Published by: World Tibet Network News,Saturday, December 23, 1995

From: artpk@HK.Super.NET (Peter Kedge)

"Eastern Express , Hong Kong, December 19, 1995"

A high-profile religious ceremony to select the reincarnation of the second most senior leader of Tibet's religious hierarchy was faked, according to reliable sources in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The ceremony to choose a rival candidate to the post of 11th Panchen Lama was reported by the official Chinese media as taking place on Nov. 29. In reality the ceremony was held days earlier than officially reported and video-taped for release, sources said.

Central government authorities ordered the change out of fear of disruption of the ceremony by dissident monks.

"They did not want anything to go wrong", a source said. " So they did it early" leaving time for a re-run in the event of disruptions during the politically charged event. The identification ceremony was conducted in Lhasa's Johkang temple, the holiest spot of Tibetan Buddhism. Johkang, in downtown Lhasa, was reportedly under tight control by the People's Armed Police (PAP) all through November, according to reports from witnesses in the Tibetan capital. Jittery PAP soldiers used rubber bullets on a crown on at least one occasion in mid-November, they said. Authorities were determined to prevent disruption of the ceremony, wary of any delay to the enthronement of their chosen candidate for the second highest religious post in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The selection of the government's candidate, Gyaincain Norbu, 6, was rapidly followed by his enthronement on December 9, an auspicious day in the Tibetan calendar. Delay in the selection ceremony would have postponed the enthronement until another auspicious day and run the risk of instability in Lhasa.

Lhasa, seat of the Dalai Lama's monastery, the Potala Palace, is generally thought to be more anti-China than many other parts of Tibet. The later ceremony to enthrone the boy held in Shigatse - seat of his monastery, the Tashilhunpo - was not pre-recorded, sources said. This was because the arrest of nearly 50 monks in Tashilhunpo over the summer had cleaned the monastery of opposition.

The abbot of Tashilhunpo, Chadrel Rinpoche, and his assistant were detained in May. The selection of the boy was a direct challenge to the Dalai Lama who named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, 6, as the reincarnation of the lama on May 14, provoking a stream of repudiation from China. The selection of a government candidate for the position pushed deeply strained relations between the Beijing and the exiled Dalai Lama to breaking point. The 10th Panchen Lama was the most senior official to remain in Tibet after the Dalai Lama fled to India in the wake of the failed 1959 uprising. The short interval between the selection and enthronement of the boy - as few as 12 days, or 10 days, according to the official account - was highly unusual, an observer familiar with the process said. An interval of one year would be common as there is "no great hurry" another observer said.

Rushing the process betrayed a high degree of nervousness on the part of the authority, observers said. A similar pre-recording of a highly sensitive even occurred four years ago on the 40th anniversary of the signing of the 17-Point Agreement, the agreement which marked the incorporation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China.

At least some of the Tibetans who signed the 17-Point Agreement in Beijing later claimed they had done so under duress.