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

NEW DELHI, Nov 29 (Reuter) - The Dalai Lama's office accused China on Wednesday of tampering with Tibet's religious affairs and rejected its choice of a six-year-old boy as the second holiest figure of the Tibetan community.

"We are totally outraged," Tashi Phuntsok, a spokesman for the exiled Dalai Lama's office in the Indian capital, told Reuters.

"They are politicising our religious matters. They have done this to whip up differences in the Buddhist community. We totally reject what China has done."

The communist Chinese government earlier announced "soul boy" Gyaincain Norbu from Tibet had been identified as the reincarnation of the late Panchen Lama.

Tibet's god-king, the Dalai Lama, announced in May his recognition of six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the boy who had received the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in January 1989.

The Buddhist spiritual leader has been living in exile in India's Himalayan town of Dharamsala since 1959 along with thousands of his followers after an abortive uprising against the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950.

Although Gedhun Choekyi Nyima emerged from a Beijing-sanctioned search by senior lamas and was expected to be approved by China, the Dalai Lama's unilateral move enraged China, which rejected his choice as void.

"In history, many have forces have tried to play the Panchen Lama against the Dalai Lama," Tashi Phuntsok said. "We have had experiences of such interference in religious affairs by China throughout."

Tashi Phuntsok said the relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama was one of a teacher and his disciple.

"It was the Dalai Lama's duty to receive the spirit of the Panchen Lama and to see that the child was brought up properly," he said.