China's Panchen Lama carries out
religious rite in Tibet, first in 50 years
Jul 21, 2016 Reuters/CHINA DAILY
A youth named by China as the second-highest figure in Tibetan
Buddhism, but reviled as a fake by many Tibetans, began an
important Buddhist rite on Thursday, the first time in 50 years it
has happened in Tibet, state media said.
Although officially atheist, China selected Gyaltsen
Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in a drive to win the hearts
and minds of Tibetans.
Tibet's current spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama,
whom Beijing brands a dangerous separatist, had announced his own
choice of a six-year-old boy, but he was taken away by authorities
and has since vanished from public view.
The Kalachakra ritual is an esoteric but for
Buddhists very important rite for activating dormant enlightenment,
and has not been carried out in what China calls the Tibet
Autonomous Region for half a century.
The Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland after an
abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and lives in exile
in India, has carried out the rite overseas.
Activists say China has violently tried to stamp out
religious freedom and culture in Tibet, which remains under heavy
security. China rejects the criticism, saying its rule has ended
serfdom and brought development to a backward region.
The official Xinhua news agency said China's Panchen
Lama had begun the ritual at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in
Shigatse, the Panchen Lama's traditional seat.
Monks from the monastery would join those from
Labrang, another important seat of Tibetan Buddhist in Gansu
province, for the four-day event, the report said.
About 50,000 Buddhists were expected to attend, it
said.
China has gradually exposed its Panchen Lama in
public roles in the hope he will achieve the respect commanded by
the Dalai Lama among Tibetans and globally, and in 2012 he made his
first trip outside mainland China when he visited Hong
Kong.
The London-based group Free Tibet said the ritual
would be the biggest religious platform Beijing has given its
Panchen Lama to date.
"The officially atheist Chinese government has long
tried to impose its authority on Tibet by co-opting Tibetan
Buddhism," said Free Tibet director Eleanor
Byrne-Rosengren.
"Its decision to have Gyaltsen Norbu preside over a
ritual as important as the Kalachakra marks a stepping up in these
efforts."
Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950. After the
Dalai Lama fled, the 10th Panchen Lama stayed on and was initially
seen as a collaborator. It later emerged that his criticism of
Beijing had earned him more than a decade spent either in prison or
under house arrest.
Freed in 1977, he was politically rehabilitated the
following year, and died in 1989.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by John Ruwitch
and Nick Macfie)