Double reincarnation

by Caroline Nath

World Press Review

Vol. 43 No. 2 Feb.1996

P31

Copyright by World Press Review


Section: REGIONAL REPORT: ASIA/PACIFIC RELIGION The Chinese government's heated battle with the Dalai Lama over which 6-year-old boy is the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama [World Press Review, September] is oven At least for the present. In a recent ceremony in Lhasa's Johkang Temple, Beijing's choice as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second holiest Tibetan leader after the Dalai Lama, was officially announced. He is Gyaincain Norbu, a poor boy from Tibet's northeast. In May, the Dalai Lama, in exile in India, had chosen another 6-year-old boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. According to the government-owned China Daily, Beijing authorities and religious representatives have said they will not recognize the Dalai Lama's choice, which the paper called a "fraud" that "violated the cardinal principles of Buddhism." Writing in Hong Kong's independent newsmagazine Asiaweek, Ajay Singh reports that Beijing authorities claim the right to intervene. He says Beijing has "produced a pact signed in 1792 between Tibetan monks and Qing dynasty leaders that says China has the right to pick Tibet's lamas." Tashi Phuntsok, the spokesperson for the Dalai Lama, was quoted: "We are outraged. . . . They are politicizing our religious matters." By putting its own Panchen Lama in place, China hopes to influence the choice of the next Dalai Lama and thus control Tibetan Buddhism. According to Himanshu Joshi of the independent Weekend Observer of New Delhi, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama traditionally approve each other's incarnations. ~~~~~~~~ By CAROLINE NATH -------------------