Gurudev Karma Wangchuk Tulku Rimpoche

Subash Ghisingh rose him to the rank of High Priest, seeking his advice on all issues concerning governance, politics and personal life. So much so, that the native of North Tukvar Tea Estate, Kama Wangchuk was elevated to the rank of Lama and a Rimpoche at a go. Karma Wangchuk is also popularly known as Gurudev and people from every rung of life hold him scared and offer their highest respects.

Not much of is known of his past and the Gurudev at best himself remains ambiguous. Appointments are rare as the Gurudev remains swooped by devotes coming to him for advice and his ‘divine intervention’ in their personal and social life. The Gurudev also operates a small traditional medicine shop. He meets patients and all those who seek him at his house and offers ‘herbal’ remedies for all types of sickness.

“There was a time when thousands of people throng to this clinic but nowadays, there are fewer patients and visitors,” says Nabin Lama, a devotee from the same locality.

“Gurudev has seldom returned anyone without helping them. Sick people have been treated, broken marriages restored, couples without children blessed. Even leaders once stood in line here to meet the Gurudev, but all that has now stopped.” Nabin Lama, obviously does not have reasons to explain the lack of visitors to the Gurudev’s clinic but the gossips making round has it that Gurudev has been in a bit of a tizzy lately.

“Gurudev began his career as a simple medicinal man. It might not be inappropriate to say that he had good knowledge of Nepalese Medicine or what is known as Paharia Medicine. Since people in the villages especially Singla Tukver areas are semi-literate they prefer going to the shamans and medicine men for help and advice on all issues involving their social and personal life,” says Milan Thami, a social activist.

 “Gurudev came into sudden highlight when during the Gorkhaland Movement; he helped people with their problems. Singla Tukver constituency was the most disturbed region during the Gorkhaland Movement in Darjeeling. The entire population of Singla and South Tukver were displaced. Their houses were robbed and family members lynched by Marxist cadres and the personnel of Central Reserve Police Force. He gained much respect then when he became a rallying point for the people in the villages. Soon after the movement was over and Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council came into existence, Subash Ghisingh elevated him to the rank of Rimpoche. His rise can also be paralleled with the rise of Bimal Gurung, the present President of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha who was previously the Singla – Tukver Constituency President of Gorkha National Liberation Front and a Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council councilor,” adds Thami.

Madhusudhan Roka, a one time close associate of Subash Ghisingh and now an independent political analyst associated with a local daily says, “Subash Ghisingh was a religious man. But his faith in Gods was not driven by his inner-self instead it was driven by his fear and the paranoia of losing power. Subash Ghisingh would sometime try to contest Gurudev on religious issues and offer his own directions on how religious rituals were to be carried out. To an extent during the last eight years of his chairmanship of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, Subash Ghisingh dabbled greatly on religion calling himself at times the Dalai Lama of the Indian Gorkhas but the fact remained he had himself declared Karma Wangchuk Tulku as the True Gurudev of the Gorkhas going to the extent of declaring him as the modern day reincarnation of Lord Krishna. Subash Ghisingh, in a feat of grandeur further felicitated Gurudev through a huge victory procession where Gurudev’s chariot was pulled by thousands of people from the hills paying their respects. A fabulous monastery was built near Batasia for the Gurudev by Subash Ghisingh but the Gurudev is not known to have lived there.”

Roka further adds, “Gurudev was a frequent guest to programmes hosted by Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and he frequently shared the dias with Subash Ghisingh. In November 2005, Gurudev performed a special ceremony through which he identified and purified a stone on which a Shaman by the name of Moktan Guru  performed a prophecy that Darjeeling Hills would come under Sixth Schedule. The entire ecclesiastical affair was conducted by Bimal Gurung, the then DGHC Councillor from Singla-Tukver constituency. Thus, Gurudev’s hand in the entire working of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council is evident. The hold that he had on Subash Ghisingh is also evident.”

A section of political analysts and observers in the Hills believe that Gurudev had a hand in Subash Ghisingh’s paranoia with changing religious and cultural ethos of the Gorkha people especially in the hills. “Darjeeling Hills went from worshipping eight handed Goddess Durga to twelve and then sixteen handed Goddess Durga. Further the worshipping of idols were themselves banned. The idols were replaced by boulders and Gurudev himself identified and purified boulders to be worshipped as Goddess Durga at Chowrasta in a religious festival organized by Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.”

Political analysts believe that Gurudev’s influence was not on religious and cultural affairs only. Subash Ghisingh took his advice even on issues concerning governance which at times resulted in bizarre incidents.

“Subash Ghisingh is said to have thrown pebbles in the direction suggested by Gurudev at Tiger Hill on the foundation laying ceremony for a helicopter strip there. The pebbles which had been blessed by Gurudev were to specify the location where the helicopter strip was to be built,” says Prof Sharma, a prominent academician from Darjeeling now working at a prestigious college in Kolkata.

“I was present there and it was obviously comical when the Chairman threw the pebbles and tried to convince the engineers that the Helicopter strip was to be built at the place the pebbles fell. Of course, he could not understand the fact that a great deal of scientific study had to be carried on for such an endeavour. Ghisingh further broke in an ugly outrage when the engineers tried to point out the selected site for the Helicopter strip. To an extent Karma Wangchuk Tulku played into Ghisingh’s paranoia and as a result extended that paranoia to extreme psychological levels where Ghisingh was ultimately led to believe that it was his destiny to become the 21^st Century Prithivi Narayan Shah for Gorkhas in the Hills. Subash Ghisingh’s ultimate removal after a coup d’état was a reckoning but the end of Gurudev’s influence over politics in the Hills still may not be that forthcoming.”

Eccentric, revered and respected by great multitude of the Hill population, Monk Karma Wangchuk Tulku Rimpoche may not be accepted by the elite and the learned as an individual who should be given the title of the Gurudev of all Gorkhas, his followers which include a majority of the Hill people may however, have something else to say.

 “I admire him greatly,” says Bimal Gurung, President, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. “He has had a great deal of influence in my life. When we formed Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and took out our party flag for the first time, it did not come from nowhere, everything was blessed by him,” the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha President adds.

A picture of the Gurudev hangs at the office of the Gorkha Janmutki Morcha President, showing visitors to the office, how much the Gurudev is respected.

“Whenever he enters the office he lights incenses before the photo of Gurudev and pays obeisance,” a close confidant says.

Truly, in present day politics in the Hills and beyond, it is common to worship Bimal Gurung but very uncommon to be worshipped by him. Monk Karma Wangchuk Tulku Rimpoch Gurudev is just one such individual.