Back to The Last Dalai Lama
The present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama, who will select the next Dalai Lama, is a matter of controversy. The People’s Republic of China asserts it is Gyaltsen Norbu, while the current Dalai Lama named Gedhun Choekyi Nyimaon May 14, 1995.
The latter vanished from public eye shortly after being named. Chinese authorities state that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has been taken into protective custody, but there is no information regarding from what, or from whom, he must be protected, where he is being held, or under what conditions.
The Search For The Panchen Lama
by Isabel Hilton
While working on a documentary film, British journalist Hilton was permitted to accompany the Dalai Lama as he sought to identify the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual authority of Tibet’s ruling Buddhist sect. This excellent and artfully written book (part of which has appeared in the New Yorker) tells the complicated recent history of the Panchen Lama. The 10th incarnation died under mysterious circumstances in 1989 and is considered by many Tibetans to have been a traitor. The 11th–still a child–is missing; the six-year-old boy was detained along with his family in the mid-’90s by Tibet’s Chinese rulers and has not been heard from since. Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities have offered another child as the spiritual leader incarnate. Although she reveals the end of the story in the early pages of the book, Hilton relates this history with great drama and subtle wryness (for Westerners, she says, Tibet is “a kind of religious Disneyland”). Her wonderfully detailed writing illustrates the spiritual and political contours of these events. She describes, for example, a group of Tibetan lamas’ two-day journey to Lhamo Latso Lake, where they went to gain insight that helped them find the reincarnated Panchen Lama; their trek, which involved 20 yaks, a video camera and a set of binoculars, was also monitored closely by Chinese spies. Hilton reports the story of the quest with great skill, weaving the history of Tibet with visits to monasteries in Tibet, China and India and conveying the power of a religion to survive the destruction of its institutions, the imposition of martial law, jailings and death in labor camps and prisons.
Buy from Amazon.com…
In search of the real Panchen Lama
Phayul.com – July 3, 2010
The Communist Party resolved to do whatever it took to ensure that it would appoint, train and control the lamas who they saw as the key to political control of Tibetans. It proclaimed that the Dalai Lama-endorsed Panchen Lama was “illegal” and Xinhua news agency denounced the six-year-old boy for having “once drowned a dog”.
For most Chinese citizens, the Communist Party offers broad religious freedom, a process of law and at least an effort to win their hearts and minds. But it is different inside the frontier regions of western China.
Read the full article…
China says missing Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima is living in Tibet
The Times – March 8, 2010
China shed a glimmer of light yesterday on the life of a young Tibetan man who vanished 15 years ago after the Dalai Lama declared him to be the reincarnation of the second-highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism.
The son of a Tibetan herder, Gendun Choekyi Nyima was only 5 when he was selected by the exiled Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Police swooped on the boy’s village in a county to the north of Lhasa and, pro-Tibet exiles say, removed the child and his parents.
He has not been seen or heard from since. But Tibet’s new governor, Padma Choling, revealed yesterday that the young man, now 20, is still living in Tibet, where “his brothers and sisters are at university or are doing regular work”.
Read the full article…
Tibet’s Panchen Lama, Beijing’s propaganda tool
(AFP) – March 26, 2009
China’s controversial choice as the second highest Tibetan spiritual figure is increasingly being used by Beijing as a tool in its propaganda offensive against the exiled Dalai Lama, say experts.
Rarely seen in public previously, but believed to have been educated in the Chinese capital, the 19-year-old Panchen Lama Friday expressed loyalty to Beijing, in stark contrast to the views of the Tibetan spiritual leader.
“For a long time the Dalai’s separatist clique has ignore the success of Tibet’s development, plotted and planned to ruin Tibet’s social stability and wantonly attacked the policies of the central government,” he said, referring to the Dalai Lama’s exiled Tibetan administration.
The comments made in an interview with China Central Television came as he attended a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of what is officially called “the end of serfdom in Tibet” held at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
Read the full article…
China’s Panchen Lama enters political arena
Asia Times – March 17, 2010
China’s handpicked 11th Panchen Lama, born Gyaltsen Norbu in northern Tibet, made his political debut this month at the annual session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, appearing as a national committee member of the top political advisory body.
Observers expect the 20-year-old Panchen Lama will be named a vice chairman of the CPPCC within the next couple of years, though he was not, as expected, given the post this year. While the title is largely honorary, it is an important national leadership post similar to one his predecessor, the 10th Panchen Lama, held when he died in 1989.
Read the full article…
[
[
