Published by World Tibet Network News - Friday, December 1, 1995

By Seth Faison

BEIJING, Nov. 30, 1995 (N.Y. Times) - Battling the Dalai Lama for the soul of Tibet, Chinese authorities orchestrated an elaborate ceremony there Wednesday to designate their selection of a 6-year-old boy as the officially approved reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most important religious figure.

Conducted at dawn in the Johkang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, the ceremony combined ancient Tibetan ritual and modern Communist Party protocol and was broadcast on Chinese state television.

An elderly monk rubbed the lips of a sacred golden urn in a circular motion before reaching inside to select an ivory tile bearing the boy's name - Gyaincain Norbu - from three possible choices as the 11th Panchen Lama.

The selection was made only after a senior Chinese official, wearing a suit and tie among elderly lamas in blood-red robes and arching yellow hats, read a stern address to the assembled monks to remind them that religious decisions are only valid with the approval of China's government.

The boy, appearing in pajama-like garments of yellow silk, then performed his first official act by placing a ceremonial white scarf around the neck of the official, Luo Gan, who vigorously shook the boy's hand as though he were a fellow Communist dignitary.

The ceremony leaves Tibetans with rival 6-year-old Panchen Lamas, one blessed by the Dalai Lama and the other chosen by China's Communist Party, and further underscores the struggle over Tibet since Chinese troops invaded in 1950.

Exiled since 1959, the Dalai Lama has been unable to exert any direct control over Tibetans in their homeland. The Chinese government, after decades of repression, has taken to endorsing religious ceremonies that it long denounced as fradulent.

The six-year sequence of events leading to Wednesday's ceremony has been full of intrigue and recriminations, and fresh details emerged in a lengthy account by the official New China News Agency that was filled with odd historical references and intricate explanations of Tibetan ritual.

After the 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989 at the age of 50, a committee was formed by Beijing to find the reincarnation of his soul. Although the committee was widely suspected of being a puppet organization, it was headed by a respected Buddhist leader, Chatral Rinpoche.

From a field of 28 candidates, each born around the time of the Panchen Lama's death, the committee selected a boy. Chatral Rinpoche informed the Chinese authorities in February that this boy was the long-awaited reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, and everything looked set for his approval by Beijing.

But the authorities soon found out that the committee had also passed the boy's name, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, to the Dalai Lama, who had relayed his approval. Before any announcement was made, the authorities abandoned the boy and detained the head of the search committee, denouncing his actions Wednesday as "an out-and-out fraud."

Apparently concerned that Tibetan religious leaders were colluding with the Dalai Lama against the Chinese government, the authorities hurriedly reassembled the search committee and began planning to select a different boy.

Seeing that the first boy and Chatral Rinpoche were in trouble, the Dalai Lama announced in May from his exile in Dharamsala, India, that the new Panchen Lama had been found. Wednesday, he stood his ground, saying in a statement that "my recognition of the Panchen Lama's reincarnation cannot be changed."

But Beijing denounced the Dalai Lama's choice, even though the boy had been chosen by its own committee.

Robert Barnett of the Tibetan Information Network in London said the authorities conducted a purge of uncooperative lamas in Tashi Lhunpo monastery, traditionally the seat of the Panchen Lama's power, and detained 32 monks. The first boy selected and his family have also apparently been detained.

"The family backround of the reincarnated boy should be one of pious, honest and kind people," the New China News Agency said. "But the parents of the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama were notorious among their neighbors for speculation, deceit and scrambling for fame and profit."

Early this month, 75 senior Tibetan lamas and officials were summoned to Beijing for a series of meetings over four days to persuade them to go along with Beijing's new procedure for choosing a Panchen Lama. Many of the lamas apparently urged the authorities to stick to the original choice, but were overruled.

The New China News Agency report offered this conclusion: "All pious and Buddhist disciples and all honest and selfless people who adhere to the truth will firmly oppose the nomination of the boy named by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama."