Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Apr 21, 1996

BEIJING, April 18 (Reuter) - The children who were nearly chosen as the latest reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second-highest spiritual leader, are now living Buddhas, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

Tsering Wangdu and Ngawang Namdrol, both six years old when they were runners-up for Panchen Lama last year, had been chosen as reincarnations of other living Buddhas, it said.

Boys who were nearly selected as Panchen Lama or Dalai Lama enjoyed a high position in Tibet and were first in line if any other living Buddhas needed a reincarnation, Xinhua said.

Exiled Tibetans and the Chinese government clashed late last year over the selection of the new reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled god-king, announced his own choice of successor in May last year. But Beijing denounced his selection as invalid, saying the Dalai Lama's unilateral action violated a 200-year-old agreement under which China's government must approve all senior lamas.

Tibetan monks took five years to find the reincarnation of a 73-year-old living Buddha who died in January 1990, finally agreeing early this year on Ngawang Namdrol, who was now living in a temple and would be enthroned this year, Xinhua said.

Tsering Wangdu, already enthroned as a living Buddha, spent his days memorising Buddhist classics, studying Tibetan culture and playing, the report said.

China also announced on Thursday the unveiling of a monument to mark the completion of repair work on the Potala Palace, one of Tibet's holiest sites, in the capital Lhasa.

The repairs took five years and cost the government $6.4 million, Xinhua said.

China, dismissing Western concerns about human rights abuses, says life in Tibet has improved immeasurably since the People's Liberation Army marched into the region in 1950.