The Tenth Paṇchen Lama was born on February 9, 1938, to nomadic parents, Gung Tseten (gung tshe brtan) and Sonam Drolma (bsod nams sgrol ma), from the Bido Pontsang (bi mdo dpon tshang) clan lineage (dpon rabs) in Karang Bido, a village located in the Amdo area of eastern Tibet in what is today's Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province. His parents named him Bido Gonpo Tseten (bi mdo dgon po tshe brtan).
His birth took place one year after the death of the Ninth Paṇchen Lama, Tubten Chokyi Nyima (paN chen bla ma 09 thub bstan chos kyi nyi ma, 1883–1937). The search for the Tenth Paṇchen Lama was conducted in a traditional manner and included several teams of monks dispatched to various regions of Amdo. A team led by Dzasak Lobzang Gyeltsen (dza sag blo bzang rgyal mtshan) and including Ngulchu Rinpoche Lobzang Chopel (dngul chu rin po che blo bzang chos 'phel) found Gonpo Tseten in Bido and escorted him to Kumbum Monastery (sku 'bum byams pa gling) in Xining as a candidate. His name eventually emerged among five finalists during a divination ritual in which the names of candidates were placed inside balls of dough. This was a common procedure in the selection of high reincarnate figures within Tibetan monasticism. Once Gonpo Tseten's name was selected from among them, Norzang Lobzang Gyeltsen (nor bzang blo bzang rgyal mtshan), the secretary of Tashilhunpo (bkra shis lhun po), the traditional seat of the Paṇchen Lamas, formally recognized him as the Tenth Paṇchen. Since the time of the Fifth Paṇchen (paN chen 05, 1663–1737), the line has also been known by the Mongolian title of "Erdene," meaning "treasure."
From the moment of his recognition, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama was involved in conflicts of state. As soon as the Ninth Paṇchen Lama's office, the Labrang Nangma Khangsar (bla brang nang ma khang gsar), affirmed Gonpo Tseten as the reincarnation of the Ninth Paṇchen Lama, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho) and the Tibetan government in Lhasa, the Ganden Podrang (dga' ldan pho brang), objected, having already selected an alternate candidate. These tensions between the office of the Dalai Lama and that of the Paṇchen Lama were not new. Second only to that of the Dalai Lama, the office of Paṇchen Lama was a remarkably influential institution that ruled a large area of Tsang in central Tibet that historically operated in political, territorial, and financial independence yet symbiotically with that of the Dalai Lama, who was based in U. Tensions revolving around territorial property, taxation, and political control were causes of mistrust already during the leadership of his predecessor, the Ninth Paṇchen Lama, who had fled Tibet to find refuge and assistance in China in 1923.
While the dispute over the recognition continued, Gongpo Tseten received his novice monastic vows on April 15, 1945, under his senior tutor (yongs 'dzin) Alak Lakho Rinpoche (bla kho 'jigs med 'phrin las rgya mtsho 1866-1948), who gave him the name Lobzang Trinle Lhundrub Chokyi Gyeltsen (blo bzang phrin las lhun grub chos kyi rgyal mtshan), as part of an enthronement ceremony in the Tashi Khangsar Temple of Kumbum Monastery. The Dalai Lama would not formally accept Gonpo Tseten as the Tenth Paṇchen Lama until 1951.
Early Training at Kumbum
Chokyi Gyeltsen underwent the rigorous curriculum of exoteric and esoteric Buddhist studies mostly at Kumbum Monastery under the supervision of his tutors, Gyayak Rinpoche (rgya yag rin po che, 1915–1990), Dzongkha Kachen Ang Nyima (rdzong kha bka' chen ang nyi ma), Alak Jigme Gyatso (a lags 'jigs med rgya mtsho), and Kachen Ngulchu Tulku Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (bka' chen dngul chu sprul sku blo bsang bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan). After Alak Lakho Rinpoche passed away, when the Tenth Paṇchen Lama was just seven years old, the responsibility of his education passed into the hands of Gyayak Rinpoche, who taught him everything from grammar, chanting, memorization of various scriptures, to tantric empowerments and transmissions. The young Paṇchen Lama studied and debated dozens of volumes representing the core of Madhyamaka, including the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, and other classical Buddhist scripture. He studied in accordance with the tradition of Kumbum and Tashilhunpo, and in 1959, when he was twenty years old he passed the final examination and received the title of kachen rabjangpa (dka' chen rab byang pa) in the geshe (dge bshes) system of Tashilhunpo.
The 1945 enthronement of Gonpo Tseten as the Paṇchen Lama was also officially recognized by the Guomindang, the Chinese Nationalist Party, which at that time was the ruling party of the Republic of China, led by Chiang Kaishek (1887–1975). The Guomindang asserted that Tibet was part of the Chinese territory and saw the Tenth Paṇchen Lama as a potential ally in establishing and maintaining control over it. The Ninth Paṇchen Lama had enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Guomindang, who supported his presence in China, and had named him "Special Cultural Commissioner for the Western Regions." The Guomindang had counted on him to promote the "pacification," meaning the annexation, of the Western borders, to unify ethnic minorities—including Tibetans—against the rise of Communism, and to protect against the threat of an invading Japan. The Ninth Paṇchen Lama had worked both as a religious teacher and as a supporter of Republican China from outside Tibet for more than thirteen years, until his death in 1937. The Guomindang expected the new Tenth Paṇchen to carry on this program, particularly as the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists escalated and the Nationalists began to lose territory. Hence, Guomindang representatives including Ma Bufang (1903–1975) sought to maintain strong relations with the Tenth Paṇchen Lama and his office in hopes of strengthening their control over Tibet.
On August 10, 1949, following their defeat in the Chinese civil war against the Communists under Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the leadership of the Guomindang fled China for Taiwan. Ma and a few other Guomindang officials personally visited the eleven-year-old Paṇchen Lama at Kumbum Monastery in Xining in an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to leave China and move with his entire family to Taiwan. The strategy behind this request was likely a belief that by keeping the Paṇchen Lama close, the Guomindang leaders would be able take Tibet if they regained control of China.
The First Years in the Chinese Communist State
As the Guomindang surrendered control of China to the Communists, in 1949 the leadership of the eleven-year-old Tenth Paṇchen Lama's labrang apparently wished to offer support to the Communists. The Paṇchen Lama accordingly is said to have sent a telegraph to congratulate the CCP on the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and the imminent liberation of Tibet.
