to control incarnations Within the Antireligious campaigns in China is an ongoing directive to halt the recognition of high tulkus and control the naming of Dalai Lamas, Panchen Lamas, Karmapas, and Shamarpas, in order to gain spiritual and temporal control of Tibet and of Tibetan Buddhism. Official Beijing decrees were initiated in 1991, then revised as the State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5, to outlaw the recognition of tulkus and lamas without China's state approvals. An ineffective lottery system was reported following the ban of the Shamarpas. In 1992, China tried another tactic which approved the 17th Karmapa's enthronement and posited its plan to eventually replace the 14th Dalai Lama with the 17th Karmapa. Corruption of the Tibetan tulku system In the centuries following the inception of the system used to identify reincarnate lamas (beginning in the 13th century with the second Karmapa), the process became increasingly corrupted and politicized by those living outside monastic-ordination systems, as the process also led indirectly to sources of material wealth and power in Tibet. Highly respected teachers like the 14th Dalai Lama|Dalai Lama and Shamar Rinpoche have bemoaned the practice as belonging to feudal times, and have advocated revamping the system in way that divorces the reincarnate teacher from administrative politics and allows them to distinguish themselves. History of the Karmapa controversy Soon after the parinirvāṇa of the 16th Karmapa in 1981, a disagreement began brewing when head students of the Karmapa recounted apposing stories on what direction, and at whose feet, relics landed from the 16th Karmapa's funeral pyre. Years passed with no obvious clues of where to find the next incarnation, and the controversy came to the forefront when Shamar Rinpoche broke from the group of regents, claiming Tai Situ Rinpoche was not following protocol. Initial search committee Following the parinirvāṇa of the 16th Karmapa in 1981, a regency of the four highest remaining members of the Karma Kagyu lineage at that time was formed to locate his rebirth: The 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul: lead regent, third-ranking spiritual leader The 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche: second-ranking spiritual leader The 12th Tai Situpa: fourth-ranking spiritual leader The 12th Goshir Gyaltsap Rinpoche: fifth-ranking spiritual leader This regency was officially dissolved by 1984, but the four rinpoches still referred to themselves as "regents" when the prediction letter was interpreted in 1992. As the collaborative group, they had the authority to recognize the next Karmapa. As