This row in a nutshell represents the misuse of our hospitality by some of the Tibetan refugees owing allegiance to the Dalai Lama. These people have scant regard for the fundamental right to religion enshrined in our constitution and even in Indian soil behave as if they are still in a Theocratic state of Tibet. It was the Indian Gorkha Bhutias who bear similiar religion and culture to the Tibetans who sympathised with them and welcomed them in Darjeeling when they fled Tibet. Later on some of the Tibetans even misrepresented facts and enrolled as Bhutia Tribe and falsely acquired Indian citizens. They were used to mixing religion with politics in Tibet and tried to practice the same in Secular India even to the extent of ordering Indian monasteries to remove Dorjey Shugden diety while the administration watched haplessly.It was largely due to these people and their activities that the local Darjeelingeys became wary of them and the AAGSU had to openly criticize them. The Indian Gorkha Bhutias also started distancing themselves from the Tibetans.
The second Domo Geshe Rimpoche, a Sikkimese had gone to Tibet for studieswhere he was imprisoned in Tibet by the Chinese and later on released largely due to the efforts of the Govt of India on the request and mass signature campaign by the Indian Bhutias of Darjeeling and Bhutias of the then Sikkim ( Protectorate )The Domo Geshe Rimpoch had also been offered monasteries in Darjeeling District by the local Bhutia community. However since the Geshe Rimpoches were also worshipping Dorjey Shugden deity which the Dalai Lama had directed the Tibetan Buddhist community not to worship, relations between Geshe Rimpoche and Dalai Lama soured till the passing away of second Geshe rimpoche at Dungpar Gompa Society, New York. In the maenwhile a Tibetan group owing allegiance to Dalai Lama won over some Lamas at Kalimpong Tharpa Choling monastery, removed the Shugden deity and hurriedly brought a fake Geshe Rimpoche whereas the real third Geshe rimpoche had already been born at Sikkim, India to Sikkimese parents. The extract from the website of the Dungpar Gompa Society regarding Domo Geshe as given below will serve to enlighten readers:
” Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche was born in January 22, 1937, near Gangtok, Sikkim. At age three he was recognized as the reincarnation of Geshe Ngawang Kelsang, Domo Geshe Rinpoche, and was taken to the Dungkar Gonpa (White Conch Monastery) in Chumbi (also called Tomo or Tromo) Valley in southern Tibet. In 1942 he began his studies at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, where he completed his Geshe degree in 1958. In March of 1959, during the Tibetan uprising, Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche was taken prisoner by the Chinese Communists. He remained in prison until 1961, when he was finally released after repeated petitions from the government of India on his behalf. Being exiled from Tibet, Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche moved to Tharpa Choling Monastery, one of the monasteries which the previous Domo Geshe Rinpoche had established in northern India.
In 1962 His Holiness the Dalai Lama requested Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche to start a Tibetan cultural center in New Delhi. After three years of collecting Tibetan art, texts, and religious objects, Domo Geshe Rinpoche founded Tibet House in 1965, and he remained as its director for the next several years.
In 1976 he established the Dungkar Gonpa Society in New York State. Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche remained as the Society’s president and spiritual head until his passing away there on September 10, 2001.
August 2006
It is with great joy that we announce that the Reincarnation of Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche has been found.
Ever since the passing of Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche in 2001 it has been the heartfelt wish as well as the duty of his disciples to find his true reincarnation.
Early in 2002 the Ghoom Dun Samten Choling Association, the umbrella association of Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monasteries in India, established a Reincarnation Search Committee. In an official meeting convened at Samten Choling Monastery by this Committee in November of 2002, representatives Geshe Rinpoche’s monasteries, representatives of the Dungkar Gonpa Society and other lay devotees, unanimously resolved to request Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche to coordinate the search for the Tulku and to identify him according to the tradition. This decision came naturally as an acknowledgment of the exceptional relationship that existed between those two great masters in their previous lives. Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche kindly agreed to our petition and for the next four years the process of the search progressed as intended.
In the early summer of 2006 from the list of names gathered by the Search Committee, Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche selected one child, a boy born into a Sikkimese family. The Tulku is now three years old. Representatives from Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monasteries have already been to visit the young family and to meet the precious Rinpoche and his parents ”
Thus as can be seen abive the dirty monastery politics of Tibet have reached Darjeeling and is even influencing the monasteries of the Indian Gorkha Bhutias. While Bhaichung is espousing the cause of the Tibetans by boycotting the Olympic Torch Relay in India a section of Tibetans owing allegiance to Dalai Lama have stabbed a Sikkimese Bhuta Rimpoche in the back by introducing Tibetan politics in our backyard.
