BEIJING, Nov 30 (AFP) - The boy chosen by Beijing as the "reincarnation" of Tibetan Buddhism's second highest figure, the Panchen Lama, "is growing up well," China's official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.

The boy "has won the sincere support of Tibetans as a result of his rapid progress in Buddhist studies and his extraordinary wisdom and serenity," Xinhua quoted "a senior Tibetan monk" as saying.

It said Sengqen Losang Gyaincain, honorary director of the Democratic Management Committee of the Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery, believed the Panchen Lama's development could be attributed to China's communist party.

"The healthy growth of the 11th Panchen Lama is a result of the correct implementation of the Party's religious policies," he was quoted as saying Friday, on the first anniversary of the boy's selection.

Sengqen, who is also the vice director of the Beijing-appointed Regional People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said the boy's aides "have been able to finish our work, despite all the disturbance and sabotage from the Dalai Lama clique."

The selection of six year old Panchen Erdini as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama is disputed by Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. He had chosen another boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who is currently "under protection" by the Chinese authorities.

The tenth Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, had refused to follow the Dalai Lama into exile following an anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet in 1959.

However, a 15-year incarceration awaited the Panchen Lama, who later went on to denounce repression unleashed by the Chinese in Tibet.

Beijing has recently tightened control over religious activity in Tibet, banning the display of the Dalai Lama's pictures in monasteries. It has launched a campaign for "education in patriotism" among monks and nuns.