Washington Post Foreign Service

BEIJING May 23 (Washington Post). The Chinese Communist Party,

despite a history of atheism and opposition to what it calls feudal practices, is embroiled in a controversy over medieval divination procedures for identifying the reincarnation of Tibet's second-most-important lama.

In an effort to defend its authority in the region of Tibet,

the Communist government in Beijing has wrapped itself in the robes of a 14th century Tibetan Buddhist leader, cited Qing Dynasty precedents from the 18th century and wrestled against the deft maneuvers of the exiled Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate revered by Tibetans in China as their god-king.

However, the recognition of a new Panchen Lama is a political

as well as religious matter. China bases part of its claim to

sovereignty over Tibet on its role in selecting senior lamas.

Moreover, because the new Panchen Lama will reach maturity as the

current Dalai Lama nears the end of his life, the new Panchen Lama

could become the leading political figure in Tibet.

The debate has revived questions about the absence of

religious freedom in China and Chinese rule of Tibet, whose

independence is sought by the Dalai Lama and his allies.

At the heart of the controversy is the search for a new

incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the most important religious

figure in Tibet after the Dalai Lama. The previous Panchen Lama

died in January 1989.

A week ago, the Dalai Lama declared that he had identified a

six-year-old semi-nomadic boy from a family of yak herders on the

Tibetan plateau as the new Panchen Lama. He said that the choice

was "a religious matter and not political," and that he hoped China would recognize the boy as the true Panchen Lama.

But last weekend the Chinese government, asserting that its

approval is needed, rejected the Dalai Lama's choice as violating

ancient Tibetan practices and the "deathbed testament" of the last

Panchen Lama.

"I'm very indignant about this," Gyaga Losangtamqo, a deputy

of the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, was quoted as saying by the official New China News Agency. "It runs totally counter to the religious rituals, and we will never recognize it." The agency quoted Zhao Puchu, president of the government-backed Buddhist Association of China, as saying he was "shocked and indignant."

China's anger has been especially intense because the Dalai

Lama appears to have co-opted the selection committee of Tibetan

monks who had been working closely with Chinese authorities. The

monks were supposed to submit their choice to China's State Council, but instead sent the name to the Dalai Lama for approval,

sources said. The move not only embarrasses Beijing but leaves it

without an alternative candidate for Panchen Lama.

"One can see the Dalai Lama as upstaging the Chinese by doing

this," said Ronald Schwartz, professor of sociology at Memorial

University of Newfoundland and author of "Circle of Protest," a

book on Tibetan politics and religion. "I suspect a lot of his

motivation was to confirm this Panchen Lama in an authentic way.

But it puts the Chinese in a bind now."

Tibetans believe that the last Panchen Lama was the 10th

successive incarnation of Amitabha, a Buddhist deity who takes

human form to lead his followers toward enlightenment and

liberation. Like all "living Buddhas," he is believed to be able to choose the ideal time and place of his next incarnation.

"It is weird to see the Communist government locked into a

dispute over this deeply mystical process," said Robert Barnett,

director of the Tibet Information Network, a London-based research

organization. "But it is also a deeply politicized process."

Both the Dalai and Panchen lamas belong to the Gelugpa school

of Tibetan Buddhism, which has been the dominant political group in Tibet for about 400 years. Since the 1920s, the Chinese have

attempted to exploit differences between the two lamas to weaken

Tibetan unity and cultivate pliant partners for Chinese rule.

The most recent Panchen Lama, though less well known than the

Dalai Lama internationally, was a key figure in Tibetan political

history for nearly 40 years.

One of China's justifications for its invasion and annexation

of Tibet in 1950 was that the last Panchen Lama, only 11 years old

at that time, allegedly sent a telegram asking help from Chinese

Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. In the wake of the 1959

Chinese military crackdown on the Tibetan independence movement,

the young Panchen Lama was the only lama of stature to stay in

Tibet while other lamas, including the Dalai Lama, fled to India.

Although he initially cooperated with the Communists, in 1964

the increasingly disillusioned Panchen Lama denounced China's

policies in Tibet. He went to jail for nearly a decade, followed by internal exile in China.

Rehabilitated in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping came to power, the

Panchen Lama became a key part of China's strategy for winning

support in Tibet. The Panchen Lama did not back Tibetan political

independence, choosing instead to work from inside the Chinese

system to improve conditions and increase religious freedom in

Tibet.

John Ackerly of the International Campaign for Tibet said,

"One reason [the dispute] has incensed Beijing so much is that they felt the Panchen Lama was their lama. He is the one who gave them credibility in Tibet."

Many analysts believe that the Panchen Lama became

disillusioned with the Deng-era Chinese administration over Tibet

and was growing closer to the Dalai Lama at the time he died of a

heart attack in January 1989.

After the Panchen Lama's death, negotiations took place

between Beijing officials and the monks of Tashi Lhunpo monastery

in the Tibetan city of Shigatse, headquarters of the Panchen Lama.

The monks agreed to find a new Panchen Lama in either Tibet or

China as central government leaders demanded. In return, they

extracted a pledge from Beijing that the monks could follow

traditional selection procedures.

Those occult procedures were sharply at odds with the Chinese

government's commitment to suppress superstition and promote "scientific" techniques and approaches to problems. Nonetheless,

the Chinese government publicly explained and defended the process

in an effort to woo popular opinion in Tibet.

Monks began by seeking divine guidance from oracles. Last

October, senior monks held a three-day ceremony at a sacred lake in the Tibetan Himalayas where they sat on a high ridge and peered

into the water and recited mantras. The monks wore traditional

ceremonial cloaks and hats and carried bells and mystic insignias.

They also carried modern instruments including binoculars, to

search the lake for an inverted reflection, and a video camera to

record the ceremony.

"As to whether watching the inverted reflection is scientific, we will not think about it," a senior Chinese government official once said.

Once identified, likely candidates were asked by the monks to

identify the dead lama's closest associates and some of his

favorite possessions.

After that, however, China wanted the monks to bow toward

Beijing by putting the names of top candidates on lots to be drawn

from an urn by a government official. The precedent for this was

established in 1792 by a Qing Dynasty emperor who ordered names

drawn from a golden urn placed before a sacred statue in Lhasa,

Tibet's capital.

Many analysts say that although Chinese emperors saw

themselves as picking the lamas, Tibetans who submitted candidates

for the lots did not see it that way. Often only one name would be

submitted to the Chinese. "It would be like President Clinton

sending a letter welcoming the appointment of the archbishop of

Canterbury and claiming that he rules England," Barnett said.

Zhao, of the Buddhist association backed by the Chinese

government, said for the first time last weekend that four days

before the Panchen Lama's death, the Tibetan religious leader told

Zhao the Qing-era procedure should be followed.

It remains unclear how the dispute will be resolved. Even if

the choice made by the Dalai Lama and the Tashi Lhunpo monks is

recognized by Beijing, a key issue will be who will educate the new Panchen Lama. The Tashi Lhunpo monks want that job, but China might exert its influence in this area.

The entire affair, Barnett said, has been "a bizarre melange of

medieval kingmaking and colonial interference. China has discovered that it needs Tibetan leaders on their side, but they keep on slipping away from its grip."