The progressive leanings toward a Socialist project for Tibet and the modernization Mao Zedong promised contributed to the young Chokyi Gyeltsen's participation in and support of the politics of annexation since its very early stages. Three of the most influential Tibetan and Chinese officials at this time were Dzasak Che Jigme (dza sag che 'jigs med), who as a high monastic official of the Tashilhunpo Labrang was one of the representatives of the Paṇchen Lama and became head of the Provisional Government set up by the Chinese Communists in Xining; Fan Ming (1914–2010), who was first a general of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Tibet, the Northwest Military Affairs Bureau, and later became deputy secretary of the Tibet Work Committee set up in Lhasa; and Ya Hanzhang, also a veteran Communist revolutionary who specialized in ethnic affairs and especially Tibet. Both Fan Ming and Ya Hanzhang became close to the young Paṇchen Lama in terms of friendship as well as cultural interests.
In May 1951, soon after what Chinese history refers to as the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, the Chinese government invited a delegation of Tibetan leaders to travel to Beijing to sign what became known as the 17-Point Agreement, the special document that would formalize the official annexation of Tibet, and the status of its people, the Tibetans, as citizens of the People's Republic of China. Largely drafted by Chinese officials headed by Li Weihan (1896–1984), at the time Chairman of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the 17-point Agreement or "Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" and its validity continue to be disputed by the Tibetan Administration in Exile.
The chief delegate of the mission to Beijing, which included forty-five members in his entourage, but not the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, was Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme (nga phod ngag dbang 'jigs med, 1910–2009). He was accompanied by four other Tibetan delegates and the young Paṇchen Lama, who at the time was thirteen years old. The 17-point Agreement included two articles, n. 5 and n. 6, that specifically confirmed that the "established status, functions, and powers" of the Paṇchen Erdeni shall be maintained equal to those of the Ninth Paṇchen Lama when he and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama "were in friendly and amicable relation with each other." This first trip to Beijing introduced the Paṇchen Lama to several key figures of the then young Communist China, including Mao Zedong himself, Premier Zhou Enlai (1898–1976), General Zhu De (1886–1976), as well as Li Weihan (1896–1984) and Xi Zhongxun (1913–2002), who later would both have mentorship-like influences on him.
Upon his return to Qinghai from Beijing in 1951, the young Paṇchen Lama first visited his parents in his birthplace, Bido, and then continued to Kumbum where that fall, he held a Kālachakra initiation ceremony to a vast audience of monastics and devotees. Zhao Shoushan (1894–1965), the Communist Party Secretary of Qinghai Province, and numerous cadres were present. Both the young Paṇchen Lama and Zhao Shoushan gave formal speeches in support of the Chinese intervention countering the American forces in the Korean War. Not long before, in the 1930s, his predecessor, the Ninth Paṇchen Lama bestowed multiple Kālachakra initiations in China, including in Beijing, in 1932, inside the grandiose Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City where the Chinese emperors once sat, and again in 1933 in Hangzhou. These were large public rituals that were designed to strengthen public support for the Republican government and protect the people from the invading Japanese.
Meeting the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
This early exposure to the Chinese political experience was highly impactful on the young Paṇchen Lama. From their side, Chinese leaders saw in him a beneficial ally to strengthen their position among Tibetans. Upon pressure from the monastic leadership of Tashilhunpo Monastery and the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama finally offered formal recognition to the young Paṇchen Lama in 1951. When the following year, in 1952, the Dalai Lama invited the Paṇchen Lama to travel to Lhasa to meet him, the Chinese General Zhang Jinwu (1906–1971), who was the first representative of the Communist People's Liberation Army in Tibet, appointed a military service to accompany the Paṇchen Lama from Shigatse to Lhasa, aware of the well-known historic rivalries and tensions between the two clerical and political offices.
In 1954, Mao invited both the Dalai Lama and the Paṇchen Lama to Beijing to represent Tibet at the First National People's Congress. This was the first time in the history of Tibet that the two personalities travelled to Beijing together and was probably a sign of Beijing's intention to reduce the symbolic status of the Dalai Lama while raising that of the Paṇchen Lama. On September 11, 1954, Mao and Zhou Enlai officially received them at the Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing, seat of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China. A few months later, in March 1955, Mao personally invited the Tenth Paṇchen Lama to visit him at his private home. During that meeting, Mao shared his vision for the development of Tibet with the Paṇchen Lama, announced that he was planning to offer him an important role as a Tibetan leader within China.
These meetings and conversations with Mao and various prominent Chinese leaders were particularly impactful on the young Paṇchen Lama. Chokyi Gyeltsen's experiments with modernization and innovation for his people began soon after these initial contacts. Being part of a cohort of progressive Tibetans, which included other important people such as Gendun Chopel (dge 'dun chos 'phel, 1903–1951), Dobi Geshe Sherab Gyatso (rdo sbis dge bshes shes rab rgya mtsho, 1884–1968), Baba Puntsok Wangyel Goranangpa ('ba' ba phun tshogs dbang rgyal, 1922–2014), Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, and the Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung Jigme Rigpai Lodro (Tshe tan zhabs drung 'jigs med rig pa'i blo gros, 1910–1985), Chokyi Gyeltsen was exposed to and became more and more interested in Chinese history, and especially the Socialist view, and Mao Zedong's approach to politics. He was intrigued by the possibilities of improving Tibetan society along the lines of the Chinese model, especially in regard to its education system.
Experiments with Modernization and Reform
In 1955–56, in Shigatse, the Paṇchen Lama took over the then-abandoned Kunsik School (kun gzigs slob grwa) in Shigatze, located in the Kunsik Palace (kun gzigs pho brang), also known as Tse Nyiwo Zimchung (tshe nyi 'od zims chung), and transformed it into a technical school, the first of its kind in Tibet. He invited several reincarnated monks, geshes, and Buddhist teachers as advisers and launched the new initiative, which he later renamed the Nyi Wo School (nyi 'od slob grwa), under the administration of his labrang at Tashilhunpo. In 1958, the Paṇchen Lama moved the school to Kyikyi Nekhar (skyid skyid gnas dkar) and renamed it Chensel School (spyan gsal slob bgrwa).
