The Chinese Communist Party’s handpicked “alternative” to the Dalai Lama has not succeeded in persuading the faithful of his legitimacy, a Washington Post article indicates. Gyaltsen Norbu, known as the “Chinese Panchen,” has been on a campaign around Tibet to boost his status among its native Buddhists, but despite Chinese propaganda efforts, it appears that they remain loyal to the Dalai Lama, who was forced into exile by Mao’s government in 1959.
Second only to the Dalai Lama, the position of Panchen Lama entails identifying the child whom Tibetan Buddhists believe will take the place of the Dalai Lama as his reincarnation. With the Chinese Panchen, the Communist Party could get a Dalai Lama loyal to them once the current one passes away. State-run media claimed that the ritual installing the Chinese Panchen had 100,000 attendees in each of its four days, numbers which are either false or the product of compulsion, given the lack of enthusiasm for the Communist lapdog currently struggling for followers.
From the Post:
In Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, a shop selling photographs of leading Tibetan religious figures contained none of the Chinese Panchen but several of a predecessor, the 10th Panchen Lama, who was vilified and imprisoned during China’s Cultural Revolution.
China remains determined to impose its political will over Tibetans’ exercise of religion.
Make no mistake, Tibetans put themselves at risk by continuing to resist conforming to the Party’s prescriptions for their religious and political lives. Images of the Dalai Lama are banned, and the government even went so far as to kidnap Tibet’s true Panchen Lama when he was only six years old. (It replaced him with the Chinese Panchen Lama.)
Tibetans have been persecuted for decades by the Chinese, and the Dalai Lama has voiced their plight to the rest of the world. He has concentrated his arguments on religious and economic freedom for his subjugated countrymen, exposing the shameful human-rights record of China.
For now, the true leader of Tibet’s faithful remains in exile, and the Chinese government indicates they have no desire to reform their religious policy. But news of the failing campaign to lend an air of legitimacy to the Chinese Panchen ought to encourage those who are fighting for religious freedom around the world.