Current Conflict in Dharam Sala

I read an article about this last week, and it has been brought to my attention on multiple occasions since then. This is big, and has a lot to do with my project.

Recently, Indian police found an equivalent of around $1 million in the Karmapa Lama's monastery. Much of this money was in Chinese currency which has caused a lot of suspicious from Indian officials and media. Many are accusing the Karmapa Lama of being a Chinese spy. He claims that the money has come in donations from all over the world including Buddhists in China. It is still an ongoing event as police try to acquire more evidence. There is more I could summarize, but I'd better just give a link: http://www.minnpost.com/worldcsm/2011/02/15/25813/tibets_karmapa_lama_fueling_china_and_india_border_tensions (and if anyone is interested in seeing more links, I have more.)

Unless things are very quickly and neatly cleaned up, this event will most likely have a large significance for my project when we get to Mcleod Ganj in May. Even if the conflict is "resolved", the event has already caused many Indians to worry about their Tibetan neighbors and suspect them of having secret ties to China. However it turns out, relations between the two communities may take a while to mend simply because of the doubts that have been raised. It may also turn out to be a doorway to further conflicts and suspicions between Tibetans and Indians.

I plan on keeping a close eye on this as well as working it into my project and my story.

Update:

I just read another article, looking at the Hamachel Pradesh's chief minister's point of view on the event. He says that it is under investigation by the central government and that his state government has nothing to comment or add. If the central government finds no fault, than he has no reason to look further. From what I read, he seems to counter the media, or at least try to calm people down about the issue.

He reminds the people: "Karmapa's name in any way is not involved in a any land related cases. Neither there are any cases against some particular monastery person. Under the general policy of Himachal Pradesh, if there has been any illegal land dealing then it would be investigated. If there would be any case against Tibetans or any other person, then law would treat every one equally and would proceed accordingly."