The Chinese takeover of Tibet eventually drove the Dalai Lama into exile in India in 1959. The 10th Panchen Lama, however, remained in Tibet to try to intercede with the Chinese government on behalf of his people. At first he was seen as a collaborator with the Chinese. In fact, at great risk to himself he criticized Chinese atrocities in Tibet. He spent more than a decade either in prison or under house arrest. His sudden death in 1989 at the age of 50 was never investigated or explained.
The present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen 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 Nyima on 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 head of the Panchen Lama search committee at the time, Chadrel Rinpoche, was able to secretly communicate with the Dalai Lama. After the Dalai Lama proclaimed Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama, government authorities had Chadrel Rinpoche arrested, and he was replaced by Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen. Sengchen had been a political opponent of both the Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Lama.
The new search committee, having disregarded the Dalai Lama‘s announcement, decided to choose the Panchen Lama from a list of finalists by drawing lots from a golden urn. This list did not include Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. The Chinese custom of using the golden urn, which is unrelated to the traditional religious or spiritual proceedings preferred by many Tibetan Buddhists, had been introduced in the year 1792 by the Qianlong Emperor to deal with a previous controversy.
Using the urn, six-year-old Gyaltsen Norbu, the son of two communist party members from Lhari was selected and proclaimed the Panchen Lama, with the religious name Qoigyijabu. According to Arjia Rinpoche, an important lama who attended the ceremony, Ye Xiaowen, the central government official in charge of the Panchen Lama issue, stated privately that the selection had been rigged in favor of Gyaltsen Norbu. Gyaltsen Norbu was enthroned at Tashilhunpo Monastery and has since assumed the full functions of the Panchen Lama.
He had been living in Beijing during his childhood to be educated in a Chinese way, and moved back to Tashilhunpo Monastery, the official seat of the Panchen Lamas. He developed altitude sickness when he first moved back, but overcame it quickly. As of 2006, according to the Associated Press, Qoigyijabu “is believed to live in Beijing amid intense secrecy and is almost never seen in public.”
The Chinese government claims that their involvement does not break with tradition in that the final decision about the recognition of both, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, traditionally rested in the hands of the Chinese emperor. For instance, after 1792, the Golden Urn was used in selecting the 10th, 11th and 12th Dalai Lamas.
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