At a teaching on love and compassion at the India International Centre the other day by the 18-year-old Karmapa Lama, Ugyen Trinley Dorji, the scene was one of controlled calm. Dorji sat in front of a golden statue of the seated Buddha, in turn surrounded by translucent bowls of water, speaking through a translator about the egalitarianism of human beings, of how the Self’s desire for well-being and freedom from suffering cannot come at the expense of other people.
It was easy to ignore the two plain-clothed policemen who stood behind Dorji on the stage, next to the Buddha statue, even if they wore shoes on the sacred stage (sacred, at any rate, to the audience in the hall). Home Ministry rules clearly envision that the Karmapa, who escaped from his Tsurphu monastery in Chinese-controlled Tibet four years ago, cannot be left publicly alone for even one second. Back home at his monastery in the foothills of Dharamsala, the policemen not only search the persons of all devotees coming to be blessed by the Karmapa, but do not allow cameras, tape-recorders, etc without prior permission. Even as you speak to the Karmapa, four policemen stand on guard. In a word, there’s no privacy.
At the IIC stage, then, all was well with the Karmapa police – until a mobile phone on one of the men, rang. The policeman turned to exit behind a door on the stage, but wouldn’t perform the simpler act of simply putting the phone off. It rang and rang, breaking off the Karmapa in mid-sentence. The young lama smiled self-depreciatingly. The subject at hand had come close home.
