The Panchen Lama, Age 6, Captured by China



BANGKOK, Thailand -- The U.S. government's media and a Dalai

Lama-supported campaign to liberate Tibetan political prisoners have

published two portraits of what the Panchen Lama's face could now look

like on his 30th birthday and are demanding to know his fate after

China took him into custody when he was six years old.

"Despite China's sporadic claims that he was attending school and

leading a normal life, no one has seen or heard from the 11th Panchen

Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima since May 17, 1995, the day Beijing took him

away as a six-year-old boy and rendered him disappeared ever since,"

said the Tibetan Bulletin published by Tibet's India-based

government-in-exile which also represents the Dalai Lama.

Mr. Nyima was born in Chinese-controlled Tibet on April 25, 1989.

If alive, the now 30-year-old man would be the second-most prominent

religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism, a position endorsed by the top

religious leader, the Dalai Lama.

"The panchen lamas and the dalai lamas play a significant role in the

recognition of each other's reincarnation when they are in a position

to do so, although it is neither mandatory nor indispensable," the

Central Tibetan Administration's report said.

Both Tibetan men are believed to be incarnations of Buddha in

different versions. The Buddha of Compassion is said to be

reincarnated as the Dalai Lama, while the Buddha of Boundless Light

becomes the Panchen Lama.

The 10th Panchen Lama died in mysterious circumstances in 1989.

On May 14, 1995 the self-exiled Dalai Lama announced his recognition

of the six-year-old son of a doctor and nurse in Tibet as the Panchen

Lama's 11th reincarnation.

Three days later, China took the child and his family into custody and

manipulated willing Tibetan Buddhist clergy to declare another Tibetan

boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the genuine reincarnation.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled his lavish Potala Palace in Tibet with

help from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency during a communist

Chinese assault and consistently demands greater autonomy for his

former homeland.

Beijing apparently did not want him to have Mr. Nyima as a possible

future ally or recognize the next incarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama

who is now 83.

"They [the Chinese government] say they are waiting for my death and

will recognize a 15th Dalai Lama of their choice," the Dalai Lama

wrote in 2011.

To highlight Mr. Nyima's disappearance, the International Tibet

Network's Political Prisoners Campaign Working Group commissioned

artist Tim Widden to create a portrait of him as an adult for a film

titled, "Where is Panchen Lama?" which was recently presented on TV by

the British Broadcasting Corp.

Mr. Widden's age-progression image was based on a color photo of Mr.

Nyima as a child -- the only known picture of him.

http://www.tibetanreview.net/what-the-china-disappeared-11th-panchen-lama-might-look-like-today/

"Widden says he had to assume average health and average weight,

though it could easily be that he is emaciated," the BBC said. "He

also had to guess a hairstyle."

Similarly, the U.S.-government's Radio Free Asia (RFA) published on

its website a different portrait by its "cartoonist" of what the boy

might look like on his 30th birthday.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/panchen-lama-04252019181902.html/ampRFA

"He was, for years, considered the world's youngest political

prisoner," Washington-based RFA said.

U.S. Congressman (D-MA) Jim McGovern said the Panchen Lama "will mark

his 30th birthday as one of the world's longest held prisoners of

conscience.

"The enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama is an egregious

example of the Chinese government's violation of the religious freedom

of Tibetan Buddhists, who have the right to choose their own religious

leaders without government interference," Mr. McGovern said on April

26.

"The [Chinese] government's designation of an alternative Panchen Lama

merely victimized another young person as a consequence of its

policies to undermine and control the Tibetan people."

Mr. McGovern is co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission,

composed of members of the House of Representatives. He is also

chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a

bipartisan, bicameral group monitoring China's human rights, rule of

law, and political prisoners.

"How can a [communist] government that does not have faith in

religion, claim to interfere in the reincarnation of the Panchen

Lama?" said Youdon Aukartsang, a member of Tibet's parliament-in-exile

at the Dalai Lama's Himalayan headquarters in Dharamsala, India.

***

Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,

California, reporting news from Asia since 1978 and winner of Columbia

University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He co-authored three

non-fiction books about Thailand, including "'Hello My Big Big Honey!'

Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews," "60

Stories of Royal Lineage," and "Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News

Since 1946." Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the chapter "Ceremonies

and Regalia" in a book published in English and Thai titled, "King

Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in

Perspective." Mr. Ehrlich's newest book, "Sheila Carfenders, Doctor

Mask & President Akimbo" portrays a 22-year-old American female mental

patient who is abducted to Asia by her abusive San Francisco

psychiatrist.

His online sites are:

https://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com

https://www.amazon.com/Hello-Big-Honey-Revealing-Interviews/dp/1717006418

https://www.amazon.com/Sheila-Carfenders-Doctor-President-Akimbo/dp/1973789353/

https://www.facebook.com/SheilaCarfenders



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