyingma Rimpoche.

This is the first time that the Shamarpa has ever met Orgyen Trinley. The Shamarpa is one of the four regents of the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek and fell out with the other three over the choice of the 17th Karmapa.

Tai Situpa, who presently lives at Sherabling monastery in Himachal Pradesh and Goshir Gyaltshab Rimpoche, the current caretaker of Rumtek, are the two regents who support Orgyen Trinley. The third regent, Jamgon Kongtrul Rimpoche, who died in a car accident in 1996, was also in favour of Orgyen Trinley.

The Shamarpa, who has never attacked Orgyen Trinley but always claimed that the “other regents were playing politics with the young innocent boy”, has been banned from entering Sikkim by the Centre ever since a violence broke out in Rumtek in 1993.

According to the Shamarpa, the prediction letter supporting Orgyen Trinley had been forged by the other regents. Orgyen Trinley too is barred from entering Sikkim.

A senior member of the Joint Action Committee of Buddhist Associations in Sikkim said of the meeting: “The Shamarpa is a controversial figure and a lot of people are not happy about the meeting since he cannot be trusted.”