The fight for the Panchen Lama

·期刊原文
The fight for the Panchen Lama. (Tibetan spiritual leader)
Tim McGirk
World Press Review
Vol.42 No.9 (Sept 1995)
pp.41-42
COPYRIGHT Stanley Foundation 1995

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THE INDEPENDENT The high Tibetan plateau is an empty place of stone,
ice, and fleeting clouds. Chinese officialdom seldom bothers with
the nomadic tribespeople who move their yaks across this vast
wasteland searching for pasture. But sometime in May, in the remote
Nagchu area, high-ranking communist cadres swooped down on a nomad
encampment and detained a six-year-old Tibetan boy. Gendun Choekyi
Nyima and his poor, barely literate parents were reportedly placed
on an airplane under tight security and flown to Beijing under
orders from the Politburo. "We're greatly worried about the boy and
the family's safety. Nothing is known of their whereabouts," says
Tenzin Atisha, an official in the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile
in India. This six-year-old is no ordinary child. Gendun is
considered to be the reincarnation of the revered Tibetan spiritual
leader known as the Panchen Lama. Ever since the last Panchen Lama,
a jolly-looking 50-year-old, died in January, 1989, under mysterious
circumstances--some Tibetans accuse the Chinese of poisoning
him--the search for his reincarnation has acquired a dangerous
political dimension. In the spiritual hierarchy of Tibet, the
Panchen Lama is second only to the Dalai Lama, who won a Nobel Peace
Prize for his nonvolent opposition to China's continued occupation
of Tibet. Beijing wanted desperately to find the new panchen Lama
and then to mold the boy so that he could eventually be set up as a
challenger to the Dalai Lama. Although rivalry has often existed
between the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, the present Dalai Lama
was apparently on very friendly terms with the last Panchen Lama. In
the early 1960s, the Panchen Lama began demanding more freedom for
Tibetans. He spent many years in jail or some kind of detention,
but, upon release, continued to be critical of Chinese rule. A week
before his death, he publicly reaffirmed his loyalty to the Dalai
Lama. Soon after the Panchen Lama died, the Dalai Lama's
governemt-in-exile requested that senior monks be allowed into Tibet
to search for his successor. The Chinese refused and instead
launched their own quest for the Panchen Lama. One London-based
Tibetan specialist says, "There was something Monty Python-esque
about how the Chinese went looking for the Panchen Lama. They were
perfectly willing to abandon marxist dialectics for mysticism to
strengthen their control over Tibet." The communists included in
their search party several lamas from the Panchen Lama's monastery,
Teshi Lumpo, putting in charge abbot Chadrel Rimpoche. In 1993, he
had informed on monks who were arrested for reading an autobiography
of the Dalai Lama and for listening to Voice of America radio
broadcasts. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama was pursuing his own
investigations from India. According to the Tibet Information
Network, a human-rights organization based in London, the Dalai
Lama's investigations and those of Chadrel Rimpoche were both
leading to the nomad boy in Nagchu. His birthplace matched
descriptions given to the Dalai Lama by several of Tibet's
protective oracles--men who enter trances and allow the spirit of a
deity to speak through them. As a final test, the Dalai Lama wrapped
the names of all 30 candidates inside dough balls and mixed them up.
One witness said: "The ball with Gendun's name seemed to fly up at
the Dalai Lama, not once but several times. The Dalai Lama laughed
and said, 'It's like magic.'" The Dalai Lama's announcement of the
Panchen Lama's discovery on May 14 threw the Chinese into a spin.
The government attacked the Dalai Lama for interfering in the
Panchen Lama's selection, but so far, nobody has said the boy is not
the true Panchen Lama. Chinese wrath at being outwitted by the Dalai
Lama has fallen heaviest on Chadrel Rimpoche. He is being held
incommunicado in Beijing. Dissident sources claim the monk is also
under heavy pressure to denounce Gendun. In ordinary times, the
discovery of a new Panchen Lama is a joyous occasion, with tens of
thousands of Tibetans swarming to Teshi Lumpo for the enthronement
ceremony. But the Chinese have banned public discussion of the
Panchen Lama in Tibet. Teshi Lumpo, say recent visitors, is now
surrounded by more than 1,000 Chinese soldiers armed with assault
rifles. The monks are being forced to sign denunciations of their
former abbot and the new Panchen Lama. The stakes were raised still
higher in June when a Chinese government body described the Dalai
Lama as "a reactionary chieftain" and said his choice would never be
recognized by the communists. As this latest political storm sweeps
Tibet, it is easy to forget that all these intrigues focus on a
six-year-old boy whose parents may be delighted, but who might
rather be left alone to play. --Time McGirk, "The Independent"
(centrist), London, June 19, 1995.