from: Tibet Information Network, 30 November, 1995

The Chinese authorities have announced the name of the child selected by them as the 11th Panchen Lama after an elaborate ceremony staged in the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, before dawn local time Wednesday 29th November.

Gyaltsen Norbu, a six year old child from Lhari, in Nagchu, north-eastern Tibet, was declared by the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government to be the new Panchen Lama after the child's name was drawn from an 18th Century golden urn by a senior Tibetan lama in a ceremony "held strictly according to the religious rituals of Tibetan Buddhism", according to the Chinese authorities.

The Dalai Lama, who identified another six year old boy from the same area as the correct reincarnation of 10th Panchen Lama in May this year, described the Chinese action as "unfortunate" and said from exile in Northern India that he had already followed all the necessary procedures. "Therefore my recognition of the 11th Panchen Lama reincarnation cannot be changed", he said.

The procedure brings to a head a long campaign against the Dalai Lama's decision by the Chinese authorities, who only announced on November 12th, after six months of apparent indecision, that they would go as far as appointing a rival claimant. Yesterday's ceremony is likely to provoke conflict and creates a unique situation in Tibetan history, which has never before seen two rival Panchen Lamas.

- Confrontation -

Chinese anger at the Dalai Lama's prior identification of the Panchen Lama reflects Beijing's sensitivity about its claim to historic sovereignty over Tibet, which largely rests on whether Chinese emperors had the right to appoint Tibetan leaders in previous centuries. But Beijing could have made the same point without generating conflict in Tibet, by using the ceremony simply to confirm the child named by the Dalai Lama, a procedure which was used throughout the Qing dynasty and which Beijing itself followed in a similar case three years ago after the Dalai Lama confirmed the reincarnation of the Karmapa, the head of the Karma Kagyu or Red-hat school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Reasons for the Chinese decision to opt for confrontation are believed to relate to political shifts in the Beijing elite. According to a view favoured by some western commentators, leadership uncertainties are placing pressure on possible successors to show firmness and resolve, a trend which is said to be mirrored in current displays of military force towards Taiwan.

Other commentators say that during the leadership struggle Tibet policy is being handled by officials in the Party, even in its specialist United Front department, who are less versed in the complexities of Tibetan history or who have no interest in long-term policies of concession and co-option which prevailed since the early 1980s.

Others view the Panchen Lama dispute as a key part of a Chinese attempt to eradicate decisively the influence of the Dalai Lama from Tibetan affairs. This policy, which emerged abruptly in August 1993, is identified by some sources with China's premier Li Peng, who returned from a spell in hospital that month. During his absence in July 1993 China had received a top-level exile delegation for talks in Beijing for the first time in a decade and allowed lamas for the first and only time to ask the Dalai Lama openly for help in the Panchen Lama search. Since August that year relations between the two sides have been frozen and the Chinese media has been making open comments about waiting for the Dalai Lama, now aged 60, to die.

- Dispute Procedure: Dog Drowned -

A double irony emerged within hours of the ceremony when the official Chinese news agency, citing the Tashilhunpo monastery committee, issued a strong denunciation of the child recognised by the Dalai Lama. The statement, which said the boy had "once drowned a dog" and described his parents as "notorious for speculation, deceit and scrambling fame and profit", declared that the family's attempt to "cheat the Buddha would not be allowed by all ordinary pious Tibetans". The denunciation seems to have been a retrospective attempt to justify holding the golden urn ceremony by insisting that there are religious grounds for disputing the child already recognised. The device, however, implicitly supports Tibetan claims that the Chinese ceremony was only used when there was a disputed candidature.

Xinhua's moralistic attack on the child could backfire, since Tibetans often regard bad behaviour by child candidates as a sign that they are reincarnations of high lamas, and consider rebirth in a corrupt or lowly placed family to be a sign of compassion by the former lama.

- Ceremonial Details -

The Chinese authorities kept the date of the ceremony secret, presumably to avoid disturbances, and possibly for similar reasons performed a second ceremony, of cutting the child's hair and apprenticing him to a teacher, immediately after the lottery. The hair-cutting ceremony, which is considered of great religious importance, is often performed separately.

