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

BEIJING, Nov. 30, 1995 (Reuter) - Tibetans have defied a curfew to demonstrate against Beijing's choice of the reincarnation of a senior lama, the Dalai Lama's government in exile said Thursday.

"Despite the imposition of a curfew, Tibetans in the three major cities of Lhasa, Shigatse and Chamdo staged sporadic demonstrations to protest this latest affront to the religious sentiments of the Tibetan people," it said in a statement, citing reports from the Himalayan region.

There was no independent corroboration of the reports. Western correspondents are rarely allowed into Tibet and were denied permission to cover the controversial Buddhist succession.

The statement was sent by fax from the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, home of Tibetan Buddhism's exiled god-king, who fled Tibet after an abortive anti-Chinese uprising in 1959.

On Wednesday, Chinese officials presided over the selection of 6-year-old Gyaincain Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second-holiest figure in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy.

The Dalai Lama had unilaterally announced his own choice in May, naming Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, also 6.

As part of a media blitz to publicize the China-sanctioned boy and blacken the Dalai Lama, state television Thursday quoted residents of Lhasa, including monks and religious figures, as praising Beijing's choice.

The Dalai Lama's statement presented a different picture.

"Wallposters on the street walls of Lhasa and Shigatse are appearing with increasing frequency denouncing the Chinese imposition of a rival Panchen Lama on the Tibetan people," it said.

Chinese authorities have responded by imposing a curfew in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and Shigatse, traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, heightening military alertness and unleashing harsh rhetoric reminiscent of the chaotic days of the radical leftist Cultural Revolution, it added.

The statement said both parents of the boy chosen by Beijing were Nagchu district officials and Communist Party members. To enter the party, a person must be an atheist, it said.

China asserted sovereignty over Tibet after its 1949 Communist takeover, sending troops to purge Tibetan "feudalism" and install socialism.

The Dalai Lama said he would stand by the "soul boy" he named as recipient of the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in January 1989.

China maintains it has the final say over senior lamas under a 1792 agreement with the imperial Qing dynasty. Tibetan exiles dispute this, saying the pact was set not with China but with occupying Manchus who were toppled in 1911.

The Dalai Lama has appealed to governments, religious and human rights groups to intervene to ensure the safety and freedom of the boy he recognized.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the boy was not missing or in custody, as alleged by the Dalai Lama, but at home.

"He should be where he was born," the spokesman said.

In another development, authorities in the central Chinese city of Xian seized pirated CD ROMs of the movie "Little Buddha" during a recent raid, a police spokesman said.

"Little Buddha," by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, tells the story of an American boy sought as a reincarnation of a Tibetan lama.

China has banned the movie because it promoted the idea of splitting Tibet from China, the official Legal Daily said.

Police and officials in Xian raided wholesalers Nov. 1 and found 11 stores illegally selling pirated copies of the movie and pornographic audio-visual products, the newspaper said.

About 2,200 copies of banned or pirated audio-visual products were seized, it said.