Battle of the Future Buddhas

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In September 1992 Ugen Thinley was officially enthroned as the 17th Karmapa in Tibet's Tsurphu Monastery. But in New Delhi in March a defiant Shamar unveiled his own choice for the job: a bespectacled 10-year-old named Tenzin Chentse, whose parents he said were Tibetan refugees. His enthronement, Shamar announced, would take place by year's end.

His welcoming ceremony for the new contender, however, turned into a melee, and the boy spent the next few weeks under the guard of 300 monks and 400 combat-ready Europeans from a militant Buddhist school run by a Danish ex- boxer. Meanwhile, each side has hinted darkly that the other may have engineered the fatal 1992 car crash; each claims that the other may be a pawn of the Chinese. Shamar says of his rival regent, "Tai Situ is degenerate, and the people around him are like, why . . . like gangsters." Members of the opposing camp like to point out that the name of the troublemaking demon behind the mayhem in the old prediction can be read as the word "nephew."

Shamar plans to press his protege's claim under India's constitutional guarantee of religious freedom; he predicted last week, "The outcome of this issue will be two branches of Black Hat Buddhism." That may leave many believers feeling a little like Shamar's young candidate when he received visitors at the fortress-like New Delhi Karmapa Buddhist Institute two weeks ago. Throughout the meeting, the would-be spiritual leader said nothing. But his eyes darted about nervously; he occasionally gulped deep breaths; and his hands were constantly wringing in his lap.