Having witnessed the advancements of the Chinese army and convinced by the promises envisioned by Chinese leaders, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama began to consider it beneficial to update Tibetan monastic education to include nonreligious knowledge and technical skills, a project that diverged completely from the centuries-old system, which until then had exclusively focused on religious education. Three hundred Tibetan young people, including some monastics from Tashilhunpo and other monasteries in the area and elsewhere in Tibet were selected together with many other aristocratic youths from Shigatse. Some of the most prominent teachers of the time worked there including Zurkhang Tsedon (zur khang tshe don), Dondrub Tsering (don grub tshe ring), Wosel Nangpa ('od gsal nang pa), and Serling Dampa (zer gling dam pa). Traditional subjects taught at the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's Chensel School included reading, writing, Tibetan calligraphy, poetry, Tibetan grammar, and history. Triggered by the interest in modernizing Tibetan military capabilities, the Paṇchen Lama soon required the students to also learn Mandarin and Hindi, and to train in horse riding, driving, photography, and videography, and basic military skills including combat, shooting, reconnaissance, and surveillance.
In 1956, to establish a parallel system of government in Tibet along the lines of the Chinese Communist system, and to enforce a gradual transition from a religious to a secular political administration, the Chinese government set up the Tibet Autonomous Region Preparatory Committee in Lhasa. The Dalai Lama and the Paṇchen Lama were given symbolic positions as chairman and vice-chairman respectively, while Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme served as the secretary general. This move would set off Mao Zedong's plan for the Socialist transformation of Tibet and the democratic reforms (mang gtsoi las 'gul; Ch: minzhu gaige), a project particularly dear to the young and impressionable Paṇchen Lama.
First Visit in India
In tandem with his political affairs and diplomatic relations, the young Paṇchen Lama continued to be involved in Buddhist activities. In December 1956, on the occasion of the Indian celebrations of the Buddha Jayanti to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the Buddha's birth, the twenty-one-year-old Dalai Lama and the eighteen-year-old Paṇchen Lama traveled together on a religious pilgrimage to India accompanied by Zhao Puchu (1907–2000), the Chinese government official and Buddhist leader who would later be influential to the Paṇchen Lama. The official visit started in Delhi and ended in Sikkim with a visit sponsored by the then ruling king of Sikkim, Chogyel Tashi Namgyal (chos rgyal bkra shis rnam rgyal, 1893–1963).
In India, their large entourage was officially welcomed by the Indian Premier Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), his daughter Indira Gandhi (1917–1984), and Chogyel Tashi Namgyal. They were entertained at the state level by Premier Nehru with whom both the Dalai Lama and the Paṇchen Lama had separate private meetings. They paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial, enjoyed a private visit of the National Museum in Delhi, and were brought to visit construction sites, to watch an Indian Army parade, and visit agricultural centers and hydroelectric plants.
During their stay in India, after participating in the UNESCO conference on Buddhism, the two Tibetan leaders set off on a long pilgrimage trip to a number of Indian cultural and Buddhist sites, including the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Sanchi Stūpa in Madhya Pradesh, the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, and the Nāgārjunikoṇḍa Buddhist site in Andra Pradesh. They visited the Buddhist town of Sarnath, where they were received with elaborate ceremonies and carried by elephant to various historical sites including temples and stūpas, as well as the newly inaugurated statue of Anagarika Dhammapada (1864–1933), the leading Buddhist monk and activist in the Sri Lankan independence movement against the British occupation of the country and a pioneer in the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. They traveled to Bodhgaya, where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment. There, they paid homage to the Bodhi tree and the main statue of the Buddha inside the Maha Bodhi Temple, and they performed ritual prayers and gave public talks to a large crowd of Indian and Tibetan devotees gathered for the occasion.
Searching for a Right Path for Tibetans
In March 1959, as the People's Republic of China consolidated its power over Tibet and Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule intensified, amidst rumors that the Chinese would soon arrest him, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama fled Lhasa to find refuge and asylum in neighboring India. Tens of thousands of Tibetans soon followed. The Tenth Paṇchen Lama, however, remained in Tibet and committed himself to assisting Tibet's transformation into being part of the People's Republic of China. In the Dalai Lama's absence, he became the highest Tibetan Buddhist hierarch with a position in the Chinese government.
Although welcomed by many, the Democratic Reforms launched in Tibet in 1959 to integrate Tibet into China, abolish Buddhism monastic leadership, and implement redistribution of land, had mixed, and often tragic results. The Tenth Paṇchen Lama openly supported the reforms, traveled extensively to survey their outcome in various parts of Tibet, and gave speeches to explain them to ordinary Tibetans and leaders on numerous occasions. The "religious system reform movement" (chos lugs kyi bcos bsgyur las 'gul; Ch: zongjiao zhidu gaige yundong) was especially radical in Tibetan areas where Buddhist monasteries had maintained political and economic power over the population for centuries. The new laws not only stripped monastic estates of ownership over vast forests, pastures, grain storehouses, and commercial capital, but in many regions they also lost buildings, statues, and other religious artifacts.
The 70,000 Character Petition
By 1962 the Paṇchen Lama determined that the transformations under the Communist rule were not going well for the Tibetan people. Emboldened by his Chinese-sanctioned authority, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama voiced criticism of and disappointment in the methods by which the Chinese government had implemented these reforms. He expressed his shock for the trauma these reforms caused among Tibetans in a document he wrote in Chinese known as the 70,000 Character Petition (yig 'bru khri bdun gyi snyan zhu; Ch: qiwan yanshu) which he submitted to the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee in March 1962. The Tenth Paṇchen Lama had agreed to the socialist transformation of Tibet, the abolition of the corvee system, and the redistribution of the land, and other reforms. However, he did not shy away from his strong criticism of the effects caused by the indiscriminate application of many reforms to Tibetan society and way of life especially in pastoral and rural areas. He complained about the failure of the reforms to improve prosperity among Tibetans, and the heavy toll on human life caused by the famine during the Great Leap Forward of 1958–1962, and the arbitrary application of many policies to demolish monastic institutional structures. In his travels and visits to numerous areas of eastern Tibet in 1961 and 1962, the then twenty-four-year-old Paṇchen Lama had witnessed the suffering and the struggle of his fellow citizens, an experience that he could not ignore.
The Tenth Paṇchen Lama's open affront to the Communist leadership came with a heavy cost. Despite the initial moderately positive reception to his 70,000 Character Petition especially by Zhou Enlai, and the multiple meetings in which a number of Chinese officials close to him including Xi Zhongxun (1913–2002), Zhang Jingwu (1906–1971), Peng Zhen (1902–1997), Zhang Guohua (1914–1972), and Li Weihan discussed the issues he raised, only a few of his suggestions were actually considered, and none were implemented.
