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Inventory process begins at Rumtek monastery

A Reserve Bank Of India team on Monday began taking inventory of the fabulous wealth of Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, the global headquarters of Karma Kagyu sect of Buddhism headed by a Karmapa, amid tight security.

The six-member team, led by RBI's Kolkata-based regional director Vinod K Sharma, who was appointed by a lower court in Gangtok as commissioner to carry out the count, reached Rumtek, by road at 1130 hours accompanied by two legal advisors and a photographer.

Sharma arrived at Gangtok last evening after the Sikkim high court order to begin the actual inventory process of the monastery on or after July 1.

Security arrangement was beefed up in the monastery in view of the inventory process. Earlier, the Sikkim monks' body and followers of 17th Karmapa claimant Urgyen Thinley Dorjee had vehemently objected to the process.

Director General of Police R K Handa said: "We have made a full-proof security arrangement in the monastery without taking any chance. Two senior officials - DIG (range) S D Negi and SP (east) Akshaya Sachdeva - along with other officers are already there to oversee the arrangement."

In the inventory process, as per the high court order, three persons would be present from each side besides special secretary of the state's ecclesiastical department N Dorjee.

On behalf of the Rumtek monastery, aide-de-camp to the Karmapa (Dorjee) Phuntsok Lama, general secretary of Tshurphu Labrang (the main administrative body) Tenzing Namgyal and lawyer Naresh Mathur were present.

The other faction was represented by T S Gyaltsen, Gyanjyoti Kansakar (both trustees of the Karmapa charitable trust) and their lawyer Praveen Agarwal.

N Dorjee was representing the state government.

Unlike in the past, the RBI team did not face any protest or demonstration from any quarters on their way to the monastery following the Karmapa's letter to his followers to "abide by the court verdict."

As soon as they arrived, the team, accompanied by both the parties' representatives, was taken inside the monastery where religious articles are kept.

As per the high court directives, the RBI official could not touch the vajra mukut (the black crown of the Karmapa) preserved in a box wrapped with a cloth. He should only enter it on the basis of a 'visual impression'.

The high court also asked the commissioner not to break open the seals of the wooden box and the almirahs containing the artefacts.

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