Much of the delay faced by the Chinese authorities in completing their selection process is believed to have been caused by the reluctance of appropriate high ranking lamas to participate. The lama who officiated at the ceremony was the little known Bomi (Tibetan: 'brog-mi) Champa Lodrub, widely respected in Lhasa for his learning and religious piety, but low in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Bomi Rinpoche, as he is called by Tibetans, was also announced yesterday as the child's teacher, a role of major importance.

To compensate for his lack of authority, the Chinese declared yesterday in a skilful move that Bomi Rinpoche is the acting Ganden Tripa, the highest position within the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Until now the Chinese authorities had refused to allow Bomi Rinpoche to take up this post, to which he was secretly elected by other lamas in 1988, apparently because the title implies deference to a senior lama who lives in exile.

The 77 year old lama's decision to carry out the ceremony, which implicitly contradicts the authority of the Dalai Lama, could bring him into disrepute amongst many Tibetans, but he probably undertook the task to make sure the child has a chance of receiving some high quality Tibetan education. The Dalai Lama said in a statement yesterday that the lamas involved in the event had been "coerced" to take part.

The overnight promotion of Bomi Rimpoche meant that the Chinese did not have to use Dedrul Rimpoche, who it is now known officiated at a secret rehearsal of the lottery ceremony three months ago. Dedrul Rimpoche, a senior lama holding the rank of "inner Hutuktu", the successor of a former regent of Tibet and himself a former candidate for the Dalai Lama, is of sufficiently high status to hold the ceremony and enjoys religious esteem but has been regarded with deep distrust by Lhasa Tibetans, particularly in Drepung monastery, since he publicly denounced pro-independence demonstrators in 1988.

The day-long rehearsal of the Golden Urn ceremony was held in mid-August in the Jokhang Temple and filmed by Chinese television crews. The footage has never been shown, leading to speculation that it was held in reserve in case of any difficulties in filming the final ceremony.

The design of yesterday's event presented the ceremony as a Tibetan religious tradition by holding it in the Jokhang, Tibet's holiest temple, but in fact the ceremony has never been performed there, except for some junior incarnations. The lottery system was used to select Dalai and Panchen Lamas five times between 1822 and 1888 and was a largely political exercise held inside the Dalai Lama's Palace.

In an apparent attempt to make the procedure look more like a Tibetan practice the authorities arranged for Bomi Rinpoche not just to officiate at the ceremony but to draw the final lot from the golden urn with his own hands, apparently a last-minute Chinese effort to distance themselves from the public stages of the selection process. Although senior lamas had to be in attendance, the selection of the lots has never been done at this level by a Tibetan. In the past the winning lot was drawn by a Chinese official using ivory chopsticks.

The Chinese authorities were represented at the ceremony by Luo Gan, Secretary-General of the State Council and a close associate of Li Peng, and by Ye Xiaowen from the Government's Religious Affairs Bureau. Their presence re-affirmed the usual Chinese practice of fielding government officials at such events, a convention which has appeared to have been in disarray in recent weeks, during which activity on the succession issue has been dominated by Party officials in an apparent show of strength.

The Tibet Autonomous Region administration was represented by its Governor Gyaltsen Norbu, who was promoted for the occasion to the rank of "Special Commissioner of the State Council", a previously unknown title which mimics the term used for imperial representatives in Tibet, the last of whom was expelled by the Tibetans in 1911. The term suggests that Beijing now sees the TAR Government as maintaining the traditional role of Beijing's Imperial Commissioner in Tibet rather than that of the former local Tibetan government, a development in keeping with the current trend to run Tibet policy directly from Beijing.

The three officials, all believed to be Party members and therefore atheists, sat on chairs instead of on the floor and wore their shoes inside the Temple, apparently to emphasise their status. China pays great attention to such details, and rests much of its claim to have ruled Tibet on the number of cushions on which their representative sat in the last such ceremony, the 1940 enthronement of the current Dalai Lama.

The Tashilhunpo monastery was represented at the ceremony by Lama Tsering, the newly appointed leader of its management committee, but there was no reference to Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen, the nominal head of the monastery and rumoured to have been a prime mover in the deposing of the Dalai Lama's candidate. ---end---