A CONTROVERSY that has festered for years among Tibetans has flared up. Ever since the infant Ogyen Trinley Dorje was recognised in 1992 by both the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama as the 17th incarnation of the Karmapa Lama, head of one of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, he has faced challenges from rival claimants. And ever since 1999, when he fled from Tibet to India, some Indians have been suspicious of him, fearing that China helped him escape, hoping to make use of him.

Now he has been questioned by the Indian police after huge amounts of cash—the equivalent of $1.6m in some reports—in various currencies, including Chinese yuan, were seized from Gyuto, the monastery he occupies near the Dalai Lama's base in Dharamsala, in northern India. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

The suspicion is that some of the money came from China, for the Karmapa to use to buy influence in Tibetan monasteries in India, notably in Sikkim—where the 16th Karmapa had his seat at Rumtek monastery. On January 31st India's home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, said no conclusion had been drawn as to whether he was a Chinese agent or not. China's government, for its part, has felt moved to deny that it sent a living Buddha into India to spy for it, and has lamented the “mistrustful attitude” the Indian suspicions betray.

The Karmapa has denied any wrongdoing and has said the money was donated by adherents. It is true that his lineage has many wealthy backers. His predecessor's monastery at Rumtek (pictured below) has a lavishly financed institute, with plaques listing donors from all over the world. And the 17th Karmapa's audiences at Gyuto are packed with pilgrims with deep pockets.

As if the embarrassing hoard of cash were not enough, the doubts about Ogyen Trinley's claim to be the Karmapa have also been aired again. The Times of India has reported that his medical records have gone missing from an institute at Chandigarh in the state of Punjab, where he was examined after reaching India. The significance is that his opponents claim they showed him to be older than stated on the birth certificate he provided attested by the Dalai Lama, implying he is too old to be the true incarnation.

Thousands have thronged Gyuto to show their solidarity with the Karmapa. He has a big following for a number of reasons: his predecessor's success in building a global network; his own stature and charisma; and the support of the Dalai Lama himself. The Dalai Lama, too, has backed his protégé, though chiding him gently for sending “wrong signals” by keeping the money in cash.

It does seem incredible that China and the Karmapa are in cahoots, or even that China connived in his escape and has been using him as a stooge. His flight to India was humiliating for China: even a young monk it had feted and nurtured to help bolster its rule in Tibet rejected it in the most dramatic way. But as I suggested in my print column on January 8th, the ructions the Karmapa disputes have caused among exiled Tibetans may have given China the last laugh.

They also have implications for another theme of that column—the Dalai Lama's hints at his own retirement from political involvement. The Karmapa is perhaps the only other exile who could come close to unifying Tibetans. His troubles make the Dalai Lama's hopes of a retreat into a purely religious role even harder to realise.

(Picture credits: Dharma Chakra Centre [the Karmapa], Irene Slegt [Rumtek])