History of His Holiness the Panchen Lama

April 11, 2021

by Adrienne Moberly Vilaubi

April holds a special significance for the monks of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in exile, in Bylakuppe, India and for all Tibetan Buddhists globally because it is the birth month of the 11th Panchen Lama. His Holiness the Panchen Lama, Gedun Choekyi Nyima was born on April 25, 1989 in Tibet. He was formally recognized by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on May 14, 1995 as the incarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, Choekyi Gyaltsen who had died in January 1989.

The young lama had turned six years old on April 25, 1995. Less than one month later and only three days after being recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL) through the traditional search process, the Holiness His Panchen Lama (HHPL) and his family were abducted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and have not been heard from since, making the 11th Panchen Lama the youngest political prisoner in modern history. Along with the young lama’s family, Chadrel Jampa Trinley Rinpoche, Abbot of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Tibet, and head of the Search Committee for the 11th Panchen Lama, was also arrested along with other members of the committee.

Simultaneously, the PRC had established its own search committee. Using a system called The Golden Urn, where three to five names on slips of paper are put into the urn and then one drawn out, they selected a different boy named Gyaincain Norbu to become the 11th Panchen Lama. This process excluded the Dalai Lama altogether.

Tibetans did not consider the Chinese appointment legitimate because he was not identified by Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This tradition included an official search by the 10th Panchen Lama’s closet Khenpos (a title given to the most highly educated and senior monks who ordain new monastics or are the abbot of a monastery) based on dreams, omens, and other signs predetermined by the 10th Panchen Lama, as well as the formal recognition by the Dalia Lama.

Consequently, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama denounced China’s appointment of Norbu, saying “the person who reincarnates has sole legitimate authority over where and how he or she takes rebirth and how that reincarnation is to be recognized. It is a reality that no one else can force the person concerned or manipulate him or her. It is particularly inappropriate for the Chinese communists, who explicitly reject the idea of past and future lives, let alone the concept of reincarnate Tulkus, to meddle in the system of reincarnation and especially the reincarnations of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas.”

This system of the lamas recognizing each other’s incarnate is hundreds of years old and began when His Holiness the 4th Panchen Rinpoche, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, became the spiritual teacher of His Holiness the 4th Dalai Lama in the early 17th Century and then recognized his incarnate the 5th Dalai Lama and presided over his education and novice vows. Thus began the tradition of the lamas being each other’s teacher and disciple, with the responsibility to formally recognize each other’s reincarnate. This has led to Tibetans referring to the lamas as “Gyawa Yabsay Nyi” or the Great Father-Son Duo. They are considered the two highest spiritual leaders of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism; the Dalai Lama considered as the manifestation of Avalokitesvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and the Panchen Lama as the manifestation of Amitabha, the Buddha of Immeasurable Light and Life.

Historical significance of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery

The reality of the missing 11th Panchen Lama and the resulting controversy of the rightful successor to the 10th Panchen Lama has been an international concern since the young Gedun Choekyi Nyima disappeared in 1995. Annually, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama issues an official statement on the birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama, noting how long the lama has been missing, held prisoner, and denied his traditional seat at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, now reestablished outside of Tibet, in Bylakuppe, India.

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Tibet was one of the Great Four centers of the Gelugpa tradition and seat of the lineage of the Panchen Lama. Tashi Lhunpo was founded by His Holiness the 1st Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Gedun Drupe in 1447, and became the largest, most vibrant monastery in Tibet providing spiritual and scholastic education to over 5000 monks.

The monastery grew in importance in the 17th Century when Tashi Lhunpo's Abbot, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662) was recognized as 4th Panchen Lama by the 5th Dalai Lama as an incarnation of Amitabha Buddha, who was the spiritual teacher of Chenrezig and the patron saint of Tibet. He was given the title 'Panchen Lama'. 'Panchen' is the shortened form of Pandita Chenpo, meaning Great Scholar. The 5th Dalai Lama requested the Panchen to accept Tashi Lhunpo Monastery as his multi-lifetime seat for future incarnations. In the same way as the Dalai Lama's, three previous Abbots of Tashi Lhunpo were posthumously given the title Panchen Lama, making Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen the fourth in lineage.

