Ogyen Trinlay Dorjee,17th Gyalwang Karmapa to visit Sikkim

Ogyen Trinlay Dorjee, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, is slated to visit Sikkim next year for the first time. Ogyen, recognized by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa, has not been able to enter Sikkim following a controversy involving another monk, Trinley Thaye Dorjee, who too claims to be the 17th Karmapa.
Ogyen, who is followed by a large number of Sikkimese Buddhists, will be visiting Phodong Monastery in the north in January 2014.
A press communiqué from the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee said “the visit of His Holiness is the result of the decision taken in a review meeting of the SPCC called by Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on November 5 in which SPCC President Kunga Nima Lepcha and Anil Lachenpa had participated.”
The statement added, “The state government under the leadership of chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has failed to bring HH the  17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinaly Dorjee to Sikkim, which casts doubt on whether the Chamling government is really serious about the matter.” (EOIC)