The Observer - London 21 May 1995

A COLD coming they year for a journey, and such a long journey,

in winter in the Himalayas. The stones are chill and grey. The

wind is icy and lazy: it prefers to go through people rather than

find a way around them.

It was a holy quest. The four monks arrived at last at Shugtri

ridge, overlooking lake Lhamo Latso, after a 25-mile trek up

lonely mountain trails. Three young monks stepped up eagerly to

take the Tantric instruments of their elders - cloaks, hats and

Tibetan bells - to the saddle of the ridge, to prepare for the

centuries-old ritual.

The four red-robed men from the Tashithunpo Monastery in Shigatse

had come to Lhamo Latso, a 'vision lake' that reveals mystic

secrets to the initiated, for a sign that would indicate where the

Panchen Lama, second only to the Dalai Lama in Tibet's Buddhist

hierarchy, had been reincarnated. Theirs was a search, already

five years old, that would lead to a wide-eyed boy born to a

family of nomads and trigger a struggle between Tibet's Chinese

occupiers and its exiled spiritual leader for the hearts of the

Tibetan people.

For the next three days, 3,000 fees above Lhamo Latso, the four

monks chanted mystic syllables and sacred words to invoke the

deities, meditated and scanned the deep blue waters, sometimes

using binoculars, eager for a sign that their quest was near its

end. The chill breeze tugged as the colourful prayer flags, and

took away the crystal ring of the bells. The search party then

returned to Tashilhunpo, which has been the traditional seat of

the Panchen Lama for more than 350 years. they retreated to a dim

temple deep inside the warren of mud-brick buildings set against

the hillside and threw themselves before the corpse of the 10th

Panchen Lama.

For five years, the lamas and monks had prayed to the embalmed

figure in the glass case, his face covered with gold leaf and

seated body infused with herbs to prevent decay. Each day they

prayed that he would soon be reborn.

The vision that was imparted to the monks at Lhamo Latso during

that visit in October 1994 led the search party to a rainbow that

shone over the home of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the son of a poor

family from north-eastern Tibet, 20 miles away. In the key test of

reincarnation, the six-year-old correctly identified possessions

of the previous Panchen Lama, which were mixed in with other

objects. He also had the same demeanour and responded

appropriately when presented with a ceremonial silk scarf.

Chatral Rinpoche, the bead of the searchers, also consulted the

Oracle, the special godly adviser to the Dalai Lama. The Oracle's

power tests in his ability to descend into a trance, become

possessed by a deity and be able to answer questions, not as a

human being, but as a god. The detailed process of identification,

from the lake to the Oracle, is known as the 'Supplications to the

Infallible Three Jewels'.

Gedhun was born on April 25, 1989, less than three months after

the 10th Panchen Lama died. In normal cases, this would preclude a

child from being considered a candidate for reincarnation. But,

according to Tibetan belief, highly-developed beings such as lamas

are above life, and can choose the moment when they want to be

reborn. It does not have to he the moment of conception.

Thus was the young Gedhun's life changed. From poverty and

semi-literacy in the stony fields he was guaranteed the

surroundings of gold and incense-filled temples and scholarship,

from the company of a yak herd to court of 300 monks and tutors.

So it was ordained, in line with a tradition established in the

Himalayan kingdom hundreds of years ago which has continued ever

since, while time has changed the rest of the world, with war,

science and television.

Just as ancient as these rituals, however, are the rivalries and

suspicions between Tibetans and Chinese. For after the search

party made its great find, the monks had to make a choice: who

would validate their candidate - the despised authorities in

Peking or Tibet's adored leader, the Dalai Lama?

There followed a behind-the-scenes struggle with a great prize at

stake. Either the Dalai Lama would be enhanced as the religious

leader of Tibet, even after 36 years in exile, or China's

political, economic and military grasp on the country would he

extended into the religious domain.

If Peking declared the Panchen Lama first, and the candidate was

then approved by the absent Dalai Lama, China would carry off an

enormous propaganda coup. And if the child could be educated or

influenced by pro-Peking tutors, in a climate which was favourable

to China, he could act as a wedge to be driven into the ranks of

the Dalai Lama's supporters.

Since the seventeenth century, it has fallen to the Panchen Lama

to search, on the death of the Dalai Lama, for his reincarnation

and to act as his spiritual teacher - a role filled with potential

for manipulation by Peking.

'From the religious aspect, there is no doubt about the great

importance of his discovery. It is extremely important,' says

Tenzin Geyche, the Dalai Lama's private secretary. 'From the

Tibetan point of view, although the Panchen Lama has no political

position, in the religious hierarchy, he is next to His

Holiness.'

