![]() ![]() Chinese authorities want absolute control of the selection of the next Dalai Lama, since the current 14th of that lineage is the unquestioned leader of the Tibetan people he is now 85 years old and living in exile in northern India. The underlying issues behind this travesty of human rights violations are, of course, political. But no such chances have been taken with the official Panchen Lama, who remains a captive in a propaganda showcase, ironically one intended to display the government’s granting of religious freedom to Tibetans. The 17th Karmapa, another high-ranking lama recognized by Chinese authorities in the 1990s, was at least permitted to receive an education at his own monastery - an experiment that ended in ignominy for authorities when he fled into exile in 1999. Once they reach adulthood, they are also free to walk away from their religious commitments, as happens relatively frequently outside Tibet. However, in the Tibetan tradition, genuine reincarnate lamas are expected to travel widely, study in a range of institutions, and meet with a broad range of lamas to obtain the teachings and transmissions that are central to their claims to knowledge and religious authenticity. In between these visits, he has effectively been held under house arrest in Beijing and never been allowed to travel freely or to speak openly with foreigners.Ĭhinese authorities’ efforts to justify a quarter-century enforced disappearance of a child are ludicrous and chilling: They say Gendun Choeki Nyima is being kept somewhere secret “for his own protection.” Gyaltsen Norbu’s lack of freedom appears never to have been questioned by the Chinese authorities, apparently because they imagine effective incarceration in Beijing to be appropriate. The authorities, using a procedure that lacked authenticity and involved fabrication, forced another group of monks to identify a different child of the same age, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the official reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.Įver since, that second candidate has been paraded annually in Tibet, accompanied by police, officials and a massive publicity operation involving hundreds of coerced worshippers. ![]() Rather, the boy had been identified by a team of Tibetan monks and lamas as the reincarnation of a premier religious teacher, the Panchen Lama, a decision that the Chinese government opposed. ![]() Today, no one apart from the Chinese authorities has any idea where they are, what they do, or whether they will ever be seen in public or live freely again.Īnd yet neither the child, now in his early 30s if he’s still alive, nor his family members had been accused of any crime. May 17 marks 25 years since Chinese security forces took away a 6-year-old Tibetan child, Gendun Choeki Nyima, and his parents from a remote town in Tibet. ![]() Exile Tibetan Buddhist nuns carry placards during a protest march demanding the release of their religious leader Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, who was put under house arrest by the Chinese authorities this day in 1995 in Tibet, in Dharmsala, India, Wednesday, May 17, 2017. ![]()
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