The 16th Karmapa died in Illinois in 1981; two rival successors were enthroned, and the Black Crown he left at Rumtek has gone unused since

The 16th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school, left Tibet in 1959 with the Black Crown, the school's central relic, and placed it at his monastery at Rumtek in Sikkim. He died on 5 November 1981 at the American International Clinic in Zion, Illinois. Two successors were named. Ogyen Trinley Dorje was backed by most senior lamas, the Dalai Lama and Beijing. Thaye Dorje was backed by Shamar Rinpoche, one of the regents. The school's assets were estimated in 2005 at £600 million, with 350 monasteries. The Karmapa Charitable Trust, which owns Rumtek, backs Thaye Dorje. Shamar Rinpoche said the regents had been cheated out of running Rumtek and filed court petitions. Monks fought over the monastery, and India barred the rivals from Sikkim. Ogyen Trinley Dorje fled Tibet to India in January 2000, an eight-day journey of more than 900 miles. As of 2000 the Black Crown had not been used for 18 years. He left India for the United States in 2017. He was allowed to visit Sikkim that year but not Rumtek. He reportedly took citizenship of another country and applied for an Indian visa in 2018^†. In October 2024 the Tibetan exile leader said he might return to India soon.