Mao Zedong famously called the petition "a poisoned arrow," and once the Paṇchen Lama lost Mao's favors, he was purged. Within a few months his position as a political official began to crumble. In 1964, he was dismissed from all his official political positions—president of the Tibet Autonomous Region Preparatory Committee, member of the National People's Conference, and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference—ignored by Party members, accused of acting against the Communist Party, the people of China, and Socialism. He was sent to Beijing in confinement until 1968.
Rehabilitation
The death of Mao Zedong in 1976 formally ended the Cultural Revolution and over the next several years many individuals who had been imprisoned for counter-revolutionary activities were released. Many were "rehabilitated," meaning brought back into government service. On October 10, 1977, the thirty-eight-year-old Paṇchen Lama was released from prison but confined to house arrest. In 1978, during the period known as the "Eliminating chaos and returning to normality" (Ch: boluan fanzheng), after the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (December 1978), he was permitted to leave his house, rehabilitated, and allowed to travel. The Central Government appointed him to the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. By the following year, he was appointed as its vice-president.
A decade of isolation, torture, and sacrifice did not dissuade him from his aspirations to help Tibetans safeguard their language, cultural heritage, and religious traditions within the Chinese state. With these goals in mind, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama agreed to adapt to the conditions required of a political figure in the People's Republic of China. Under the encouragement of Yang Jingren (1918–2001), director of the United Front in the new Chinese administration led by Deng Xiaoping, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama agreed to renounce his monastic vows of celibacy and marry, with the understanding that with such a move he would be considered convincingly loyal to the government. He courted PLA General Dong Qiwu's (1899–1989) daughter Li Jie (b. 1950), whom he married in a highly symbolic ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in 1978. In 1983, they had a daughter, whom they named Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo (ya bzhis rig 'dzin dbang mo). As a result of his cooperation, he was given various positions of authority including that of vice chairman of the National People's Congress and vice chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
As a member of the Chinese government, the Tenth Panchen Lama was expected to uphold the policies and interests of the ruling Communist Party. However, he also used his position to advocate for the welfare of the Tibetan people and the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion. This dual allegiance placed him in a complex position, requiring him to navigate the often-conflicting demands of state loyalty and cultural identity. Throughout his tenure, the Tenth Panchen Lama worked to bridge the gap between Tibetan aspirations for autonomy and China's centralizing policies. He sought to address socio-economic disparities in Tibet, improve infrastructure, and promote education and healthcare initiatives. Simultaneously, he emphasized the importance of maintaining Tibetan cultural heritage and religious traditions, advocating for the repair of religious buildings, and protecting monastic institutions and religious freedom.
Dialogues with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
With the new leadership under Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese government expressed its willingness to allow the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to return to Chinese Tibet, but it refused to discuss any issue related to the assimilation of Tibet into the People’s Republic of China. The Tibetan leadership in exile organized a delegation of senior Tibetan politicians and diplomats tasked with exploratory talks with their Chinese government counterparts on not just the issue of the Dalai Lama, but also the welfare of the six million Tibetans living in the People's Republic of China. The first official visits commenced in 1982. In both that and the second, in 1984, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama was involved in the dialogues between the Fourteenth Dalai Lama's envoys and their Chinese counterparts regarding the status of Tibet. He regularly met with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama's representative involved in the dialogues with the Chinese government, including Taklha Phuntsok Tashi (stag lha, phun tshogs bkra shis, 1922 –1999), Juchen Thupten Namgyal ('ju chen thub bstan rnam rgyal, 1930–2011), and Gyari Rinpoche Kasur Lodi Gyaltsen (rgya ris rin po che bka' zur blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1949–2018)—known also as Lodi Gyari—who requested audiences with him in Beijing.
Despite expressing sincere reverence and respect for the Dalai Lama, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama did not hesitate to voice skepticism of the Dalai Lama's methods in communicating with Beijing. He was critical of the various demands and talking points the Tibetan delegates included in their conversations with the Chinese officials. The Paṇchen Lama did not share the Dalai Lama's and his envoys' demands for independence and self-determination, and he considered the demands to be confrontational, unrealistic, and a threat to any progress in the dialogues.
Instead, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama held to the possibility of gaining more genuine autonomy for Tibetans. He urged the Dalai Lama to visit Tibet and see it with his own eyes. He was particularly skeptical of the political advice and support that the exiled Tibetan government sought from foreign countries such as Russia, Switzerland, England, and the United States. On various occasions he also expressed to the Tibetan delegates his disapproval of public demonstrations and aggressive movements in support of the Tibetan cause outside Chinese embassies around the world, especially if these involved disruptive uprisings, expression of anger and fury, and burning of Chinese flags.
Revitalizing Buddhism and Opening the Tibetan Buddhist Academies
One of the most influential figures in the Paṇchen Lama's application of Communist ideology to in Tibetan in the 1980s was Zhao Puchu, the Chinese government official as well as Buddhist leader who in his seventy-year career worked to adapt Chinese Buddhism to modern times. Himself a devoted Buddhist practitioner, Zhao Puchu was a maverick and an extraordinary exception among the otherwise strictly atheist Communist Party and government circles of China. Considered one of the inheritors of the Republican-era reformer Taixu's (1890–1947) humanistic Buddhist thought and modernist ideology, Zhao Puchu revived and promoted a humanistic form Buddhism (renjian fojiao) that Taixu launched decades earlier. In the 1980s, the PRC state declared Taixu's contributions to be appropriate for progress, human edification, and universal values in line with the Socialist worldview in China. As a long-term head of the Buddhist Association of China, the official government supervisory organ of Buddhism in the People's Republic of China, Zhao Puchu was committed to firmly maintaining the essential doctrinal teachings of the Buddhist tradition while also emphasizing the need to put them in the service of Socialism and the building of the socialist "spiritual civilization" (jingshen wenming) program. He adapted Taixu's original ideas to better respond to the concerns of the Chinese Communist Party and turned these values into the core ideology at the heart of twentieth-century China. One of the strongest points for the reform of Buddhism in Zhao Puchu's eyes was the creation of a more educated form of Buddhism separate from the popular and often superstition-embedded practices. He believed in the relevance of the academic study of Buddhism that would help grow Buddhist knowledge in China. Together with economic self-sufficiency (economic independence) and social engagement (including international exchange, philanthropy, and social service), these became crucial features in the creation of a viable form of modern Buddhism that would not only be in tune with global trends, but also in line with the new socialist view of religion in the PRC.
