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

BEIJING Nov 29 (AP) -- With Chinese leaders watching, Tibetan monks conducted an obscure ritual today to choose Tibet's second-highest spiritual leader in a direct challenge to the Dalai Lama.

China and its supporters in Tibet are trying to strengthen Chinese rule over the restive Himalayan region by naming 6-year-old Gyaincain Norbu as the new Panchen Lama.

The last Panchen Lama, who died six years ago, was the most powerful religious leader to stay in Tibet after the Dalai Lama, the supreme spiritual leader of Tibetans, fled into exile in 1959.

In May, the Dalai Lama recognized another 6-year-old as the Panchen Lama. China denounced the Dalai Lama, purged monks believed to be collaborating with him and set up a new search committee.

The Dalai Lama's candidate, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was last seen in July and is believed to have been held until recently at a guest house in Beijing, according to observers of Tibet and exiled Tibetans.

Officials at China's Cabinet, the State Council, and in Tibet refused Wednesday to answer telephone queries on the child's whereabouts.

"Ordinary Tibetans are very concerned for the welfare of this child, but I'm sure the Chinese won't show him in public," said Robert Barnett of the Tibet Information Network, a monitoring group based in London. "They will think he's the Panchen Lama."

"It's a truly medieval situation," Barnett said. "We have a highly qualified candidate with the official endorsement, and then they have a pretender."

"This is a formula for unrest."

Tibetans believe that enlightened monks can will their own reincarnations. Those reincarnated lamas became powerful political figures in theocratic Tibet, and the choice of their successors often became high-stakes political battles.

After repudiating the Dalai Lama's choice, Chinese leaders turned to a ceremony approved by China's Qian Long Emperor in 1792 for choosing the Panchen Lama.

That ritual confirmed Gyaincain Norbu from northeastern Tibet as the new Panchen Lama, the 11th reincarnation of the Buddha Amitabha, state-run media reported.

In the dawn ceremony in Tibet's holiest shrine, the Johkang Temple in the capital Lhasa, an ivory stick bearing the boy's name was drawn from a golden urn holding strips bearing two rivals' names.

The ceremony, presided over by a member of China's Cabinet and its top official in Tibet, was held "strictly in accordance with the rituals of Tibetan Buddhism," the Xinhua News Agency said.

Chinese TV, in its noon newscast, showed the usually dark temple gleaming from the light of butter lamps and television cameras. Rows of dour monks in burgundy robes watched the proceedings.

The Chinese are unlikely to receive the blessing of the Dalai Lama, who traditionally recognizes Tibet's spiritual leaders.

Jampal Chosang, secretary of the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala, India, said China had turned the selection into a political issue.

The Communist Party newspaper, People's Daily, accused the Dalai Lama of the same thing, saying he "attempted to negate China's sovereignty over Tibet and cause disturbances in Tibet."