The World's Youngest Political Prisoner - Tibet's Dalai Lama contends that China is holding prisoner a holy man

Humanist, March, 1999 by Richard Klein

Every participant at an international human rights conference last June received a small pamphlet published by Tibetan supporters of Tibetan Buddhism's highest-ranking figure, the Dalai Lama. Entitled "The World's Youngest Political Prisoner," the pamphlet makes a plea for support for a young boy, now nine years old, who the Chinese government has allegedly kidnapped and detained. The Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile for forty years, claims the boy is the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second holiest individual in Tibetan Buddhism.

The conference took place in Dharamsala, India, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan Government-in-Exile. The story surrounding the selection of the Panchen Lama is a fascinating one--full of political intrigue, mystical ritual omens, visions, chants, dreams, divinations, and claims by the People's Republic of China (PRC) that it is more "religiously correct" and faithful to Tibetan Buddhism than is the Dalai Lama.

The Panchen Lama--or "Great Scholar"--is believed to be the manifestation of Buddha Amitabha, dating back to the sixteenth century. The concept of the reincarnation of a lama--where the soul of a dead lama is thought to have taken on the physical being of a newly born individual--is uniquely Tibetan. Lamas are deemed to be on the threshold of enlightenment yet have postponed the final stage of nirvana (which would end the cycle of earthly rebirths) in order to be of assistance to the Tibetan people. Whereas, before his retreat, the Dalai Lama had historically been the sovereign ruler of Tibet, concerned with secular as well as spiritual matters, the Panchen Lama's focus has been exclusively spiritual and he is believed by some to be spiritually superior to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai is thought to be the reincarnation of the Buddha's body; the Panchen represents the Buddha's mind.

The tenth Panchen Lama died in 1989 under "mysterious" circumstances. (There are frequent hints by the supporters of the Dalai Lama that the Chinese government had, in fact, poisoned the Panchen.) The potential impact of who would be named as the possessor of the reincarnated soul and therefore pronounced the eleventh Panchen Lama was immediately clear. The Panchen has historically played a critical role in the naming of the Dalai and, if the Chinese government controlled the eleventh Panchen, then it would have control over the choice of the next Dalai. And if the next Dalai were to endorse Chinese sovereignty over the people of Tibet, it would be a huge victory for the PRC. Perhaps only with the support of the Dalai Lama can the PRC attain the legitimacy in Tibet that it requires.

The communist, nonreligious PRC therefore decided, after the death of the tenth Panchen Lama, that it would commence a process, following religious tradition, to find the body in which the soul of the Panchen had lodged. The same country that had previously prohibited monasteries from engaging in the "feudal" and "reactionary" process of searching for the reincarnation of the lamas who had led their monasteries was now professing to be the expert in, and proponent of, the ritualistic search for a reborn high lama.

The Chinese government designated Chadrel Rinpoche, the senior abbot in the Tashilunpo monastery, the headquarters of the Panchen Lamas located 120 miles west of the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa, to begin the search. Some monks set out across mountainous Tibet, while others stayed above Lake Lhamo Latso, where it was believed the dead Panchen would be sending helpful information. According to Tibetan tradition, the Panchen Lama's spirit seeks out the body in which to be reborn and formulates symbols and signs to aid in discovering the reincarnation.

The monks stared at the lake using binoculars to scan for auspicious signs while chanting Buddhist mantras and conducting rituals with conch shells. After each visit to the lake, the monks returned to the embalmed Panchen Lama in the monastery to recite more prayers. (The state of death does not preclude an embalmed lama from being of assistance. For example, in the 1930s, when the reincarnation of the thirteenth Dalai Lama was sought, those assigned the task of beginning the search needed to know in which direction to begin. Purportedly, the body of the dead Dalai turned twice toward the east. The subsequent easterly search revealed in 1939 the boy who the world now recognizes as the current Dalai Lama.)

The initial stage of the Chinese government's search for the Panchen Lama led to twenty-eight possible candidates. Each candidate was then tested to see if he could identify objects, especially religious paraphernalia, that had been in the possession of previous Panchen Lamas. What the government didn't know was that its trusted Rinpoche had sent the names of the candidates to the Dalai Lama--a most horrid betrayal. The Chinese officials' trust of Rinpoche was more than just an act of faith; he had proven himself. In 1993, he informed on five monks who he had seen reading the outlawed autobiography of the Dalai Lama and who had also, according to Rinpoche, listened to the Voice of America; the monks were all subsequently arrested. Shortly thereafter, Rinpoche was presented an award by the Chinese government for shaping the Tashilunpo monastery into a "Resplendent Model of Safeguarding the Unification of the Motherland by Displaying the Spirit of Patriotism."