$1m question for exiled Buddhist leader

POLICE are investigating a stash of more than $1 million (£600,000) found with other foreign currencies at the headquarters of Tibetan Buddhism's third most important leader in northern India.

The Gyuto Tantric Monastery was yesterday being searched and Ugyen Thinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, and his aides were questioned about the $1.35m (820,000) found over the weekend, a monastery spokesman said.

The raid followed the arrest of two Indians carrying $220,200 in cash they said had been given to them by a monk with links to Gyuto. The probe has put Mr Dorje - seen as a potential successor to the Dalai Lama - on the defensive. The raids are unprecedented and particularly surprising since the Karmapa is revered across India, which has gone to great lengths to provide asylum to the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist leaders who have fled Tibet under Chinese occupation.

Representatives of the Karmapa - a member of a different religious order from the Dalai Lama - say the money was part of donations. The Karmapa, 24, escaped from Tibet in 2000. Since then, he has been living in the monastery in Sidhbari, just outside the northern Indian town of Dharmsala.