By Bhuchung K. Tsering* - New York, January 1996, (DEOLOG Magazine)

China's announcement of a rival Panchen Lama to the boy already recognized by the Dalai Lama, and the development leading to this are indications that its Communist regime is desperate in using any means possible to strengthen control over Tibet and Tibetan affairs. Thus, for the first time ever, an atheist government has, flouting all Marxist principles, become actively involved in a profound Tibetan religious process while denying that very authority to the Dalai Lama, the legitimate spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people.

The Panchen Lama is the highest Tibetan Buddhist leader to have remained back in Tibet after China's occupation of the country. The genesis of the present controversy goes back to January 28, 1989 when the 10th Panchen Lama passed away in the town of Shigatse in Tibet under mysterious circumstances. Many suspected the Chinese authorities of having poisoned the Panchen Lama for his forthrightness.

Be that as it may, the Panchen Lama's demise set into motion an ancient but traditional Tibetan religious process to find his reincarnation. As per tradition, the Dalai Lama from his headquarters in exile in Dharamsala, India, took the primary responsibility upon himself. He prepared to send a delegation of Tibetan monks and lamas to Tashi Lhunpo to conduct prayer ceremonies for the speedy return of the Panchen Lama's reincarnation as well as to visit the sacred Lhamo Lhatso, the lake near Lhasa in which visions are seen. However, the Chinese Government would not give permission for the delegation's visit.

Two years later, in 1991, when it was time to begin the search for the Panchen Lama's reincarnation, the Dalai Lama again prepared to send a delegation to Tibet to perform religious rites connected with the process. This would have included the investigation of all prospective candidates from within Tibet in person. However, the Chinese Government rejected this, too. Ultimately, the Dalai Lama gathered together names of around 20 boys, from Tibet as well as outside of Tibet, who displayed auspicious signs. Through a mystical process which included divination, reading of the dice and use of dough balls (names of shortlisted candidates are put in the dough balls. The balls would be placed in a bowl which would be rotated after a prayer ceremony. Whichever doughball comes out of the bowl would be opened to see the name of the boy.), the name of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima emerged. Addressing a gathering in Dharamsala in May 1995, the Dalai Lama said, "I was now convinced that this was the authentic reincarnation. So I

made the decision." On May 14, 1995, the Dalai Lama announced his recognition of the six-year-old boy from Lhari as the 11th Panchen Lama.

Choosing the reincarnation of senior Tibetan Buddhist lamas, including that of the Panchen Lama, has always been within the authority of the Dalai Lama, but since China's occupation of Tibet in 1959 the Chinese Government has been attempting to control all aspect of Tibetan life, including in the religious field. Soon after the Dalai Lama's announcement, Beijing detained Chadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of Tashi Lhunpo -- the monastery of the Panchen Lama -- suspecting him of colluding with the Dalai Lama. As Beijing was forcing some Lamas to denounce the Dalai Lama, monks of Tashi Lhunpo, the Panchen Lama's monastery, openly extended support to the Dalai Lama's choice. This put Beijing in a peculiar situation. As a result, Beijing publicly removed key leaders of Tashi Lhunpo monastery. In their place, pro-Chinese Tibetans were appointed. The young Panchen Lama and his parents subsequently disappeared, most probably held involuntarily somewhere in China.

Simultaneously, China began preparation for the announcement of a rival Panchen Lama. A meeting was held in Beijing in early November which announced a shortlist of three candidates. Three weeks later China selected Gyaltsen Norbu, coincidently a six-year-old boy from Lhari, as the rival Panchen Lama through the golden urn process (similar to the dough ball process followed by the Dalai Lama).

The announcement of a rival Panchen Lama is the first time ever that a Chinese government has directly assumed total control over the process of the recognition of a Tibetan lama's reincarnation. In the few occasions in the past where the Manchu and Mongol rulers of China were able to exercise some authority, their role was limited to the nominal "approval" of reincarnations already chosen by the concerned Tibetan authorities. In the case of the Manchu rulers, their personal belief in Tibetan Buddhism led to their involvement. The golden urn process was in fact set up by the Manchus as a means to eliminate fake candidates and not to denote any sovereignty over Tibet. In the case of the Nationalist Chinese, they did not involve themselves in the actual process of recognition of the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama and the 9th Panchen Lama, which took place during their control over China. Interestingly, the Nationalists Chinese who are now in Taiwan have opted not to be involved in the current Panchen Lam

a issue although, like Communist China, they too lay historical claim over Tibet.

The relationship between the institutions of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama began in the 17th century, during the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, had presented Tashi Lhunpo monastery to his tutor, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, who came to be known as the Panchen Lama, the great scholar. He was named the fourth Panchen Lama, his three predecessors in Tashi Lhunpo having been recognized as Panchen Lamas posthumously. Ever since, the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas have regarded each other as spiritual friends, often the elder of the two becoming the mentor of the other.

While the Dalai Lamas have assumed both the spiritual and secular authority over Tibet, the role of the Panchen Lamas have been restricted to the religious field. However, successive rulers of China, who have always set their eyes on Tibet, have attempted to use the Panchen Lama to undermine the Dalai Lama's authority. But the Panchen Lamas have been farsighted enough not to fall prey to these maneuvers. The 10th Panchen Lama put it clearly in 1986 when he was addressing Tibetans in Lhasa during a revived Tbetan religious ceremony, The Great Prayer Festival, "His Holiness the Dalai Lama and I are spiritual friends. Some people are trying to cause dissension and discord between us, and this will never succeed."

