Zurich, Switzerland: There was something very unusual in a meeting lately; the Tibetan religious head and 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje met Dalai Lama in Zurich, Switzerland, after 7 long years.
The Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, the representative of Tibetan people both in and outside Tibet, shared photos of the meeting on Monday.
Followers now hope that following this meeting to be held on August 25, the first since January 2017, the Karmapa is likely to return to India.
He has a big following in the country, especially in Sikkim.
Dalai Lama and Karmapa last met during 34th Kalachakra teachings in Bodhgaya in 2017.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama with thousands of others fled Tibet, crossed the Himalayas, and took asylum in Dharamsala.
Similarly, the Karmapa, whose literal meaning is 'one who carries out Buddha activity', escaped from Tibet and took asylum in India in January 2000. His major places of stays have been at the enclave in Sidhbari near Dharamshala where the Indian government has treated him as an 'honoured guest'.
The Karmapa had arrived in the US in 2017 for medical treatment, later acquiring citizenship of the Commonwealth of Dominica.
Their defections from Tibet, which took place almost two decades apart, are held up by believers as proof that the Dalai Lama, 89, and the Karmapa, 38, are not ordinary spiritual figures but personifications of the Tibetan people's struggle.
"This is a reaffirmation of the Karmapa's love and loyalty to the Dalai Lama and to the Tibetan struggle," remarked an observer of Tibetan affairs.
The Dalai Lama later left for Delhi from Switzerland after holding a closed-door meeting with the community.
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang had, in June, met Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju in Delhi and discussed possibility of bringing the 17th Karmapa to Sikkim.
Tamang had also expressed hope at one of his media briefings that the Karmapa, head of a 900-year-old lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, will return "very soon".
In an interview with Radio Free Asia's Tibetan Service in 2018, the Karmapa said that talks were going on.
"Once these talks are over and the results are fruitful, I am ready to go to India… I can't say the exact dates right now. A conference of Tibetan religious heads is being planned for November in Dharamsala. I think it is important for me to participate in it. That is what I am hoping that I can return for," the Karmapa was quoted then, now only fulfilling half of the promise.
An important institution in the Tibetan religious set up, the Karmapa is the only major monk-reincarnate recognised by both the Dalai Lama and China. He is the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu sect, one of the four sects followed by the Tibetans and one of the richest.
In the meantime, the Dalai Lama is expected to return to Dharamsala on August 28.