As vice chairman of the National People's Congress as well as vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama was also given the title honorary chairman of the Buddhist Association of China. In this capacity he participated directly in the religious and Buddhist reform environment in collaboration with Zhao Puchu.
The Buddhist Association of China's vision for the rejuvenation of monastic Buddhism and Buddhist culture in China included the promotion and establishment of an updated Buddhist education, one that would strengthen the rigorous academic study of doctrinal scriptures and philosophical works while also promote social engagement and political knowledge. The result of these interests was the re-launching of Buddhist academies (foxueyuan) in the style of those originally created by Taixu in the early twentieth century. In 1980, Zhao Puchu advocated to the central government for the reopening of the Chinese Buddhist Academy (zhongguo foxueyuan) in Beijing within Fayuan Monastery. Approved in July that year, a preparatory group was created to organize a two-year program and regulations for admission. With this in mind, Zhao Puchu was also aware of the influence the Tenth Paṇchen Lama had on many Tibetans and of his stature in the Tibetan political, religion, and social worlds. He saw the opportunity to involve the Tenth Paṇchen Lama in his plans and expand the program of revival of Buddhism in China to Tibetan Buddhism as well.
Therefore, under the encouragement of Zhao Puchu, between 1979 and 1981, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama went on several fact-finding missions across the Tibetan areas of Gansu, Qinghai, and central Tibet to assess the conditions of monasteries and educational institutions and meet with Tibetans who had just been released from prison. In consultation with the Sixth Jamyang Zhepa Rinpoche Jigme Tubten Chokyi Nyima ('jam dbyangs bzhad pa 06 'jam dbyangs blo bzang 'jigs med thub bstan chos kyi nyi ma, b. 1948) and the Sixth Gungtang Rinpoche Tenpai Wangchuk (gung thang 06 'jigs med bstan pa'i dbang phyug, 1926–2000), he formally reopened Buddhist education at the monastic colleges at Labrang Monastery (bla brang bkra shis 'khyil) in Gansu. The following year, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama also visited Mewa Monastery (rme ba dgon) in Ngawa Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, where he would later began another major Buddhist educational institution.
Tibetan Buddhist Academies and Khenpo Jigme Puntsok
One of the clearest examples of Zhao's influence on the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's priorities for the preservation and reform of Tibetan Buddhism is in the curricula he developed for his Tibetan Buddhist Academies, in which he re-envisioned education for Tibetan Buddhist clergy after decades of cultural and intellectual deprivations. Under the Paṇchen Lama's vision, Tibetan Buddhist Academies focused on Mahāyāna and Tibetan doctrinal scriptures, philosophical commentarial treatises, liturgical material, as well as historical texts. Particular attention, however, was given to Tibetan language and grammar. The Tenth Paṇchen Lama's academies also included innovative education and pedagogical elements in line with the Chinese government's requirements, which included learning Chinese language, familiarizing students with the Chinese legal system, religious policies, the structure and work of the Communist Party, the history of China, and notions of business and management to augment the self-sufficiency and administration work of Tibetan monasteries. To revive Tibetan Buddhism and strengthen its relevance in the modern world Tenth Paṇchen Lama also promoted a more ecumenical approach to monastic systems, the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism among Chinese devotees, and use of the Mandarin Chinese to reach Chinese audiences.
In August 1986, during a long-term tour of eastern Tibetan regions in Qinghai and Sichuan, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama visited several government offices, public schools and religious sites in Serta County, Sichuan. He presided over a number of ritual ceremonies with local leaders such as juniper fumigations and public blessings. One of the highlights of the visit was a speech he delivered on August 15 to a crowd of thousands of Tibetans on a vast pasture. Arranged on the site where the historic Gogentang Stūpa had stood until it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, his throne was placed to represent the forthcoming reconstruction of the stūpa and the regeneration of religion and Buddhism in Tibet.
During his visit to Serta, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama also arranged an historic meeting with the Nyingma reincarnate lama Khenpo Jigme Puntsok (mkhan po 'jigs med phun tshogs, 1933–2004) at Larung Gar (bla rung sgar), his mountain hermitage located a few miles off the main county town. The meeting established a fruitful relationship between the two Buddhist leaders. This is evident not only in the encouragement and support showed by the Paṇchen Lama for Jigme Puntsok's Buddhist center, but also by the Paṇchen Lama's proposition that Jigme Puntsok relaunch his center as a Buddhist Academy.
The Paṇchen Lama personally renamed the center Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy (gser rta lnga rig nang bstan slob gling; Ch: seda larong si wuming foxueyuan). The event was sealed with a handwritten calligraphy in Tibetan penned by the Tenth Paṇchen Lama himself. The Paṇchen Lama advised the Nyingma leader in matters of religious policy and suggested that he turn his center into a model of ecumenical teaching and an example of interethnic coexistence, following an innovative approach in the teaching and studying of Tibetan Buddhist curricula. To do so, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama suggested he travel to Beijing to visit and offer some teachings in his own soon-to-be-open Buddhist Academy. The Paṇchen Lama recommended that Jigme Puntsok open his teachings to Chinese devotees by traveling to Wutai Shan, a pilgrimage that would launch Khenpo Jigme Puntsok’s career among the Chinese Buddhist public.
Just a few years after this meeting, the Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy became the destination of thousands of Buddhist devotees and monastics who were drawn by the center's emphasis on multiethnic and multidenominational Buddhist traditions. Khenpo Jigme Puntsok, along with the assistance of his closest disciples, created an education program that included both scriptural and contemplative study leading to the achievement of a seminary teacher degree—khenpo (mkhan po) for monks and, eventually, khenmo (mkhan mo) for nuns. At the same time, growing numbers of Chinese devotees began to visit and study at the encampment, many of whom took ordination in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Others simply resided there to learn and practice Tibetan Buddhism, often specializing in meditation techniques in Dzogchen. The center became renowned for its development of new teaching strategies and its organization of curricula and classes for Chinese speaking devotees with dozens of Chinese-speaking Tibetan khenpos leading small communities of Chinese followers all over the Chinese-speaking world. As the Tenth Paṇchen Lama recommended, Larung Gar created a Chinese language program that included textbooks, teachings, and oral classes in Chinese.
