To
His Excellency Shri Jawaharlal Nehru,
Prime Minister of India
Dated New Delhi, the 15th December, 1960

Your Excellency.
Your Excellency is fully aware of the evil forces that gathered momentum and let loose unbearable sufferings and miseries in the Land of the Snows where the sublime spirit of the Dharma prevailed for centuries. I must express my deepest sense of gratitude and genuine appreciation to Your Excellency for tile great benefits of protection help and guidance that have been extended by the Government of India towards the Tibetan people who have taken refuge in India—lamas, monks and laity—under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Our Spiritual I lead.
While I am in New Delhi I should like to place before Your Excellency some facts concerning myself and my dependents. 1 have brought with me from Tibet several objects of worship like sacred Images and relics preserved for a thousand years; and with me have come over 200) people including Avatar- saints (Incarnate Lamas), learned Lamas, monks and lay devotees all belonging to one of the four principal Buddhist Sects in Tibet, namely, the Kagyud Sect. Bereft of any means of subsistence, these people are absolutely dependent on me for food, shelter and clothing. Up to now, I have managed to meet their hare necessities with the limited resources I have. Hereafter, too, I will continue to manage until such time as my means permit. These Avatar-saints (Tulkus), lamas and monk-disciples have been conducting their devotional practices and meditation and such other cultural activities to preserve the Sacred Doctrine originated from Great Scholar Saints of India like Tilopa and Naropa and later, Tibetan saints like Marpa and Milarepa. It should be mentioned here that the Kagyud Sect, which specialises in Meditation, had its origin in India.
The most pressing problem before me and all those with me is to set up a Monastic Centre in Sikkim where we have been staying since the time of our arrival. It is thought that the best possible way of accomplishing this would be by securing solid financial assistance and aid in the shape of donations from the Governments of Sikkim and Bhutan with whom there has been very intimate spiritual and cultural relations for centuries. Help is already coming from this source, but for a project of this kind more is needed. Also we look for help from individual devotees, well-wishers and benefactors in general. In undertaking this task, I confidently request Your Excellency for sympathy, valuable advice and guidance and also for such generous assistance as the Government of India may deem proper to bestow upon hereafter through the Indian Representative in Sikkim.
I should like to bring it to Your Excellency's notice that since my arrival was prior to dial of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, my group is not regarded as refugees officially, for one and a half years. I have not required Government help to feed and maintain them. However, Your Excellency will, I am sure, realise that some practical scheme of accommodation and maintenance has to be worked too if there is to be any security for the Sacred Doctrine of the "Enlightened One" in the future. While I am willing to take the initiative in this direction, it would help me much to have the assurance of Your Excellency's support and guidance, which You have always given unstintingly to the Tibetan refugees and in fact, to all m distress.
With Highest Regards and blessings
Yours sincerely.
His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa
 
From: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Series 2/ Vol. 65 /  December 1960