25 April 2010: Today marks the 21st birthday of the XIth Panchen Lama: Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, one of Tibet’s most important religious leaders, who was abducted by the Chinese authorities on 17 May 1995 when he was just six years old. He and his parents were not seen for the past 15 years and there has been no clear information on their exact whereabouts and well being. Over the years the Panchen Lama’s plight has come to symbolize the crisis facing the survival of Tibet’s religious culture.
Despite innumerable requests made by the world bodies, concerned governments, and NGOs over the past over 15 years for his release, the Chinese government has refused to provide any verifiable information on Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, nor have they allowed independent observers to visit the boy and his parents in order to confirm their whereabouts and well being. While in the latest revelation, Padma Choling, Chairman of the “Tibet Autonomous Region” (“TAR”) Regional government on the sideline of the annual session of the National People’s Congress in March 2010 told reporters, that the Panchen Lama selected by the Dalai Lama was “invalid” and added that he was living a good life as an ordinary citizen in Tibet and his siblings were studying at a university or working in regular jobs. But China has once again failed to substantiate its blunt statement on Gedhun Choekyi Nyima with any credible evidence for millions of his followers. The continued detention and disappearance of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is not only the deprivation of his rights alone but also a denial of religious guidance for and hurting religious sentiments of millions of followers.
On the other hand China over the years has strived to bolster the legitimacy and raise the profile of its handpicked Panchen Lama-Gyaltsen Norbu- through various means. He has long been earmarked as Beijing’s choice to usurp the Dalai Lama as the public face of Tibetan Buddhism. For instance, China organized for the first time a World Buddhist Forum at Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province from 13 to 16 April 2006 to espouse its leadership of the Buddhist world by providing international platform to Gyaltsen Norbu. The Dalai Lama was not invited to this international forum in which thousands of monks, experts and politicians from thirty-seven countries and regions gathered to participate in the discussion on building a ‘harmonious world,’ because the Dalai Lama was seen as “splitting the motherland and sabotaging the unity of ethnic groups.” As such, his participation would have caused “disharmony”, Xinhua, the State’s mouthpiece reported.
And Gyaltsen Norbu has taken on an increasing political role in recent years. He has made appearance with Communist Party leaders praising Chinese rule over Tibet and was recently elected as one of the 25 Vice-Presidents of the Buddhist Association of China on 3 February 2010. China on 28 February 2010 appointed him to the Parliamentary advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) as one of the 13 new members.
In religious sphere China in order to train ‘patriotic and devotional religious personnel’ and to dilute the influence of defiant monks in Tibet, who have strong and unflinching faith in the Dalai Lama, attempted to create a new group of monk subservient to Beijing. Subsequently in July 2007, China passed a law on reincarnation- Order No. 5 of China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA), Management Measures for the Reincarnation of “Living Buddha” in Tibetan Buddhism- which requires all reincarnate lamas to be approved by the state. With this major tactical step China asserted its right to manage and select all reincarnate lamas of Tibetan Buddhism in the future and thereby sought to choose its own Dalai Lama after the present one passes away.
The political machinations of Chinese propaganda machinery should not deceive the international community. No matter how hard Beijing tries, Tibetans will revere the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as the legitimate one. The Chinese authorities’ actions in the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama represent yet another attempt to weaken the social, moral and religious fabric of Tibetan life to further its exploitation as a colonial possession.
China’s abduction of the Panchen Lama and denial of his religious identity violates basic principles enshrined in the general human rights instruments such the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is gravely concerned at the continued enforced disappearance and detention of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents. The Centre call on the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to disclose their exact whereabouts and allow independent international bodies to visit Gedhun Choekyi Nyima to verify his health and living conditions as recent blunt statement made by Chinese authorities on him living a good life wasn’t enough to convince the millions of his followers. The Centre also would like to recall the recommendation made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 2005 that China: “Allow an independent expert to visit and confirm the well-being of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima while respecting his right to privacy, and that of his parents.”
The Centre also demand that any restrictions currently imposed are lifted immediately and that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family are allowed to return to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery-seat of the Panchen Lamas, and receive religious education and training deserving of his religious post.
The Centre urges the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances to intervene regularly with the Chinese authorities to ascertain the whereabouts of the outstanding case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
· On 14 May 1995, His Holiness the Dalai Lama announced that the then six-years old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation of the Xth Panchen Lama.
· Three days later, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents disappeared and have never been seen again.
· On 24 May 1995 the government of People's Republic of China issued a statement describing the Dalai Lama's proclamation as "illegal and invalid."
· China proclaims another child to be the real incarnation - an unprecedented and bizarre act of an atheist state.
· Shortly after this announcement Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family disappeared from their native hometown without any information about their whereabouts and well-being.
· Chadrel Rinpoche, a former abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery seat of Panchen Lama, and Chairman of the Search Committee for the reincarnation of the XIth Panchen Lama and his assistant Champa Chungla also disappeared from Chengdu Airport in Sichuan Province on 14 May 1995.
· On 21 April 1997, the Shigatse Intermediate People's court sentenced Chadrel Rinpoche to six years of imprisonment. He was charged with "plotting to split the country" and "leaking state secrets".
· He was accused of working for and assisting the Dalai Lama in the search for the XIth Panchen Lama. Though Chadrel Rinpoche’s six years’ prison term expired on 16 May 2001, he continues to be held under virtual house arrest in Shigatse which is an extended form of detention.
Source: Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
