'Beijing Karmapa' gains acceptance as 'Delhi Karmapa' marries

Political manoeuvring has intensified around who heads the ancient Karma Kagyu school of Buddhism

India’s play in Tibetan religious politics has always been a high stakes game. India’s grant of refuge to the 14th Dalai Lama in 1959 led to the 1962 war with China; and tensions between New Delhi and Beijing continue over the iconic Tibetan leader’s “splittist” (separatist) activities, allegedly masterminded from India.
 
With the Dalai Lama safely out of Beijing’s clutches, China ensured control over the Panchen Lama, a second major reincarnated Buddhist lama, based in Xigatse. Within days of the Dalai Lama identifying a six-year-old Tibetan boy as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995, Beijing spirited him away and