BEIJING, October 25, 1995, (AP) -- Monks who support China's Communist rulers have been appointed to top positions in the monastery of the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second-highest leader, a monitoring group reported Wednesday.

They succeeded the moderate abbot removed on suspicion of passing information to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan god-king, the Tibet Information Network said.

The change in leadership at the Tashilhunpo monastery was the result of a controversy between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama over the reincarnation of the late Panchen Lama, the highest-ranking monk to remain in China after Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1959.

The Dalai Lama, now in exile in India, infuriated the Chinese when he pre-empted Beijing in announcing the 6-year-old boy recognized as the reincarnation.

Chadrel Rimpoche, formerly abbot of Tashilhunpo, had been the head of the Chinese committee searching for the reincarnation. He is suspected of passing information to the Dalai Lama that allowed him to name Gendun Choekyi Nyima the new Panchen Lama.

Rimpoche was detained in May and formally dismissed by local officials in charge of religion in July, the Tibet Information Network reported. The group, based in London, monitors developments in the remote Himalayan region and is highly critical of the Chinese government.

Only two members of the monastery's management committee remain, "apparently because the authorities need them to give credibility to religious rituals" needed to endorse their choice of the Panchen Lama's reincarnation, the network said.

Among the new members of the committee are Lobsang Tsering, who is opposed to any cooperation with the Dalai Lama and is said to support punishment for political dissent, and Jamyang, who was head of the committee during the chaotic, ultra-leftist Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976.

The report said the controversy over the Panchen Lama's reincarnation has led to protests and the detention of at least 48 people.

Monks in July disrupted a high-level meeting to denounce Abbot Rimpoche.

The next day, Gylatrual Rimpoche, another distinguished lama from the same monastery, was arrested.