The Karmapa is young, handsome, magnetic, green-minded (unlike much of the Buddhist world, strangely), more-or-less the heir apparent to The Dalai Lama…and he’s tactfully frank, too, regarding the exile of his people from their country.

“Video war games satiate my feelings of aggression”

Rashmee Roshan Lall . Excerpts from the interview.

Is India being diplomatic enough to and about China and and vice versa?

Obviously I can’t speak from the perspective of a politician who is active in these communications. Obviously the government of each country has its own interests in the ongoing conversation. They are doing what they can to advance their own interests. I’m not able to comment on what those interests might be. But if I were to make some observations and guesses from my own vantage point, it seems to me that the Chinese government is acting somewhat deliberately in attempts to slightly irritate the government of India.

Because of this the neighbourly relationship has suffered a little bit. India has always been a relatively peaceful country, a country that has always had a reasonably good record of valuing peace, India does not seem interested in pursuing any type of conflict, however, India is on the rise in the world and perhaps the Chinese government feels some type of impulse to blunt this rise somehow. Perhaps that is what is causing some of the things we see today.

You haven’t visited China since your swashbuckling escape to India in January 2000. Have you ever been invited back and what is your relationship with the Chinese authorities?

Relationship! I don’t have a particular relationship at all with the Chinese government. When I lived in Tibet, it is of course controlled by Beijing so there was no choice but to have some form of relationship. However, I have left Tibet and now live in India and so I’m completely removed from any type of control exerted by the Chinese government and so there is no communication to speak of, there is no relationship at all….

Read the rest of this amazing interview here.