Within a few years, Larung Gar became a model for many other Nyingma Buddhist encampments in eastern Tibet that sought to emulate its combination of tradition and change, as well as the academic rigor of its monastic students. More encampments with Buddhist Academy-like programs soon emerged in both new institutions and existing monasteries, including Nyenlung Monastery (snyan lung dgon), Yachen Gar (ya chen), Adzom Chogar (a 'dzom chos sgar), and Lung-ngon Monastery (lung sngon dgon), many with large resident populations including monks, nuns, and non-ordained devotees. Like Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, their leaders often enjoyed a status as mystics and visionaries and drew on their charisma as Tibetan treasure revealers, or terton (gter ston), to galvanize crowds of monastics to study at their schools. Building directly on the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's vision of a modern Tibetan Buddhism that could attract Chinese devotees, several Buddhist centers in Tibet opened their gates to Han Chinese devotees and patrons.
The Buddhist Seminary at Mewa and the High-Level Tibetan Language Buddhist Academy of China
In 1987, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama gave a public talk in Serdeu (gser lde'u; Ch: Sedi) and visited Mewa Monastery in Ngawa, which had by then formally reopened its doors to monastics and recruited new novices. Like Larung Gar, Mewa was a Nyingma monastery, and would have previously not been within the orbit of a Geluk hierarch like the Paṇchen Lama. The new policy on religion in the People's Republic of China fundamentally promoted strict adherence to the laws of the People’s Republic of China, restricted the number and age of admitted novices, provided regulations on building, restoring, and repairing religious sites and monuments, enforced censorship on religious publications, and promoted numerous changes to traditional monastic education. Under the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's supervision, Mewa leadership opened the monastery seminary college, or shedra (shes grwa), and the ritual practice college, or drubdra (sgrubs grwa).
In Mewa, monastic education offered programs that prioritize Tibetan language literacy, including grammar, orthography, memorization of scriptures, prayers, and the study and practice of the preliminary practices (sngon gro) of the Longchen Nyingtik (klong chen snying thig) system, as well as Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra in the mind training, or lojong (blo sbyong) tradition. To complete the nearly twenty-year long program at the college, monks also need to study the five treatises that had long been at the center of traditional Tibetan monastic education: Maitreya's Prajñāpāramitāsūtra, Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra, Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika-kārika, Vasubhandu's Abhidharmakośakārika, and Guṇaprabha's Vinayasutra. Once young monks mastered these treatises, they were to work on more advanced and esoteric Tibetan Buddhist literature including texts by Karma Lingpa (karma gling pa) such as the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities (dkar gling zhi khrod), Jigme Lingpa ('jigs med gling pa, 1729–1798) and others. Only after mastering these series of texts were monks to pursue a three- or four-year-long meditation retreat.
At the core of the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's vision of a new form of Tibetan Buddhism was an emphasis on the essence of the Buddhist ideal of human interconnection reinterpreted as peaceful coexistence, experiential wisdom, scriptural knowledge, and intellectual reasoning, and which sought distance from that which was deemed blind faith, belief in the supernatural, and irrational superstition. Matched with multidisciplinary inclusion, innovative pedagogy, and the adoption of a more academic style of learning modeled on what he witnessed in his personal experience in numerous Chinese cities, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama envisioned a refined form of Buddhist spiritual life and monastic education that moved "human responsibility" (a focus on ten Buddhist virtues, for instance) and individual agency to the fore.
Some of the most controversial efforts he made toward these goals were his critiques of the negative effects of exaggerated devotion toward reincarnate lama, or tulkus (sprul sku). He also readily critiqued the abuses of monastic impostors and the Tibetan laity's frequently excessive monetary alms and donations to undeserving or suspicious monastic personnel. He thus strove to raise human potential among his fellow Tibetans to maintain peace and harmony while correcting what he perceived as mistaken views and attitudes of the past.
On September 1, 1987, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama opened his own Buddhist academy, the High-Level Tibetan Buddhist Academy of China (zhongguo gaoji zangyuxi foxueyuan), supported by Zhao Puchu and other political leaders. It was located within the premises of the Xihuangsi, the Western Yellow Monastery in Beijing (nub gyi lha khang gser po; Ch. xihuangsi), and remains active as of June 2024. The monastery was selected because of its connection with the the Sixth Paṇchen Lama (paN chen bla ma 06, 1738–1780): it was originally built by order of the emperor Shunzhi (1638–1661) of the Qing dynasty in 1651 for the 1652 visit of the Fifth Dalai Lama (ta la'i bla ma 05, 1617–1682), and was the residence of Sixth Paṇchen Lama during his visit in the late seventeenth century. The Sixth Paṇchen passed away there, and a memorial stūpa was installed to commemorate him.
By the time the Paṇchen Lama opened his Buddhist Academy in Beijing, he had already opened at least five other Buddhist academies, including the Nechung School (gnas chung nang bstan slob grwa) near Lhasa, once popularly known as the Paṇchen School (paṇ chen slob grwa); the Tibet Buddhist Academy (bod ljongs nang bstan slob gling; Ch: xizang foxueyuan) in Lhasa in 1982; the Sichuan Tibetan Buddhist Academy (si khron bod brgyud nang bstan slob gling; Ch. sichuan shenji zangyuxi foxueyuan) originally opened in 1984 at Lhundrubteng (lhun 'grub steng) in Derge, later on transferred to Dartsedo, and since 2017 located in Chengdu; the Qinghai Buddhist Academy (mtsho sngon zhing chen nang bstan slong grwa; Ch: qinghai shenji zangyu foxueyuan) within Kumbum Monastery in 1984; the Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy in Serta in 1986, and the Gansu Buddhist Academy (kan su’u zhing chen nang bstan slong grwa; Ch: gansu shen foxueyuan) in Labrang Monastery, also in 1986.
The Tenth Paṇchen Lama was in a unique position to assist Tibetans in their aspirations to regain some control over institutional Tibetan Buddhism and its practice, although his influence in the conceptualizing and popularizing of key adaptations within Tibetan Buddhist institutions in the 1980s is still poorly understood.
In addition to promoting the continued study of the five classical scriptures, the Paṇchen Lama also emphasized the study of Tibetan language spelling, grammar, and poetics. He particularly emphasized the study of Sumchupa (sum cu pa) and Takjuk (stags 'jug), the two Tibetan script compositions attributed to Thonmi Sambhota (thon mi sam bho ta). In his Buddhist Academy, he followed the commentaries to these texts written by Tsongkhapa (tsong kha pa pa, 1357–1419) but in the interest in a nonsectarian form of monastic education, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama supported the inclusion of at least the essential teachings and doctrines from all major Buddhist traditions in Tibet as taught by Buddhist teachers from all these schools. All various Buddhist Academies opened through government approval therefore shared similar curricula, programs, and textbooks. In addition to the traditional Buddhist disciplines know as Five Sciences (rig lnga): arts and crafts, philology, philosophy, medicine, and cosmology, the institutes, and especially the High-Level Tibetan Buddhist Academy of China in Beijing also included notions of modern science, history, Chinese language, and English.
