Panchen Lama

The Panchen Lama holds the second most senior reincarnation lineage in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, based at Tashilhunpo Monastery near Shigatse. The title, meaning great scholar, was conferred in 1645 by the fifth Dalai Lama on his own tutor, Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen, retroactively recognized as the fourth in a lineage extended backward to three earlier teachers in the same way the Dalai Lama title had been. The two lineages developed a reciprocal relationship: each Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama has traditionally played a role in confirming the other's recognized reincarnation, a mutual validation that gave the pairing particular religious weight within the Gelug school.

Unlike the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama held little independent temporal authority over Tibet, remaining primarily a religious and scholarly figure closely tied to Tashilhunpo's monastic establishment. The ninth Panchen Lama's departure for China in 1923 amid tension with the Lhasa government, and the tenth Panchen Lama's complex relationship with Chinese authorities after 1950, including a period of imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution followed by rehabilitation, made the office a recurring point of contact and friction between Lhasa, Tashilhunpo and Beijing well before the succession dispute that followed the tenth Panchen Lama's death in 1989.

In May 1995, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, from exile, recognized six year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh Panchen Lama, following the traditional search and confirmation process. Within days, Chinese authorities took the boy and his family into custody; neither has been seen publicly since, and the Chinese government has stated only that he lives a normal life and does not wish to be disturbed, a claim independent observers have not been able to verify. Months later, Chinese authorities convened their own selection process using the Qing-era golden urn lottery among a shortlist of candidates and installed Gyaincain Norbu as the Panchen Lama recognized by the state; he has since taken part in officially sponsored religious and political functions within China.

The dispute has become one of the most closely watched succession controversies in contemporary religion, because a Panchen Lama recognized by Beijing would, under the same logic Chinese authorities have applied, carry weight in confirming or contesting the next Dalai Lama's own recognition. Tibetan exile institutions regard Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the legitimate eleventh Panchen Lama and his enforced disappearance as an unresolved human rights concern; the Chinese state regards Gyaincain Norbu as the legitimate holder. Both positions are recorded here as the parties' own stated positions, without adjudication.