The Eleventh Incarnation
Nobody can give you freedom.
If you’re a man, you take it.
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss
The work for my newest novel The Eleventh Incarnation is based on some extensive research I started in June of 2010. It began very innocently when I finally, after months of thinking about it, started to look into the topic of the Dalai Lama.
I was curious. What would happen if the Dalai Lama died? Who would be his successor? I know, any expert on Tibet and his complex religious system will now cringe. The Dalai Lama doesn’t die! The Dalai Lama will shed the garment of his human body and enter upon a passage into another life. And there will be a search for his reincarnation.
The search for the incarnation of the 15th Dalai Lama, provided His Holiness decides to be reborn, is a delicate political issue, and it leads us to the Panchen Lama controversy. The Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibet, is a central figure in the search for the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation. In November of 1995 the Chinese government, bypassing the century-old selection process, assigned the son of two members of their Communist party as the 11th Panchen Lama.
Earlier in the same year, the real Panchen Lama, a six-year-old boy by the name of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and his family were taken into Chinese “custody.” As of today, there are no records of the boy, his siblings, or his parents. That little fact bares enough material for several novels, and I started some more extensive research which is represented by two article series on this website, The Last Dalai Lama, and, most importantly, The Panchen Lama Controversy.
Research References
Article Series: The Last Dalai Lama
On November 27, 2007, while attending an interfaith conference in the north Indian city of Amritsar, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama suggested he might not be reborn, ending a 600-year-old tradition ofreincarnation as a small boy after his death. His Holiness was concerned that the Chinese government plans to seize control of his reincarnationand assign the 15th Dalai Lama by breaking with the traditional selection process. [Read More...]
Article Series: The Panchen Lama Controversy
The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility of identifying the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa, a fact that appears crucially important to the Chinese government when it comes to establishing their territorial claim on Tibet. On May 14, 1995, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama identified a six-year-old boy by the name of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama, but only three days later the boy and his parents were taken into Chinese custody. [Read More...]
Article Collection: The China Crisis
I am not a prophet, and I don’t claim I can predict the fall of the communist system in China in the near future. There are, however, an increasing number of reports of public unrest in various regions of the country. Yes, there have been many, much more competent sources than I watching thedevelopment in China for decades. My watch post is for my personal pleasure, and I take the liberty of sharing the information I gather. [Read More...]
Literature: 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. [Read More...]
China’s Tibet? Autonomy Or Assimilation
by Warren W. Smith Jr.
Anyone who is a Tibet activist, a serious student of Tibetan Buddhism, or a history buff will find Smith’s book indispensable. What is truly fresh and original in China’s Tibet?–and reveals Smith at his most penetrating and disturbing– is his analysis of China’s greatest propaganda successes. The tug of war between recorded fact and historical revisionism, autonomy and assimilation, Tibetan Buddhist culture and Chinese real estate, will continue while the rest of the world looks on from the sidelines. In the meantime, we should be very grateful that Warren Smith has kept a superb scorecard for us. [Read more...]
Tibet’s Last Stand? The Tibetan Uprising of 2008 and China’s Response
by Warren W. Smith Jr.
This deeply knowledgeable book offers the first sustained analysis of the 2008 uprising in Tibet, which revealed much about Tibetan nationalism and even more about Chinese nationalism. Retracing the complex history between China and Tibet, noted expert Warren Smith describes the uprising itself and explores its broader significance for Chinese-Tibetan relations. He sharply critiques China’s use of heavy-handed propaganda to recast the uprising and obscure its origins and significance. The book convincingly shows that far from becoming more lenient in response to Tibetan discontent, China has determined to eradicate Tibetan opposition internally and coerce the international community to conform to China’s version of Tibetan history and reality. [Read more...]
Post: National Clandestine Service – Clandestine Arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Writing a good novel should always include extensive research on various aspects that are addressed in the story line. When it comes to spy novels, specifically those relating to the United States of America, a reference to the National Clandestine Service, the CIA’s clandestine arm, is almost inevitable. In my newest novel “The Eleventh Incarnation” I refer to the NCS’s “Operation Epitome” which is, of course, a product of my vivid imagination. Operation Epitome takes place in the People’s Republic of China in the near future. [Read more...]
The Three Gorges Dam
In my novel, The Eleventh Incarnation, I mention the Three Gorges Dam. It is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in the Hubei province, China. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. The Chinese state regards the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success, but its operation proves to be problematic, including a massive trash problem. More than 150 million people live upstream of the dam, and many villagers dispose of their trash by throwing it into the Yangtze, Asia’s longest river. The debris covered an area of more than 500,000 square feet in front of the dam, at times up to two feet thick, making it possible for people to walk over the water.
References:
Tibet: Lhamo La-tso – The Oracle Lake
Monks from the Panchen Lama’s Tashilumpo monastery looked into the waters of Lhamo Latso lake and saw the upper half of a horse, the lower half of a goat and the Tibetan syllable ”grwa”. Those and other signs led them to a nomadic area called Lhari, and in it a young boy named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. He bore birthmarks on his back similar to the symbols seen in the waters of the lake. He was born in the year of the horse. And he could instinctively point the way to Tashilumpo monastery. [Read more...]
Lhasa – Capitol Town of Tibetan Autonomous Region
Lhasa is rightly one of the most featured and dreamt-about cities in the world. This is not only because of its remoteness, its high altitude at 3,650 meters (11,975 feet) means limited accessibility, but also because of its impressive heritage of over a thousand years of cultural and spiritual history that has helped to create the romantic and mysterious Tibetan religion. The city has also been appointed as one of the 24 historical and cultural cities of China. The splendor and grandeur of the Potala Palace in Lhasa remains a world-famous symbol of the enigmatic power of politics and religion in this region. [Read more...]
Qinghai Tibet Train – The Lhasa Express
The Qingzang railway, Qinghai–Xizang railway, or Qinghai–Tibet railway is a high-altitude railway that connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, in People’s Republic of China. The total length of Qingzang railway is 1956 km (1215 mi). Construction of the 815 km (506 mi) section between Xining andGolmud was completed by 1984. The 1142 km (709 mi) section between Golmud and Lhasa was inaugurated on 1 July 2006 by president Hu Jintao; the first two passenger trains were “Qing 1″ (Q1) from Golmud to Lhasa, and “Zang 2″ (J2) from Lhasa. This railway is the first to connect the Tibet Autonomous Region to any other province, which, due to its altitude and terrain, is the last province-level entity in mainlandChina to have a conventional railway. Testing of the line and equipment started on 1 May 2006. Passenger trains run from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou,Shanghai, Xining and Lanzhou. [Read more...]
