Enter, Rumtek

Arindam Sarkar

With the first half of their daily chores and academic activities over at noon, the young Buddhist monks dressed in traditional maroon robes and yellow jackets were out in the sun on the courtyard and the small lawns of the sprawling Tibetan monastery to fight the biting cold of the mountains.

It was three days before Diwali. Though the Vajrayana School of Buddhism in Sikkim had little to do with the forthcoming celebration of lights and firecrackers at 5,800 feet (1,500 mtrs), a slip of tongue from a monk in his late twenties showed – thanks to the dish antennas on every house top even at this altitude – they were badly smitten by one of Bollywood’s leading actor Anoushka Sharma.

“Oh, Anoushka Sharma is a must watch,” said a Tibetan monk to his companions and they burst into a laughter. But barely had they relished the frivolity over a Bollywood bomb, they found to their dismay that a stranger standing close by was looking at them. The monks were embarrassed. The Anoushka fan hid his face inside the robe and one of his flabbergasted monk-friend tried to camouflage the faux pas by asking the stranger: “Kaise hai bhaiya (How are you brother)?” It seemed by uttering the name of Anoushka, the monks were caught violating the vow of celibacy.

Enter Rumtek Monastery. After Dharamshala, the home of Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, Rumtek Monastery is the second most important destination for Tibetan Buddhists in India. It is the private monastery of 17^th Karmapa and designed like the original one in Tibet. It is located 24 km from Gangtok and it is the largest monastery in Sikkim.

Till a decade back, Rumtek with its tranquil lifestyle and languid monastic atmosphere was a beautiful monastery of Buddhist tantric studies that flourished under a clear blue sky and whose bright Buddhist murals on the walls shone as the sun reached its zenith at noon in the winter. No more. Violent sectarian clashes among the monks – two rival groups supporting two different candidates for 17^th Karmapa claimed control over Rumtek – turned the monastery bloody.

The Karmapa Charitable Trust is supporting Trinley Thaye Dorje and the Tsurphu Labrang is supporting Ogyen Trinlen Dorje. In early Nineties, in pitched battles between two groups, the monks owing allegiance to Ogyen Trinlen Dorje threw the monks backing Trinlen Thaye Dorje out of Rumtek. The clashes left a trail of blood and tension in the monastery.

Result: Rumtek is the only monastery in Sikkim that has a hyped-up security apparatus in place throughout the year. Today, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police armed to the teeth scan the entry point and the inside of the monastery daily. Such security scene is unprecedented in any of the Buddhist monasteries in India.

“Since 1992, Rumtek witnessed several violent clashes among the outsiders who tried to unseat the resident monks owing allegiance to the present Karmapa, who lives in exile in Himachal Pradesh,” said a senior monk in anonymity.

Today inside the main prayer room situated at the centre of the courtyard – whose walls are adorned with rich Buddhist paintings and curios – is a framed portrait of 17^th Karmapa Ogyen Trinlen Dorje placed on a high throne. And kept behind it, hidden from the eyesight, is a huge golden statue of a meditating Buddha.

Originally built by the 9^th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, Rumtek served as the main seat of Karma Kagyu lineage in Sikkim. When the 16^th Karmapa fled Tibet and arrived in Sikkim in 1959, he found Rumtek was in ruins. But he decided to rebuild it as the main seat of the 16^th Karmapa in exile. In 1966, Karmapa officially inaugurated the Rumtek Monastery and called it “The Dharmachakra Centre”.

Rumtek is a school where monks stay to achieve erudition and spiritual accomplishments. “Tantrik rituals and studies of the Karma Kagyu lineage are practiced here. The golden stupa contains the relics of 16^th Karmapa and Karma Shri Nalanda Institute is the college of the monastery for higher Buddhist studies,” explained a monk.

The Rumtek Tibetan monastery specializes in Tantrik studies and practices. Such Kagyu order’s tantric practices such as Vajrayogini, Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, Nyingma, etc., are learnt at Rumtek.

The day at Rumtek starts at 5:00 am when the monks begin meditation and training sessions. Each senior monk gives spiritual and academic training to a group of young monastic. During the day, the senior monks attend spiritual and language classes and do the monthly ritual practices. Every month, the monastery conducts one to three weeks of intensive religious practices in which young monks also participate.

Rumtek focuses on all the tantric practices with a strong emphasis on the mother tantra teachings, such as Vajrayogini, Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, and others that form the heritage of the Kagyu lineage. Rumtek also engages in lots of Nyingma tantric practices, such as the Guru Rinpoche practice, Vajrakilaya, and other termas from from Rikdzin Jatson Nyingpo, Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa, Yonge Migyur Dorje, and others.

Karma Shri Nalanda Institute (KSNI) is a fully accredited institution for higher Buddhist studies at Rumtek Monastery. It was founded by His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa and is affiliated with the Sampurnnant Sanskrit University of Varanasi. KSNI and the Sanskrit University offer the Acharya degree (master of Buddhist studies) and Ka-rabjampa degree (Doctorate of Divinity). KSNI is a monastic college and the students belong to the age group of 13 to 35. The faculty comprises lineage masters, abbots and other qualified monastic and lay teachers.

The standard of education at Rumtek is one the best in the Tibetan Buddhist education system. Buddhist philosophy, psychology and education courses, Buddhist history, Tibetan literature, Buddhist art, English, Hindi, Pali, Sanskrit and other Tibetan studies are taught at Rumtek.

Today, Rumtek Monastery is one of the most important seats of the Kagyu lineage outside Tibet. In the early 1960's, His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa founded this seat near the 300 year old Kagyu monastery that was built in the sixteenth century by the Fourth King of Sikkim under the guidance of the ninth Karmapa. The new Rumtek Monastery was built about two kilometers away from the old one.

Rumtek became the International Kagyu Headquarters during the life of His Holiness. It is now the residence of a new generation of Kagyu masters, who are being trained in the tradition of study and meditation practice that began 800 years ago.