To standardize the curriculum of his Buddhist academies, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama launched the publication of a collection of Buddhist textbooks and compendia under the title Key to the Vast Knowledge of the Land of Snows (gangs can rig brgya'i sgo 'byed sde mig). Publication of dozens of volumes began in 1987 and lasted until 1989, published by the Nationalities Press in Beijing. The Paṇchen Lama formed a team of Tibetan scholars and assigned the editorial leadership to Yangchen Sengge (dbyangs can seng dge) from the Tibetan Buddhist Academy. The volumes contain texts on rhetoric, Tibetan orthography, grammar, etymology, proverbs, and poetry. These were followed by annotated literary works and the biographies of eminent Tibetan Buddhist scholars including Śāntideva, and his Bodhicaryāvatāra; Sakya Pandita's (sa skya paN+Di ta, 1182–1251) Elegant Sayings (sa skya legs bshad); the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish (mdo mdzangs blun); the biography of Tsongkhapa; the histories, doctrines, and rituals of the Geluk, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Jonang, and Kadam traditions; excerpts from the Maṇi Kambum (ma Ni bka' 'bum); and various monastic rule compendia (cha yig) used at Tashilhunpo, Ganden, Drepung, and other Geluk monasteries.
In a Chinese state where the Chinese language was overwhelmingly dominant, the Paṇchen Lama attempted to position Tibetan culture as a "national culture" (mi rigs kyi rig gnas) and the Tibetan language as a "national duty" (mi rigs kyi 'os 'gan) for the Tibetans to maintain. He argued that the Tibetan language and culture should be developed in tandem with the study of Mandarin Chinese and modern scientific knowledge.
Among his other projects were the establishment of a new Tibetan traditional medical school in Shigatse. In 1986, through his Tibetan fund Kangyan Gongsi (gangs rgyan kung si) the Paṇchen Lama officially invited the Swiss Red Cross to Tibet as the first international aid organization, donated a large parcel of land in Pelshung village just a few miles from Shigatse town, and sponsored a medical school aimed at improving the training of Tibetan medical students and refresher courses for rural medical personnel and health workers. Through the Shigatse Health Bureau and the Swiss Red Cross, the private institution, the Pelshung Tibetan Medicine School (dpal shung bod sman slob grwa; Ch: bianxiong zangyi xuexio) was inaugurated in 1991.
A Buddha for the People
Opening teachings and public talks both to monastics and lay people was a relatively common tradition among Tibetan Buddhist leaders, who especially in the summer would offer initiations, perform rituals, and blessing sessions on different occasions in monastic courtyards and on pastures. However, prior to the Ninth Paṇchen Lama's teaching tours, the Dalai Lamas and Paṇchen Lamas rarely appeared in public. The Tenth Paṇchen Lama made a point to be visible to the Tibetan people. Just like many other high-level Buddhist clergy who reopened and started to teach Buddhism again, everywhere he visited, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama was received warmly and welcomed by crowds of residents who frequently traveled from distant areas to get a glimpse of him. He spoke directly with local leaders, citizens, and ordinary people to have a better sense of the conditions and aspirations of the people. He consistently encouraged Tibetans to uphold domestic unity, education, and especially to cherish the Tibetan language, traditional local dresses, and customs in the spirit of Tibetan people (mi rigs).
In addition to visits to monasteries and meetings with religious leaders and public officials, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama paid particular attention to supporting schools, cultural exhibitions, vocational institutes, and local factories. In numerous primary and secondary schools in eastern Tibetan areas of Qinghai and Sichuan, he is still remembered fondly for his engagement with students and faculty. He would personally encourage and praise the work of school principals and administration staff by offering monetary contributions and grants from the donations he received from Buddhist devotees. Worth remembering are his numerous visits to schools in various Amdo Tibetan towns including his birthplace of Bido, Chabcha (chab cha), Trika (khri ka), Chentsa (gcan tsha), Rebkong (reb gong), Tsekok (rtse khog), and Yulgan (yul rgan). In October 1982, he participated in the inauguration of the Dzorge (mdzod dge; ru'ergai) Primary School to which he donated ¥10,000. The same month he also visited the Barkham Nationalities Teachers College ('bar khams mi rigs dge rgan slob grwa, Ch: ma'erkhang minzu shifang xueyuan).
The Tenth Panchen Lama’s activity was not without challenges and controversies. His efforts to balance Tibetan interests with Chinese mandates were met with skepticism and criticism from both Tibetans and Chinese. Some Tibetan activists, particularly outside of Tibet, viewed him as a collaborator with the Chinese government, questioning his loyalty. Yet many renowned Tibetan intellectuals viewed him a hero who sacrificed his life for the wellbeing of Tibetans in China and the safeguarding of their cultural heritage.
The Tenth Paṇchen Lama's Final Years
In 1986, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama succeeded in organizing and presiding over the re-opening of the Great Prayer Festival (smon lam chen mo) in Lhasa, twenty years after it was prohibited by the start of the Cultural Revolution. The Great Prayer Festival was an important Buddhist ritual gathering established by Tsongkhapa in 1409. Held annually in Lhasa, the multiday celebration was traditionally celebrated in front of the Jokhang (jo khang) and attracted thousands of monks from different regions of Tibet. The Tenth Paṇchen Lama believed its revival would be an important concession to the needs of large monastic population of the Buddhist community in the Lhasa area after decades of repression.
To revive the festival, the Paṇchen Lama secured the support and sponsorship of Wu Jinhua (1931–2007), the Party Secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), together with that of several political leaders of National People's Congress and the Political Consultative Conference. He himself donated more than 165,000 yuan to cover all the expenses related to the festival taken from funds accumulated through donations to his Kangyan Company. He presided over typical sessions of Buddhist monastic debates among high geshes, the classic Butter Lamp Festival, the erection of prayer flagpoles (lung rta), and the recitation of a series of prayers associated with the event. At the official opening of the festival, he delivered a passionate speech to a large crowd in Lhasa in which called for abandoning the divisions between the Dalai Lama's office and the Paṇchen Lama's office. He reiterated the special relationship and cordiality that exists between him and the Dalai Lama as dharma companions (chos grogs). He also encouraged Tibetans to respect and strive for the unity between Tibetans and the Chinese population and among their fellow Tibetans, and to respect the work and assistance of the Chinese government.
