By Jane Macartney

BEIJING, 2 Feb (Reuter) - The seven-year-old reincarnation of Tibet's second holiest Living Buddha, selected by China, spends his days memorizing Buddhist sutras, playing soccer or learning to use his computer, state media said Sunday.

But the Beijing Review magazine, in a cover story report on the life of Gyaincain Norbu, reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, gave no hint as to the mystery over whether the boy lives in his Himalayan homeland or under the watchful eye of China's leaders in Beijing.

The boy, who was selected under Chinese auspices, is regarded by many Tibetans as a pretender to the spiritual mantle of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, spending most of his time in Beijing.

Chinese sources have said he lives in the capital under state protection against possible assassination attempts by radical Tibetans.

Tibet's spiritual leader, the exiled Dalai Lama, has named another boy as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama. His choice has disappeared but China says he is well.

The 11th Panchen Lama made his debut as a religious leader on the first anniversary of his recognition on Nov. 22 when he led Tibetan lamas in reciting scriptures in a ceremony at the Yonghe Lamasery in Beijing and then gave a lecture, the Beijing Review said.

His teachers, a monk from Tibet's Ganden monastery and an elerly lama from the Tashilunpo monastery that is the Panchen Lama's seat, have set up a rigorous schedule of discipline and study for the child, it said.

When he is in Tibet, he rises at 6.30 a.m. earlier in the summer and after brushing his teeth does exercises and plays in the monastery courtyards, Beijing Review said.

At 7.00 a.m., it is time for half an hour of chanting sutras followed by a typical Tibetan breakfast of yak butter, tsampa roast barley flour and milk cakes. Local farmers send him gifts of fresh yak butter and his parents send him milk cakes.

Study of the Buddhist sutras resumes at 8.15 a.m., then lunch of barley flour, noodles, meat and rice, it said.

Since leaving his mother's cooking at the family's rural home, the little living Buddha has had to adjust to eating vegetables, regarded as animal feed among Tibetan herders who live mainly on meat, it said. He was now eating more vegetables.

He takes a nap until 3.00 p.m. when he begins another 2{ hours of study.

``At this age, he has an excellent memory,'' his teacher Living Buddha Migmar Shidar told Beijing Review. ``So we keep him on a tight schedule and he's progressing faster than we expected.''

The highlight of his day comes at 5.30 p.m. when the 11th Panchen Lama is freed from the classroom and rushes out to play soccer, cycle along the courtyard paths or play hide-and-seek with other boys, it said.

After dinner at 7.00 p.m. come more studies, with Tibetan four nights a week, one night of Chinese and one of mathematics. He also plays with a computer he was given recently.

At weekends he is allowed to watch television, and cartoons are his favorite.

``The 11th Panchen Lama is, after all, living in the 1990s,'' the Beijing Review said. ``He feels the pulse of the time.''

Bedtime is at 9.30 p.m., when he goes to sleep after a glass of sour milk.

Sundays are a holiday.