By Paul Eckert

BEIJING, March 9 (Reuter) - The six-year-old boy named by China as the reincarnation of Tibet's second-holiest monk performed his first religious duty on Saturday, the eve of an emotive anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

The boy, Gyaincain Norbu, named last year as the 11th Panchen Lama, "received religious homage paid by the mother of the 10th Panchen Lama, as well as senior lamas, living buddhas of the Tibetan Buddhism, and a great number of believers," China's official Xinhua news agency said.

"The 11th Panchen Lama arrived at the Xihuang Monastery amid deafening sounds of religious trumpets and drums. The lamas also burned joss sticks and chanted Buddhist scriptures to welcome him," it said.

The colourful ceremony in Beijing took place on the eve of the 37th anniversary of an abortive Tibetan uprising against China, which annexed Tibet in 1950.

The anniversary of the 1959 uprising has since 1987 been marked by often violent pro-independence protests in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and China has jailed many monks and nuns who have spearheaded the independence movement.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled god-king and the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, marked the key date with praise for Taiwan's democratisation - under fire from Chinese war games - and prayers for a peaceful transition to democracy in China.

"As a human being, it is my sincere desire that our Chinese brothers and sisters enjoy freedom, democracy, prosperity and stability," he said adding that as a Buddhist monk, he hoped for peaceful change in China.

Beijing's policies toward Tibet and other regions was hardening, he said in a statement from Dharamsala, the northern Indian town where he has lived among some 100,000 Tibetan refugees he since fled Chinese rule in 1959.

"This is reflected in an increasingly aggressive posture towards the peoples of Taiwan and Hong Kong and intensified repression in Tibet," he said.

The young Panchen Lama was identified as the recipient of the spirit of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, in a ceremony presided over by the Communist Party in December.

The enthronement by atheist China provoked controversy because it superseded the announcement of a different reincarnation by the Dalai Lama, whose calls for greater Tibetan autonomy Beijing condemns as attempts to split China.

State media heaped abuse this week on the Dalai Lama, calling him "a political exile who works to split the motherland under the cloak of religion."

Senior Tibet government officials on Friday said Beijing's anointed Panchen Lama had won the approval of Tibetan clergy and was contributing to stability in his homeland.

"Both clergy and laypersons in Tibet are satisfied with the reincarnation," said Raidi, chairman of the standing committee of parliament in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

"Tibet enjoys social stability and economic development and Tibetan people are content with their work and life" -- thanks in part to the smooth reincarnation arranged by China, he said.

REUTER