{"id":123060,"date":"2011-08-06T19:01:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T02:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=123060"},"modified":"2011-08-06T19:01:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T02:01:42","slug":"china-hopes-to-bolster-the-credentials-of-a-handpicked-lama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/08\/china-hopes-to-bolster-the-credentials-of-a-handpicked-lama\/","title":{"rendered":"China Hopes to Bolster the Credentials of a Handpicked Lama"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 1995, the Dalai Lama selected a young boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama<\/a>, the second highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism. The same year, the Chinese government selected another boy for the position<\/a>, and put the Dalai Lama’s choice into “protective custody,” and he hasn’t been seen in public since. Now, Gyaltsen Norbu, Beijing’s pick, may be coming to Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu, to study. The New York Times reports on the reaction among local monks<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n \nIn recent weeks, as word has spread that he might be coming to study at the monastery, emotions have spiked, as have the numbers of police officers, both uniformed and in plain clothes, hoping to head off trouble in a place where ethnic Tibetans have been unafraid to express their enmity toward Chinese rule.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody wants him to come, and yet still he will come,\u201d said one 26-year-old monk. \u201cWe feel powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n The main problem is that this Panchen Lama, 21, is one of two young men with claims to the title. The one chosen by Communist Party officials in 1995, named Gyaltsen Norbu at birth, is often referred to by local residents as the \u201cChinese Panchen Lama.\u201d The other is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who would now be 22, a herder\u2019s son who was anointed that same year by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.<\/p>\n Most Tibetans are still loyal to the memory of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, even if he has been missing since Chinese authorities swept him and his family into \u201cprotective custody\u201d more than 16 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just hope he is still alive,\u201d said Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan essayist and blogger who noted that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima\u2019s visage, frozen as a 5-year-old, hangs in many homes and temples. \u201cWe are waiting for him.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1995, the Dalai Lama selected a young boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism. The same year, the Chinese government selected another boy for the position, and put the Dalai Lama’s choice into “protective custody,” and he hasn’t been seen in public since. Now, Gyaltsen Norbu, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,34,100],"tags":[5935,2981,1962],"class_list":["post-123060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-human-rights","category-politics","tag-dalai-lama","tag-panchen-lama","tag-tibetan-buddhism","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n