Published by World Tibet Network News - Wednesday, November 29, 1995

BEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuter) - A representative of the anti-Beijing Tibetan government-in-exile on Wednesday assailed China for naming what she called a "pretender Panchen Lama" to rival a "soul boy" already named by the exiled Dalai Lama.

The Panchen Lama ranks as the second-holiest in Tibetan Buddhism's hierarchy after the Dalai Lama.

"This clearly indicates there is no freedom of religion in Tibet," Kesang Takla told Reuters by telephone from London.

"What the Chinese have done is totally out of line with the religious process we believe in," the Tibetan activist said.

China said earlier that Tibetan monks and Communist Party officials had witnessed the selection of the Panchen Lama's 11th incarnation at a dawn ceremony in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

The Dalai Lama announced in May his recognition of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, 6, as the recipient of the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in January 1989.

The selection of Gyaincain Norbu, also aged 6, in a drawing of lots from a golden urn, leaves Tibet with two Panchen Lamas - one blessed by Tibetan Buddhism's god-king and one sanctioned by the atheist Chinese Communist government.

"This is very amazing since they (China's Communists) don't believe in religion in the first place," Kesang Takla said.

"The Chinese controlling Tibet have the power to do what they like, but for the Tibetans this is not acceptable.

"We already have a Panchen Lama appointed and recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama," she said.

"The selection is something very sacred and religious. For the Chinese government to have interfered in a process that is religious and something in which they themselves do not even believe is not acceptable to the Tibetan people," she said.

Kesang Takla also voiced concern for the boy selected by the Dalai Lama. Chinese authorities are believed to have taken the boy and his family out of Tibet.

"It will be interesting to see what happens to the boy," she said. "If he has been rejected by China as a candidate, he obviously should be given his freedom."

Reaction in the Tibetan capital was mixed. "Lhasa is placid on the outside, but its heart is not at ease," a Tibetan worker at a Lhasa cement factory said by telephone.

"I am reluctant to believe in the state's selection. I believe in the Dalai Lama. I support the child chosen by the Dalai Lama," the worker said.

A worker at Lhasa's Potala Palace, a sacred Buddhist shrine, said he was resigned to China's choice.

"Whoever the central authorities announce, that's the choice. Of course I support it," he said.

At Lhasa's Xinhua Bookstore, a Tibetan clerk said that as a Communist Party member he could only respect Buddhism, not practice it, and that Beijing's choice was valid.

"This is the only legal reincarnation," he said. A Tibetan at the Chinese-controlled Tibet Daily refused to give his opinion. "Ask someone else," he said curtly.