Once a month, a joyful procession of Tibetan refugees--many of them disfigured by frostbite suffered escaping their homeland over the Himalayas--files into the Dalai Lama's exile palace at the Indian hill station of Dharamsala. For these visitors, His Holiness is an emanation of the Compassionate Buddha, and his blessing is their reward for having survived the icy Himalayan crossing. During one audience this summer, a brawny young Tibetan showed a curious lack of enthusiasm about meeting the Dalai Lama. The youth's attention was focused instead on security in the palace and the layout of the buildings inside. This Tibetan, named Chomphel, was a Chinese spy, Indian police say. His mission may have been to scope out security flaws for a possible attack on the Tibetan religious leader.

As the faithful were busily spinning prayer wheels, Chomphel was seen mapping out the open temple courtyard where the Dalai Lama often conducts ceremonies. The visitor timed the routine of monks who fill the altar butter lamps and sweep the temple, and he watched the movements of Indian police and soldiers around the town. Eventually, Indian undercover agents spotted him sketching details of the army garrison. He was trailed and then last week arrested. Inside a false bottom of his suitcase were maps and other documents relating to the Dalai Lama's security.

Under questioning, Chomphel allegedly confessed that he was a member of a Chinese army intelligence unit. "He's no ordinary refugee," says police superintendent Kashmir Chand Sadyal. "He's very knowledgeable and quite an expert in several things, including cartography." Tibetan security officials disclosed that during interrogation, Chomphel said that his superiors had sent him to India to gather intelligence for "a further action" against the Dalai Lama involving 10 to 15 Chinese agents later this year. Many of his drawings centered on the temple outside the Dalai Lama's residence, leading some Tibetan security officials in Dharamsala to believe that the Chinese might have intended to blow up the house during one of the spiritual leader's gatherings. Next month, film star Richard Gere and other Tibetan Buddhism devotees are expected to attend a Dalai Lama teaching session at this same temple.

Following the arrest of Chomphel and a suspected Tibetan accomplice, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied any involvement in a plot to kill the Tibetan leader. Spokesman Zhu Bangzao added that Beijing was willing to negotiate with the Dalai Lama once he stopped "activities aimed at splitting the motherland." Nevertheless, Indian officials believe China closely monitors the exiled Tibetans and frequently tries to stir up trouble between Dharamsala's Indians and Tibetan refugees. Says a senior police officer: "The Chinese are sending many spies across to Dharamsala."

Some exiles also maintain that China, in its battle against the Tibetans' god-king, sometimes mixes Marxism with a touch of black magic. They accuse Beijing of recruiting the followers of a wrathful Tibetan spirit known as Dorje Shugden. This deity has tens of thousands of Tibetan worshippers--plus a contingent of Western Buddhist fans. Described as having four fangs "sharp like the ice of a glacier," three blood-red eyes and hair like flaming serpents, Dorje Shugden has become a supernatural enemy of the Dalai Lama. His fashion sense attests to his ugly mood: Dorje Shugden sports a necklace of 50 severed heads. Repeatedly over the past decade, the Dalai Lama has warned that Dorje Shugden poses a threat to both Tibet's struggle to regain independence from China and his own personal safety. What more could the Chinese want in a new, otherworldly friend?

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