By IANS,
Panaji : Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama Monday gave a clean chit to Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, whose public trusts have been accused of a land scam and illegally stashing foreign currency in his monastery.
The Dalai Lama blamed one of the Karmapa’s attendants for the scandal which he described as “not serious”.
“This thing about Karmapa… it is only the carelessness of some of his attendants. They did not register charity properly. It was his mistake,” the Dalai Lama said at a public function in Panaji.
The spiritual leader was in Goa to deliver a lecture as part of a state government sponsored lecture series.
The Dalai Lama also said that the incident would in no way impede relations between India and Tibet, which he said were not just decades old, but went down thousands of years.
“The relation between India and Tibet is that of Guru and chela. India is Tibet’s guru… We have developed a special relationship. This will not be affected in any way,” the spiritual leader said, adding that “Tibet’s issues are also India’s issues”.
Two aides of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, last week moved a Himachal Pradesh court seeking anticipatory bail over the seizure of about Rs.7 crore in foreign and Indian currency from the Gyuto Tantric University and Monastery.