Why in News:

• India is considering a move to engage with the 17th Karmapa who is the second highest Buddhist leader of Tibetan origin after the Dalai Lama.

Who is the Karmapa

• He is the ceremonial head of the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim.
• The Karmapa is also the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, a Buddhist school in Tibet that is around 900 years old.
• In the Karma Kagyu lineage the orally transmitted teachings are valued very highly. Moreover, special emphasis lies on meditation.
• Karma Kagyu is a widely practiced lineage within the Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. (4 major schools of Tibetan Buddhism are Gelugpa, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya)
• The 17th Karmapa has a strong following in Sikkim where he remained popular despite having stayed away from India for the past four years. 

Why is this move politically important?

• The current Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje was born in Tibet but escaped to India at the age of 14 in 1999. 
• The escape of the Karmapa from Tibet was a major setback to the Chinese government. 
• The importance of the 17th Karmapa is expected to grow and he is likely to play a role in the deliberations to find a successor to the Dalai Lama in a future scenario.
• He remained in India till 2017 but often complained about travel restrictions that prevented him from moving across the country and abroad.(The residential certificate given to him by the government of India was insufficient as many countries in the world did not recognise the document which is usually granted to the Tibetan refugees in India.)

 References:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-working-for-return-of-karmapa/article35911764.ece
2. https://www.karmapa.org/karma-kagyu/