Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling is hopeful that the Centre in consultation with the Dalai Lama would soon resolve the succession controversy surrounding the Karmapa Lama at the Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre.

Mr. Chamling said that the Karmapa controversy was a religious one with international ramifications and added that a decision would soon be reached at. The Sikkim Government would abide by any decision jointly taken by the Centre and the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to end the decade-long controversy, he added.

He said on several occasions he had written to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister apprising them of the wishes and demands of the Sikkimese Buddhist devotees for early installation of the 17th reincarnation of the Gyalwa Karmapa at Rumtek.

Refusing to be drawn into the succession controversy between two warring groups of Rumtek regents, Mr. Chamling said his government was concerned at the law and order surrounding the Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre (DCC) which was the headquarters-in-exile of the Karma Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism.

Refusing to comment on the opposiing factions claim to the coveted Karmapa title, Chamling said, "Nobody is against the Karmapa’s installation to Rumtek as far as I know. It is now up to the Dalai Lama to decide with the government of India both are very positive on the issue of installing Urgyen Thinley Dorjee at his rightful seat at Rumtek.

It’s only a matter of time before the Karmapa (Urgyen Thinley) comes to Rumtek, said the Chief Minister.

Talking of its fallout on the Sino-Indian relations, Chamling said, "It is an issue of the External Affairs Ministry. I am too small a fry to comment on it. My responsibility as Chief Minister of a strategic border State is to abide by the government’s policies."

The Karmapa Lama’s arrival in India in January this year had fuelled the decade-long succession row amongst the Rumtek regents in Sikkim. Incidentally, the Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre (DCC) is the international headquarters of the Karma Kagyu School. The previous 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje had established the Rumtek DCC at Rumtek, some 24 km west of Gangtok after his flight from homeland Tibet in 1959 in the wake of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The Rumtek DCC has been without a head ever since the death of the 16th Kamapa Lama in 1981. The world-renowned Rumtek monastery is considered the richest in the country and possibly one of the richest among the 500-odd Kagyu centres spread all over the world.

In 1992, four Rumtek regents, Kunzig Shamar Rimpoche, Tai-Situ Rimpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rimpoche and Tsurpu Gyaltsar Rimpoche while looking after the affairs of Rumtek DCC and searching for the chosen one, split into two groups.

One led by Tai-Situpa and Tsurphu Gyaltsab Rimpoche identified the nine-year-old Tibet-born boy monk, Urgyen Trinley Dorje as the 17th reincarnation of the Gyalwa Karmapa.

The other faction led by Kunzig Shamarpa, however, opposed the view. They insisted that another eleven-year-old Tibet-born boy, Thinley Thaye Dorje, was the rightful heir to the coveted post of the prestigious temple’s dharma throne at Rumtek DCC.

Factionalism among the rival regents led to violent armed clashes between the rival groups of monks at the monastery complex in 1993. The State Government intervened and armed forces were stationed at the monastery. Both Tai-Situpa and Shamarpa were banned from entering the monastery complex.