The 10th Panchen Lama has been an enigma for the Chinese authorities. Even while appearing willing to play the role the Chinese leaders want him to, some of his actions and utterances have been very critical of the Chinese rule in Tibet, and supportive of the Dalai Lama's efforts. Comments the Dalai Lama in his autobiography, Freedom in Exile, "... even though the Chinese used him as a puppet after releasing him from jail in 1978, he continued to oppose them until the end. Just before he died, he made a speech, reported by Xinhua, that was highly critical of the `many mistakes' made in Tibet by the Chinese authorities. It was a courageous last act." The Dalai Lama should know for during the last few years of the Panchen Lama they kept in close touch. The Dalai Lama was certain that "in his heart the Panchen Lama remained true to his religion, to his people and to his country." Therefore, notwithstanding their superficial praise of the Panchen Lama, the Chinese authorities did not know for sure where his loya

lty lay. Therefore, the suspicion that he had been poisoned is not without any basis.

The development concerning the Panchen Lama reveals that even after over 40 years of their occupation of Tibet, the Chinese authorities have not been able to understand Tibetan mentality. One of the first acts of the Chinese invaders in Tibet was to destroy Tibetan religious institutions and to persecute monks and nuns. They literally banned the institutions of the very many reincarnated lamas calling them a misfit in the new Communist society. It was only in the early Eighties that the Chinese authorities permitted the recognition of reincarnations, probably with the notion to use this to fulfill their political objectives. To Tibetans, China's interference in their religious life affected them equally, if not more, to its occupation of Tibet. A popular term for the Chinese invaders in Tibet is Tenda , meaning enemy of the faith. The 10th Panchen Lama put the case in a more subtle way when he, in October 1988, three months before his demise, called for an end to "traditional interference of religious activi

ties with administrative measures over the years." He said this was harming "the harmony of nationalities, as religions have close relations with minorities."

Without any recognition from the Dalai Lama the Chinese authorities would be hard put to it to put the stamp of legitimacy to their choice. Official Chinese documents acknowledge this. The late Panchen Lama, in an interview to China Reconstructs, in its January 1988 issue, said, " According to Tibetan tradition, the confirmation of either the Dalai (Lama) or the Panchen (Lama) must be mutually recognized." This is further confirmed by China's own historian Ya Hanzhang who, in his official biography of the Panchen Lamas (Biographies of the Tibetan Spiritual Leaders Panchen Erdenis, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing) said, "By Tibetan tradition a reincarnation of the Panchen (Lama) could not be religiously legal without the Dalai (Lama)'s recognition, and the same was the case with the Dalai (Lama)."

As long as the Tibetan people have faith in the Dalai Lama, they will not accept the Chinese-chosen Panchen Lama. The author of Religion in China Today, Donald E. MacInnis, recalls one official in Lhasa telling him, "All the people in Tibet are believers, including Tibetan cadres at every level." Also, the people of Tibet have repeatedly shown that they have not renounced their spiritual heritage, and that they are solidly behind the Dalai Lama. Soon after China's announcement of the rival Panchen Lama on November 29, 1995, a Reuters correspondent in Beijing reported a Tibetan factory worker in Lhasa as saying, " I am reluctant to believe in the state's (China's) selection. I believe in the Dalai Lama. I support the child chosen by the Dalai Lama."

Ultimately, as per Tibetan belief, a lama himself will reveal, as he grows up, whether he is a genuine reincarnation or not, and behave accordingly. The late Panchen Lama was a classic example of this. Even though he was in Chinese hands, a look at his life story reveals the scorn he had for Chinese rule in Tibet.

China may claim victory in this issue, and on the face of it they may have a case. After all they have managed to make the 11th Panchen Lama disappear and installed a rival one. However, beneath this superficial development, is an ominous sign for the Chinese leadership. Throughout the highly confidential process, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in India appeared to be aware of every steps the Chinese Government was intending to take, right from the convening of the secret meeting in Beijing to the date of the selection of the boy and his final installation. Obviously, Tibetans in influential position within Tibet and China , even while serving their Chinese masters, were keeping the Dalai Lama informed of developments.

The above is a dangerous portend to the Chinese Government which continues to claim that the people of Tibet have welcomed Chinese rule there. The reality seems to be that even after over three decades of control, the Chinese Government has not been able to win over the hearts and minds of the people of Tibet.

Some analysts of China believe that its interference in the Panchen Lama issue is a result of a sense of insecurity, an apparent lack of confidence in its control over Tibet. If that be the case, China's worries may, in fact, have begun, rather than ended, with the selection of a rival Panchen Lama. For, to the people of Tibet, as to followers of Tibetan Buddhism all over the world, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima will be the only Panchen Lama. The tension will continue for given China's current situation there cannot be any rule by incarnation, even Chinese style.

*Bhuchung K. Tsering is the Communications Director of the International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington-based organization which monitors and promotes human rights and democracy in Tibet. If you would like to know about ICT's activities please call (202) 785.1515 or Fax. (202) 785.4343.