The young Buddhist leader who escaped to India from Chinese-ruled Tibet has left the headquarters of the exiled Dalai Lama in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.
In a pre-dawn departure, the Karmapa Lama got into a black car surrounded by three jeeps carrying his sister who is a nun, and two followers who had fled with him on his eight-day journey across the Himalayas.
He was driven away without revealing his destination.
He appeared composed and unemotional as he left.
The 14 year-old Karmapa Lama had stayed at the Dalai Lama's official guesthouse since his arrival in India on Wednesday.
There was no official announcement about where he was heading. Local police said he had gone to nearby Gyuto monastery in Sidavari, 25km (15 miles) southeast of Dharamsala.
However, a source close to the leaders of the Karmapa's Kagyu sect said the Buddhist leader had moved into the Dalai Lama's official residence.
The Karmapa's Kagyupa sect, known as the "Black Hats," was once Tibet's most politically powerful, but was supplanted by the Gelugpa school of the Dalai Lama 350 years ago.
The BBC South Asia correspondent says the growing media attention may have contributed to the decision to move the boy.
There is speculation that he may eventually take up residence at a monastery in the Sikkim border province, where his predecessor settled after fleeing Tibet.
The black hat which is a symbol of his authority, and which his followers believe is woven from the hair of female deities, is in Sikkim.
But our correspondent says this could add to the complications for the Indian government, because China has never recognised Sikkim as a part of India.
The Karmapa Lama appeared relaxed when he met the Dalai Lama on Saturday, despite his gruelling trek.
Monks lined up to present brightly-coloured Tibetan shawls and other gifts, while the Dalai Lama's guard and police from the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh looked on.
Tashi Wangdi, Minister for Religion and Culture of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said the meeting between the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa Lama was private and lasted almost half-an-hour.
The only outsider to have met the Karmapa so far is a mid-ranking official from India's foreign ministry, officials in the exiled government said.
The Karmapa Lama, the third most powerful person in Tibetan Buddhism, is the only person among the religion's senior figures accepted by both China and the Dalai Lama.
Correspondents say his escape, which has gone almost unreported in China's press, is certain to be an embarrassment to Beijing.
The Karmapa Lama escaped his Chinese guards at the 800-year-old Tsurphu monastery in central Tibet by saying he intended to go on a retreat.
Dozens of men, women and children waited outside a guest house in northern India on Sunday to find out where a teen-age Buddhist leader who escaped from Chinese-ruled Tibet had been taken.
The 14-year-old Karmapa was whisked away in a convoy of jeeps before dawn, accompanied by an Indian official and 15 monks wearing the uniforms of the Dalai Lama's guards. There was no official word on his whereabouts.
``We don't know where our god, the Karmapa, is,'' said Tenzin Zyalpo, a shopkeeper, standing outside the Chonor guest house. When local Tibetans pressed against the gate asked questions about the Karmapa, maroon-robed monks inside smiled and said only, ``We don't know''.
The teen-age Buddhist leader arrived at a Dharmsala hotel on Wednesday, following an eight-day trek across the Himalayas through Nepal and northern India to escape Chinese-ruled Tibet.
His defection and that of five followers, including his 24-year-old sister, a Buddhist nun, cheered Tibetan exiles, embarrassed Beijing and surprised the Indian government.
It is the most significant exodus since the Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans departed their homeland after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. In pre-dawn darkness illuminated only by television news cameras, the 17th Karmapa, wearing a dark brown monk's robe, walked out of the Chonor guest house where he had been staying since he arrived. His followers quietly disappeared with him. Since he arrived Wednesday, the Karmapa is said to have twice visited the Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lama's officials wanted to remove the Karmapa from the media spotlight and into a more secure place where he can rest and recover from exhaustion, blisters and scrapes incurred on his journey, a source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday. Those close to the Dalai Lama's administration said the teen was frustrated in Tibet at not being allowed to meet with his teachers.
Chinese authorities had repeatedly denied a visa to his principal teacher, Tai Situ Rinpoche, who has a monastery near Dharmsala. The escape could prod the Chinese communist leadership to intensify an already stern four-year campaign to purge Tibetan monasteries of Dalai Lama supporters.
Tibet's third highest lama, still recuperating from a trek across the snow-covered Himalayas from China to India, has been moved to a secret hideaway, a minister of the Tibetan government in exile said on Sunday.
"He has been taken to another location to keep him away from the public eye so that he can rest and recuperate," said Tashi Wangdi, minister for religion and culture in the Tibetan exile government in Dharmsala, northern India.
The 14-year-old Karmapa Lama -- the only Tibetan religious leader approved by both the Dalai Lama and Beijing -- made a guarded public appearance on Saturday and has met twice with the Dalai Lama since arriving in Dharmsala.
Another official said the young lama was whisked away around 4.30 a.m. local time on Sunday (2300 GMT on Saturday) to a location not far from Dharmsala.
Video footage made available to Reuters showed a solemn Karmapa Lama resting on a couch at the new location, wearing traditional maroon-yellow Tibetan robes.
The boy monk, born Ugyen Trinley Dorje, has been the center of intense media attention since his journey, which supporters say was to escape religious repression in Chinese-ruled Tibet and Beijing's refusal to grant him an exit visa.
He reached Dharmsala on January 5 after a week-long journey from the Tsurphu monastery in Lhasa, around 1,400 kilometers (850 miles) away. His 24-year-old sister and two lamas accompanied him. He was seen in public for the first time on Saturday.
The Dalai Lama, Nobel Prize-winning supreme spiritual leader of the Tibetans who is vilified by Beijing, has met the Karmapa Lama twice since his arrival. Aides denied any involvement in the boy's flight from China. Wangdi said his arrival was a surprise.
The boy's arrival caused excitement in Dharmsala, inhabited mainly by Tibetans who have fled Chinese-ruled Tibet.
A monk who caught a fleeting glimpse of the Karmapa Lama said: "I am blessed." He was among many monks, some holding incense sticks, who crowded outside the rest house the lama initially stayed in after arriving in the town.
Karma Lekshey, 27, said: "His coming to Dharmsala will help highlight and internationalize the Tibetan cause."
Dawa Dhondhup, 24, added: "It (his leaving Lhasa) is going to be a very bitter pill for the Chinese to swallow."
The arrival of the Karmapa Lama means that the leaders of all the four branches of Tibetan Buddhists are now in exile in India.
The boy was being groomed by China's Communist leaders as an alternative to the Dalai Lama. China insists the lama's departure does not mean he has betrayed Beijing. In statements, China has indicated the Karmapa Lama can return to Tibet if he wants.
The post of Panchen Lama -- second in the Tibetan religious hierarchy to the Dalai Lama -- is contested between a boy recognized by the Dalai Lama and other exiles as the true reincarnation, and a boy chosen by China's Communist leadership.
The Dalai Lama's choice, now 10, has not been seen in public since 1995 and is believed to be under house arrest in China.
In 1950, China's Communist army, fresh from victory in the Chinese civil war, entered Tibet and overthrew its Buddhist theocracy. Nine years later, a large-scale uprising exploded and the Dalai Lama fled to India with thousands of followers.