At his hilltop exile in Dharamsala, northern India, the Dalai Lama

was the first to move. Last week he declared Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

to be the true reincarnation of the Panchen Lama or 'Great

Precious Teacher' -- the manifestation of Amitabha Buddhist, the

Buddha of Infinite light.

Gedhun was an unmistakable choice, whose name, among 25

candidates, emerged three times on divination-on dice, at well as

in dough balls in which the names of the 'hopeful are buried.' The

dough (with the reincarnation's name hidden in it) emerged as if

jumping out on its own,' His Holiness declared.

The reliance on 'traditional divination methods to assist the

selection process, and the Dalai Lama's unilateral announcement,

infiltrated China. It was a master stroke, at the Communist

authorities had apparently been waiting until September for the

thirtieth anniversary of the founding of its puppet state, the

Tibet Autonomous Region, to unveil their own. reincarnated Lama.

This would have forced the Dalai Lama either to deny the choice

or, belatedly, endorse it.

The State Council's Bureau for Religious Affairs described the

Panchen Lama's nomination as 'totally illegal and invalid'

claiming the Tibetans had failed to carry out two of the selection

criteria. The Chinese claimed that the designation of the Panchen

Lama had always been approved by Peking before any announcement

was made. Yesterday it lashed the Dalai Lama as a saboteur using

the reincarnation as a 'political Conspiracy' against the ,Peking

appointed government in Lhasa.

There is an element of truth in this. Several of the Panchen

Lamas have been chosen by a lottery of the candidates with the

winner endorsed by the emperor - later superseded by the

government, or state council, in Peking.

Based in Shigatse, a traditional rival to Lhasa since a protracted

civil religious war in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,

the Panchen Lama has also tended to lean towards China, a

characteristic that has been skilfully exploited by Peking,

seeking to weaken potential sources of opposition in its

mountainous neighbour.

The tenth Panchen Lama is rumoured to have sent a telegram, at the

age of 11, to Mao Tse-tung asking him to send his troops, then in

the eastern part of the country, to liberate all of Tibet. When

the Dalai Lama fled, the Panchen Lama was whisked off to Peking,

where he became China's mouthpiece on Tibetan matters. However,

during the Cultural Revolution the Panchen Lama was prompted to

criticise, again in a letter to Mao, Chinese destruction and

violence in Tibet, where hundreds of temples were 'wrecked and

looted'. He was jailed for 10 years.

Released, he spent the declining years of his life supporting

humanitarian work in Tibet, becoming increasingly critical of the

Chinese occupation. During a rare trip back to Shigatse, the

Panchen Lama said, that whatever benefits the Chinese may have

brought to Tibet, they were not worth such a high price. Several

days after the outburst, in January 1989, he, his parents and

senior tutor all suffered heart attacks. The Panchen Lame died.

Many Tibetans surmise he was poisoned by the Chinese.

When the eleventh Panchen Lama was announced last week, there was

rejoicing in Dharamsala, not only because a great religious event

had taken place. Many of the Dalai Lama's faithful believe their

leader had brilliantly nobbled the Chinese, winning over the

search party organised by the Peking-leaning Tashilhunpo

Monastery, and thus healing the long-running rivalry between

Tibetan schools.

In the middle of it all is a child. If the Chinese allow, he will

soon move to Tashilhunpo, where be will be enthroned in an

elaborate ceremony and undergo intensive studying for the Geshe,

the 15-year doctorate of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. It includes

study of five major texts, including monastic life, spiritualistic

leading to Buddhihood, logic, Dharma, the ultimate reality of all

phenomena, the formation of the universe and of sentinels being.

So far the Chinese have attacked the Dalai Lama's announcement,

but not his choice. If they were to find their own candidate, it

would be to promote him as a second source of religious power in

Tibet, as Avignon sought to rival the Vatican in the fourteenth

century.

'At this stage, the young Panchen Lama is a pawn in the greater

polities of Tibet and China,' says Tsering Shakya, a London-based

Tibetan historian. 'One day, the new Panchen Lame will find his

voice. There is no knowing what he will sing. But throughout the

complicated relationship between China and Tibet, the Panchen

Lama, has always been the third voice..'

He adds: 'The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan may have gained a victory

in the international propaganda war by showing the Chinese

government's lack of authority in Tibet. But the Chinese may well

exact a high price for this victory, by refusing to negotiate

over, the long-term solution of Tibet.'