SHIGATSE, Tibet – A leading Lama at one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most important monasteries said on Sunday one of its former abbots who was jailed in 1995 for aiding the exiled Dalai Lama would not be welcomed back.
“I don’t know where Chadrel Rinpoche is, he is no longer welcome here,” said Nien Drak, a living Lama and the political director of the Tashilhunpo monastery.
Chadrel Rinpoche was sentenced to six years in prison in 1995 for opposing Beijing’s selection of the reincarnated soul boy of the 11th Panchen Lama and selecting another boy chosen by the Dalai Lama.
The Panchen Lama is Tibet’s second most revered spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama.
By controlling the selection of the Panchen Lama, Beijing has been accused of trying to further exert its influence over Tibetan Buddhism at the expense of the Dalai Lama.
The 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989 and Chadrel Rinpoche was in charge of the committee to search for the next soul boy. His jailing was widely opposed by Tibetan advocacy groups and human rights organizations outside of China.
“Chadrel Rinpoche is a splittist (someone who seeks to separate Tibet from China), he violated the law …, he also violated Buddhist law,” Nien Drak said.
“He should have first consulted with the central authorities that he was contacting the Dalai Lama, he should have gotten the approval.”
Nien Drak’s is the director of the Democratic Committee of Tashilhunpo, a mechanism for implementing political dimensions to the monastery.
Chinese government officials said that Chadrel Rinpoche was freed from prison in April 2002, and had gone to an unnamed monastery to meditate.
Tibetan advocacy groups say he is under house arrest.
Following an aborted uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, setting up a government in exile in Dharamsala, India.
