By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, September 7: The Chinese government on Sunday for the first time admitted that the Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima who was recognized by the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and regarded by the Tibetans as the “true Panchen’ was alive and leading “a normal life,” reported Reuters.
Norbu Dunzhub, a member of the Tibet Autonomous Region’s United Front Work Department told reporters, “The reincarnated child Panchen Lama you mentioned is being educated, living a normal life, growing up healthily and does not wish to be disturbed.”
The uncharacteristic trait of the Chinese diplomacy to admit the ‘shocking revelation’ is seen as a politically motivated bid to garner legitimacy over the state’s authority over the reincarnation matters of the Tibetan Buddhists.
The spokesperson claimed that the Dalai Lama’s recognition of the reincarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama is deemed null under the eyes of the Chinese government. “The identification was done without authorization. It was illegal and invalid,” Norbu said.
He added, “No matter what the Dalai Lama says or does, the central government’s recognized rights toward reincarnation cannot be denied.”
The Dalai Lama has long maintained that the Chinese government as an atheist institution meddling and trying to claim authority over a strictly religious matter is a contradictory practice. His Holiness the Dalai Lama told the New York Times in an interview, “The Chinese Communist Party is pretending that they know more about the reincarnation system than the Dalai Lama”.
One of the favorite topics of the Chinese government lately, the reincarnation of ‘living Buddha’s’ is a strategic maneuver by the PRC officials to gather legality over the reincarnation of Buddhist lamas to gain a perceived authority over religious matters, Tibetans and supporters say.
The representative of the Tibetan leader at the Office of Tibet, London, Choephel Tsering told BBC on March 25, “The Chinese and the Communist Party have set up systems where reincarnations such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama have to be recognized and approved by the Communist Party.”
“Maybe [they] feel that if they pick their own 15th Dalai Lama, somehow that authority will transfer on to the [one] lama they have picked,” said Choephel.
The international pleas and movements urging the Chinese government to release the ‘true Panchen’ were ignored for 20 years since his abduction at the age of six by the Chinese government.
The reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama who died under mysterious circumstances, Gendun Choekyi Nyima was recognized by the Dalai Lama on May 14, 1995. The Chinese government installed another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the Panchen Lama although he is considered a mere figure head and a ‘Fake Panchen lama’ by the Tibetan Buddhists.
