Information about IKKBO:
Resolution

Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche's message to the IKKC

Statement by the monks community at the IKKC

Open letter to H.H. the Dalai Lama

General information:
Background on the Karmapa controversy

Prediction About the Future of the Kagyu Lineage
By Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Legal documents:
Court Decisions

Buddha's Not Smiling, By Erik D. Curren.
The Day the Last Monastery in Shangri-La Fell - Buddha's Not Smiling is the anatomy of a crisis. On August 2, 1993, Rumtek monastery was attacked. Its monks were expelled and the cloister was given to a lama appointed by the Chinese government. But Rumtek was not in China, and its attackers were not Communist troops. Rumtek was in India, the refuge for most exiled Tibetans. And it was Tibetan lamas themselves who led the siege. Evidence shows that the Chinese Communists directly supported Tibetan lamas and monks who attacked Rumtek monastery.
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Nov 1st 04 Novelist Tries to Wrestle with the Karmapa Controversy in Non-Fiction Format: IKKBO Says that She Should Have Stuck To Fiction.
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Oct 21th 04 Shamar Rinpoche Files Defamation Suit against Controversial Karmapa Book
Author Lea Terhune accused in spreading false information solely to harm Tibetan Buddhist leader and lineage.
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The supreme court of India decision on Rumtek
[ Original Text ]
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No.22903/2003
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Group Loses Legal Bid to Retain Control over Disputed Monastic Seat of the Karmapas
Indian Supreme Court Rejects Claim of Tsurphu Labrang, Clearing the Way for the Karmapa Charitable Trust to Regain Control of Rumtek Monastery.
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The International Karma Kagyu Buddhist Organization, based in New Delhi is dedicated to educating the wider public on issues relating to the disagreement over the identity of the Tibetan Buddhist leader known as the Karmapa.

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Like the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa is one of the highest lamas of Tibet. The Karmapa was the first reincarnate lama of Tibet, stretching back to the 12th century, 300 years before the appearance of the Dalai Lamas.

A Succession Controversy
After the death of the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Ripge Dorje (1923-1981), a controversy arose over his successor. Today, there are two candidates for the title of 17th Karmapa: Thaye Dorje and Orgyen Trinley. Several controversial books have been published recently on this dispute. The information in these books has been questioned by many in the Tibetan Buddhist community for its accuracy. The purpose of this website is to provide accurate and complete information to journalists and others about the Karmapa controversy and especially the controversy’s main point of contention, the possession of the seat of the 16th Karmapa, Rumtek Monastery in India’s northeastern Sikkim state.

Karmapa’s Seat in Dispute
The 16th Karmapa established his headquarters at Rumtek after fleeing Tibet at the time of the Chinese invasion in 1959. At his death in 1981, according to his will, management of the monastery passed to an organization that he had set up, the Karmapa Charitable Trust. The Trust managed Rumtek for 11 years as the new Karmapa reincarnation was sought. Then, in 1992, after announcing his own Karmapa candidate a year earlier, Situ Rinpoche and his followers arranged with the local government of Sikkim at the time to seize control of Rumtek from the Karmapa Trust. Ever since, legal possession of the monastery has been the key issue of contention in the Karmapa controversy.

Beginning in 1992, the Karmapa Trust has been trying to regain control of Rumtek through legal means. Three levels of Indian courts have ruled that control of this monastery in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim belongs to the Trust. In 2002, the District Court in Gangtok, Sikkim first issued this ruling, and the High Court of Sikkim affirmed it on appeal in 2003. On July 5, 2004 the Indian Supreme Court in New Delhi affirmed the lower courts’ decisions. This site offers access to information and original documents about the Rumtek case. Including the text of all three Indian courts involved in the matter.