China must release Panchen Lama and stop interfering in Tibetan religious freedom

The current 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (GCN), was born on April 25,  1989, in Lhari County, Nagqu Region, Tibet. He was recognised by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, after following the Tibetan Buddhist tradition on May 14, 1995. However, two  days later, on May 17, 1995, GCN was abducted by the Chinese authorities when he was just  6 years old. Six months after GCN’s abduction, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), using a  procedure that lacked authenticity and involved fabrication, forced another group of monks to  identify a different child of the same age, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the official reincarnation of the  10th Panchen Lama. 

The abduction and replacement of the GCN is a part of China’s long-term strategy to  control Tibetan Buddhism and eliminate loyalty to the Dalai Lama. In the past, Panchen Lamas  have previously played a role in the recognition and subsequent education of the Dalai Lamas  and so on, which is why control over the institution is considered so crucial by atheist Chinese  regime. 

It is not to mention that GCN, the genuine reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, lost all his freedoms at the age of six with his parents. The proxy Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu too had to go through a lot of difficulties, as he had to follow the instructions laid by CCP and  has no choice and power to use his own position. Since his selection, Gyaltsen who lives in Beijing has rarely visited Tibet. His visits are carefully stage managed and heavily policed and Tibetans still refer to him as the ‘Fake Panchen Lama’.  

Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet have never accepted Gyaltsen Norbu as the  Panchen Lama. Chinese government has been using a fake Panchen Lama as its political instrument to gain its control over Tibetan people. At present, Gyaltsen Norbu, is being projected as an official face of Tibetan Buddhism by the Chinese government. It has already leveraged his position by appointing him to a number of high profile positions, including the Vice-President of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In 2019, he was made the head of the Buddhist Association of China.  

The Chinese government’s efforts to force its nominee on the Tibetan people have failed so far. Although many Tibetans are sympathetic to the ordeal experienced by the Chinese Panchen Lama, anecdotal evidence suggests that almost no one display pictures of him except when forced to do so. For ordinary believers, the government has ruined it credibility as an arbiter of religious affairs by its abuse not just of the two candidates but of the revered title  itself. 
 
As far as GCN is concerned, there has been no information at all since 1995. He has  been missing for the last 26 years and is the world’s youngest and longest missing political  prisoner. The Chinese government refuses to reveal GCN’s whereabouts and doesn’t respond  to requests from the United Nations and western governments to check his wellbeing. In May  1996, China admitted that GCN and his family were being held at a secret location and China’s  ambassador to the UN claimed that GCN has been put under the protection of the government  at the request of his parents. In February 1998, American clerics visiting Tibet were told that  GCN was in Beijing.  

But in March 1998, the Vice Governor of Tibet Autonomous Region  Yang Chuantang told Austrian delegates that he was actually living in Lhari, the place of his  birth. In April 1998, a third location was put forward when a British journalist was told that  GCN was studying, possibly in Gansu Province. In September 2015, the Chinese government  released information about him, stating that he is being educated and living a normal life but  did not provide any factual evidence to establish the credibility of that statement. Despite  constant demands by various international organisations and human rights groups, there has  been no news about his whereabouts so far. Chinese authorities’ efforts to justify a quarter  century enforced disappearance of a child are ludicrous as they say GCN is being kept  somewhere secret for his own protection.

In the year 2019, a forensic image of GCN was produced by a forensic artist, Tim Widden, who has worked on a number of missing people cases as part of the UK Crime  Agency. This effort signifies the search of GCN by Tibetan people, a request to the world  community to match the artistic image and find the lost Panchen Lama.  

Ever since the abduction of GCN, Tibetan people around the world began their  campaign for release of the world’s youngest prisoner. On the 25th birthday of GCN, the liaison  office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Japan & East Asia had begun a month long campaign  for the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, GCN. The liaison office of His Holiness the Dalai  Lama in Tokyo had translated the campaign documents and published thousands of pamphlets  in Japanese languages on the detailed information on the enforced disappearance of GCN  which includes 25 facts about him and an appeal letter to the world governments and human  rights organizations for the release of GCN.  

The United States has also urged China to release Tibetan Buddhism’s 11th Panchen  Lama, who has been taken into captivity at the age of six by Chinese Authorities. United States’  Ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said that ‘we do not  have any idea of the whereabouts of GCN and we continue to press the Chinese authorities to  release the 11th Panchen Lama and let him free and let the world know where he is’. US  Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Commissioner Gary Bauer has  said that ‘the CCP is attempting to erase the unique identity of Tibetan Buddhism’. 

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) recently held three week global campaign  for the release of the 11th Panchen Lama. The campaign urged United Nations to hold a hearing  on this issue as the United Nations Human Right Council (UNHRC) is supposed to take actions  on this matter as per the due obligations.  

Such campaigns reveal that Tibetan people do not believe in CCP as they know that the  demonic Chinese leaders will keep on pouring their lies. However, the Tibetan people will  never surrender to the challenges, no matter what barriers they may face in their struggle. This  year, April 25 marks the 32nd birth anniversary of the GCN and Tibetans and their supporters  all over the world would work tirelessly to take the occasion to raise their voices to demand  the release of GCN from tyrannical clutches of CCP.