Fifteen-year-old Urgyen Trinley Dorje is the 17th Karmapa and the most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. In December 1999, he fled his Tibetan monastery and escaped to India, risking his life crossing the Himalayas as well as capture by the Chinese. His arrival in Dharamsala delighted the exiled Tibetan community there, but threw India and China's fragile relationship into turmoil. Carol Wightman examines the religious and political power of this extraordinary boy and asks how a teenager can have such an impact on international affairs.