The Wire

In January 2000 a fourteen year old Tibetan lama made a dramatic escape across the Himalayas to India. As the seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje was a major religious figure in Tibet, and the only lama to actually be endorsed by the Chinese communist government there. Fascinated by this story, author and director of the Australia Tibet Council Gaby Naher went to India to find out more. The result is her book ‘Wrestling the Dragon’. She spoke to Annie Hastwell about the political effect Ogyen’s defection had on the Chinese government in Tibet.