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Despite repeated requests by United Nations bodies and concerned governments, China has refused to provide any verifiable information on Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, or to allow independent observers to see the boy and his parents and to confirm that they are alive and well.

The Search for the 11th Panchen Lama

Unlike the Dalai Lama, the 10th Panchen Lama remained in Tibet after the 1959 Uprising. After his death in 1989, the Chinese Government appointed a search party to look for his reincarnation. Beijing laid down regulations which said that the search party could follow traditional methods for discovering the child, as long as he was found inside “China’s territory” and the Chinese Government was allowed final approval.

The search party was headed by Chadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of Tashilunpho monastery. Located in Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city, Tashilunpho is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas. Chadrel Rinpoche would have been well aware that Tibetans would not accept a child as Panchen Lama who had not been recognised by the Dalai Lama. His aim therefore appears to have been to get both China and the Dalai Lama to agree on the same child as the reincarnation in order to avoid future disputes. His decision to cooperate with the Dalai Lama was originally endorsed by the Chinese authorities, who in July 1993 allowed him to publicly hand over a letter to envoys of the Dalai Lama asking for his assistance in the search for the reincarnation.

However, the Chinese authorities later changed their policy on religious contact with the Dalai Lama and in July 1994 ruled that “we must reveal the true political face of the Dalai hidden behind the religious mask”. Chadrel was later accused by Chinese authorities of having sent the Dalai Lama a letter in December 1994 which named 25 Tibetan boys identified by the official search team as candidates for the reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama’s Announcement

On May 14, 1995, the Dalai Lama made the following announcement: “I have recognised Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, born on April 25, 1989, who father is Konchok Phuntsog, and mother Dechen Chodon, of Lhari district in Nagchu, Tibet, as the true reincarnation of Panchen Rinpoche.” The Dalai Lama said that he had carried out all the necessary religious procedures for the recognition. He said that the Panchen Lama’s reincarnation was a religious rather than a political matter, and that he hoped that the Chinese Government would cooperate with the Tashilhunpo monastery in enabling the child to receive proper religious training and to take up his spiritual responsibilities.

Negative Chinese Reaction

China reacted quickly and negatively to the Dalai Lama’s announcement, declaring his actions “totally illegal and invalid”. By May 17, Chadrel Rinpoche had been detained for questioning, and there were unconfirmed reports that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima had been removed by the authorities to Beijing. Tashilhunpo monastery was closed to visitors, with Chinese Communist Party moving in to run re-education sessions in which the monks were required to criticise Chadrel Rinpoche.

In July, when the Tashilhunpo monks were still resisting and threatening to stage a protest demonstration, riot police entered the monastery, and tourists were expelled from Shigatse itself. By September, 48 people had been arrested in connection with the Panchen Lama dispute. New, hardline leaders were installed in Tashilhunpo monastery.

China Announces its own Panchen Lama

On November 29, 1995, China announced that another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, had been recognised as the 11th Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama described the Chinese action as “unfortunate” and said that his own decision could not be changed, since he had already followed all the necessary procedures. Within hours, the official Chinese news agency had issued a denunciation of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, saying that the boy had “once drowned a dog” and describing his parents as “notorious for speculation, deceit and scrambling fame and profit”. The statement declared that the family’s attempt to “cheat the Buddha would not be allowed by all ordinary pious Tibetans”.

China Admits Holding Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

On May 28, 1996, China finally admitted that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents were being held in custody. “He has been put under the protection of the government at the request of his parents,” China’s Ambassador to the UN told experts who asked China to allow a UN representative to visit the child. The Ambassador did not say where the child was being held.

The official Chinese news agency reported in its account of the UN meeting that “the Chinese ambassador said the boy, who has not been seen in public for more than a year, was in good condition and was living with his parents. The boy was at risk of being kidnapped by Tibetan separatists and his security had been threatened”.

In 1997, two Western delegations to Tibet were given conflicting information about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima’s whereabouts. The vice-governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region Yang Chuantang told an official Austrian delegation that the boy was living in the village of Lhari, which is his birthplace. However, a delegation of American religious leaders were told that he was in Beijing, as previous unconfirmed reports had indicated.

Photos?

In an effort to maintain the sham that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is healthy and happy and being kept incommunicado at his family’s own request, the Chinese Government has shown two allegedly current photos of the boy to human rights delegations from the UK and the European Union.

However, the delegations did not ask to keep copies of the photos. China also turned down a request by British officials to allow an independent international figure acceptable both to Beijing and the Dalai Lama to visit Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.

Since the disappearance of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Chinese Government has refused repeated requests by governments, United Nations bodies and concerned community-based organisations for independent access to the boy, claiming he was leading a normal life and that his parents didn’t wish for him to be disturbed.

Arrests Now Total Over 80

More than 80 people have been arrested in connection with the Panchen Lama reincarnation issue. They include Chadrel Rinpoche, who was sentenced in April 1997 to six years imprisonment and an additional three years deprivation of political rights on charges of “conspiring to split the country” and “leaking state secrets”. He is believed to be imprisoned in a top-secret cell in Chuandong No.3 Prison in Dazu County in Sichuan province.

Putting Pressure on China

Tibet support groups have regularly raised the Panchen Lama issue with China directly, with their own governments and before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Commission for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, the responsibility of the international community continues to increase as the situation in Tibet deteriorates. China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has been engaged in the illegal abduction of a child. It is absolutely imperative that UN bodies and international governments pressure China for the safe release of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.