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Rezaul H Laskar in New Delhi
The Himachal Pradesh government has turned down a request from Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje to visit Buddhist shrines and holy places in the state, official sources said.
The teenaged Tibetan spiritual leader will, however, visit Ladakh district in Jammu and Kashmir next month, sources in the home ministry told Indo-Asian News Service. The J&K government has provided necessary clearance for the visit, the sources said.
The Karmapa, who created a sensation by fleeing to India last January, made an official request some time ago to the Himachal Pradesh government to visit Chhango and Nako in Kinnaur district, which borders China.
Sources said that the Central government had cleared the visit but state government authorities turned down the request due to security considerations.
Kinnaur district's sizeable Buddhist population had invited the Karmapa to visit the area.
The 16-year-old spiritual leader was granted refugee status in February 2001, more than a year after his arrival at Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile headed by the Dalai Lama.
The Karmapa, who is considered the 17th head of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, remains secluded in the Gyuto monastery near Dharamsala most of the time, as the government has imposed restrictions on his travel.
He has not been granted permission to visit the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, bordering China, which is the traditional seat of the Karmapa in India.
India has been wary of upsetting China, which does not recognise Sikkim's merger with the Indian Union, by allowing the Karmapa to visit the northeastern state.
The Karmapa's visit to Ladakh will be only his second tour since arriving in India.
In February, he toured several holy sites in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that are linked to Lord Buddha's life, including Sarnath near Varanasi and Bodhgaya.
Indo-Asian News Service
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