BEIJING – A Tibetan teenager chosen by China to fill one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred posts emerged in China’s state-run media on Monday to praise the country’s religious policies.
The 11th Panchen Lama has led a tightly controlled and largely reclusive life since the Chinese government confirmed him in that role in 1995.
The Panchen Lama is the second most senior post in Tibet’s main Gelugpa Buddhist sect after the Dalai Lama.
Before the young boy was chosen, the Chinese government removed a successor Panchen Lama who was chosen with the approval of the Dalai Lama — the exiled Tibet leader whom China calls a traitorous separatist.
That boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, now 16, and his parents remain in Chinese custody, and international human rights groups have campaigned for his release.
But China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted the Beijing- approved “living Buddha” as praising China’s religious policies, which have attracted criticism from many international rights groups as well as the Bush administration.
“I’ve been to many places in the past decade and witnessed the ample freedom enjoyed by individuals and religious organizations alike. Living Budhhas like myself are able to perform religious rituals under the wing of the Chinese Constitution and other laws,” he said, according to Xinhua.
He was interviewed in the Tibetan city of Shigatse, where traditionally the Panchen Lama resides.
The Panchen Lama, who was born as Gyaltsen Norbu in northern Tibet, also welcomed China’s restoration of major Tibetan temples, including the Potala Palace and Johkand Monastery in Lhasa.
He also said the Communist Party has brought “wealth, harmony and stability” to Tibet, the report said.
“People of different ethnic groups are living together in harmony, Tibetan society is stable, and all monasteries are packed with pilgrims,” he said.
Many of Tibet’s 2.7 million people remain secretly loyal to the Dalai Lama’s chosen Panchen Lama. The young Panchen Lama’s comments appear likely to draw criticism of China’s policies from exiled supporters of Tibetan autonomy.
In November, the Dalai Lama said in Washington that China has done little to ease a “very repressive” atmosphere in Tibet.
The 70-year-old Buddhist leader met with President George W. Bush. The Dalai Lama said the Chinese government showed “no sign of improvement or some leniency inside Tibet.”
But the Chinese-approved Panchen Lama said: “The past decade has been the best time for the development of Tibetan Buddhism.”
Xinhua said he started his first “closed-door” religious retreat in early November and “blessed nearly 30,000 Tibetan Buddhists.”