Since then, every Panchen Lama has had authority and responsibility of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, first as it was built in Shigatse Tibet, and then after it was re-established in exile in 1972 in Bylakuppe, India by a small group of Tash Lhunpo monks who had escaped the destruction of the Tibetan monastery during the Chinese invasion.

Along with the Dalai Lamas, the Panchen Lamas became the most important religious leaders in Tibet, both lamas being from the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The relationship between the Dalai Lamas and the Panchen Lamas is unique. Each Lama in their lifetime is not only involved in the search for the other's reincarnation, but also assumes the role as the disciple and later as the master of the other.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama formally recognized the 10th Panchen Lama in 1952, when the two first met, although the Panchen Lama had been identified three years earlier at the age of 11. In 1952 the two lamas were 17 and 14 years old respectively. Over the course of the next seven years, they worked to safeguard the well-being of the Tibetan people and protect the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism during one of the country's darkest periods, the PRC occupation and Cultural Revolution.

The historical events that took place between 1959, when the Dalai Lama escaped Chinese military authority and fled Tibet, with the Panchen Lama remaining behind, are the subject of another article. However, when the 10th Panchen Lama died after rejecting the Chinese authority over the Tibetan people, its rituals, language, and culture, it once again became the responsibility of the 14th Dalai Lama to help search for and recognize the 11th Panchen Lama, which is how this narrative began.

Pleas to and from the International Community

The Dalia Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala India, have appealed to numerous international humanitarian and political groups including the United Nations and the government of the United States for the Chinese to release the 11th Panchen Lama. They commemorate the 10th Panchen Lama’s death, as well as the 11th Panchen’s birthday and the date of his disappearance.

In the past few years, the United States State Department has called upon China to release the 11th Panchen Lama. In May 2020, Mike Pompeo stated, “Tibetan Buddhists, like members of all faith communities, must be able to select, educate and venerate their religious leaders according to their traditions and without government interference,” Pompeo said in a statement.

“We call on the PRC government to immediately make public the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts and to uphold its own constitution and international commitments to promote religious freedom for all persons.” The United States warned Beijing, not to see this travesty as a model for handling the Dalai Lama’s succession.

Most recently the subject was again discussed at the March 9, 2021 State Department press conference.

Throughout the past 25 years, numerous appeals have been made to the government of China, rejecting their treatment of the 11th Panchen Lama, and requesting his return to his traditional seat, now waiting for him at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, India.

This well-known Tibetan saying means, “Just as the Sun and the Moon in the Sky, thus Gyawa-Panchen on earth”, alluding to the great significance of the special relationship between His Holiness the Panchen Lama and his Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Panchen Lama Tashi Lhunpo Project is a non-profit dedicated to helping the monastery rebuild in India. 

We invite you to support the monastery’s efforts to reestablish Tashi Lhunpo to its former greatness and help prepare for the day when HHPL will be released, by making a donation on April 25, 2021. Gedun Choekyi Nyima will be 32 years old. We pray for his health and safety and his return to his traditional seat at Tashi Lhunpo, India.

May all our efforts bring merit to all sentient beings.

References

Gyalwa Yabsay Nyi, “A pictorial journey”, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Bylakuppe, India. Published in recognition of the consecration by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, of the monastery’s new Prayer Hall, December 2015.

Hilton, Isabel, “In Search of the Panchen Lama”, Copyright 1999, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

https://en.wikipedia/Choekyi   Gyalsten 10th Panchen Lama

https://tibet.net “As Tibetans mark 30th Birthday of Panchen Lama in absentia, China is urged to release the 2nd Highest Tibetan Spiritual Leader held captive for 24 years”.

United States Department of State, Department Press Briefing, May 19, 2020. “Pompeo demands China reveal whereabouts of 11th Panchen Lama”.

United States Department of State, Department Press Briefing, March 9, 2021. “Ned Price, Department Spokesperson, cites Panchen Lama in briefing.”

www.dalailama.com/news , “Dalai Lama joins Tibetans in Remembering 10th Panchen Lama”, December 30, 2009;  “Principal Commitments”, “Reincarnation”, September 24, 2011.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/7/16, “Dalai Lama warns China on interfering in succession”.