In 1986, as Gyayak Rinpoche retired from his political work, Lobzang Tubten Jigme Gyatso, the Eighth Arjia Hutuktu, (a kyā ho thog thu 08, blo bzang thub bstan 'jigs med rgya mtsho, b. 1950) also known as Arjia Rinpoche (a kyā rin po che), became the new assistant to the Tenth Paṇchen Lama. Arjia Rinpoche, an ordained monk and abbot of Kumbum Monastery, was the nephew of the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's tutor Gyayak Tulku and was a khenpo at Kumbum.
Arjia Rinpoche worked with the Paṇchen Lama and accompanied him on trips, events, and visits. He traveled extensively with him in a delegation of Tibetan and Chinese officials that for a few occasions included Baba Puntsok Wangyel. He traveled both domestically and internationally in the Tenth Paṇchen Lama's Buddhist-related diplomatic travels to several countries such as Nepal, on the occasion of the Fifteenth General World Buddhist Conference in 1986 on the theme "Lumbini: A Symbol of World Peace" and coinciding with the United Nations International Year of Peace. There, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama and Arjia Rinpoche sat next to the Nepalese king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (1945–2001). He also accompanied the Tenth Paṇchen Lama to South American countries including Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil from 1986 to 1989.
The Tenth Paṇchen Lama was not always warmly welcomed by Tibetans living abroad and was often the target of protests and boycotts.
In 1989, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama inaugurated the newly reconstructed Shar Dungten Tashi Namgyel Stūpa (TOL shar gdung brten bkra bshis rnam rgyal chos brten) at Tashilhunpo. The monument contains the remains and relics of the previous Paṇchen Lamas, from the Fifth to the Ninth, whose reliquary stūpas were destroyed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. The Paṇchen Lama conceived the plan to build the monument during his inspection of the site in 1982. The project lasted three years, from 1985 to 1988, and was approved by the Central Government, the Communist Party, the Central Committee, the State Council, and Tibetan regional leaders. On January 14, 1989, the Paṇchen Lama traveled from Beijing for the consecration, escorted and accompanied by a large entourage of Communist Party cadres and various religious personalities. As one of the largest religious events in Tibet since the end of the Cultural Revolution, the celebrations and rituals lasted three days and attracted crowds of people from all parts of Tibet; according to some sources the crowd numbered 20,000 people. On January 22, the formal opening of the site to the public, the Paṇchen Lama presided over the ceremony offering blessings to the public, pilgrims, devotees, and monastics. Sessions of debate were held by monastics in the front courtyard, followed by performances of Tibetan dances and opera, as well as public speeches by both the Tenth Paṇchen Lama and Hu Jintao (b. 1942), then Party Committee Secretary of the TAR.
The following day, January 23, the Paṇchen Lama convened a forum summoning more than 230 Tibetan members of the Communist Party and government and army officials from all provinces with a Tibetan population. During the forum, the Paṇchen Lama expounded to them about the massive physical and psychological trauma experienced by Tibetans since 1949, and the vast damage to the Buddhist monasteries, sites, and heritage. Although expressing disappointment with the Chinese government's work on Tibet and Tibetans, he nevertheless expressed hope that eventually genuine autonomy would be granted to Tibet. He encouraged Tibetan leaders to support the reconstruction of religious structures in their respective areas and voiced the need to improve the appointment of Buddhist leadership of monasteries. He offered guidance about reestablishing procedures to recognize reincarnate lamas. Among those in attendance were Gyayak Rinpoche; Gungtang Rinpoche (gung thang rin po che, 1926–200); Khenpo Jigme Puntsok; the Ganden Geshe Dokme Jampa Lodro ('brog mi byams pa blo gros); Baba Puntsok Wangyel; Renrig, the head of the Tibetan Section of the United Front Department (otherwise known as the "Seventh Bureau"), and Li Zuomin, the head of the nationalities section of the United Front Department.
The Paṇchen Lama's Death and Reincarnation
Just five days after the above events, on January 28, 1989, the Tenth Paṇchen Lama passed away. The world reacted with shock at the news, both inside and outside of Tibet. The Chinese government declared the cause of death to have been a heart attack, which was met by considerable skepticism. Some believe that the Paṇchen Lama was aware of his imminent passing, particularly on the eve of publicly criticizing Chinese policy and calling for reform in Tibet. Author Tsangtruk Topla reports in his book that the Paṇchen Lama's daughter Rigzin Wangmo recalled that just before departing for Tibet from Beijing he said to her, "From here I have to separate from my family, and my heart is very heavy. I want my attendants to look after my family nicely afterwards, as if they were serving me." Multiple accounts exist of the events around his death. Tibetans living outside of China reported that the Paṇchen Lama was healthy and never suffered from heart conditions, but Chinese sources claim that during the last couple of days prior to his passing, he showed signs of fatigue and malaise. Rumors of poison persist among the Tibetan communities.
A few days after the passing of the Tenth Paṇchen Lama the Chinese government allowed Tashilhunpo leadership to organize a search committee with its abbot, Chadrel Rinpoche (bya bral rin po che, 1940–2012) as search chairman. The committee was permitted to communicate with the Dalai Lama on the selection and recognition, hoping for a mutually acceptable process and recognition. However, the final selection was to be performed by the ceremony known as "drawing from the golden urn" (gser bum skrug pa), a ritual that had some precedence. Chadrel Rinpoche however secretly communicated with the Dalai Lama and his staff in Dharamsala about his preferred candidate, a boy named Gendun Chokyi Nyima (dge 'dun chos kyi nyi ma, b. April 25, 1989) and the Dalai Lama preempted the officials' drawing of names by publicly recognizing the child as the Eleventh Paṇchen Lama.
Chadrel Rinpoche was arrested by the Chinese government, accused of splittist activities and betraying state secrets. He was sentenced to six years in prison and died there under unclear circumstances. Gendun Chokyi Nyima disappeared, a prisoner of the Chinese state. After these events, the Chinese government continued the search and selection of the Eleventh Paṇchen Lama and assigned the process to Sengchen Lobzang Gyeltsen (seng chen blo bzang rgyal mtshan), who with his assistants, organized a short list of finalists. In November 1995, the name of the six-year-old Gyeltsen Norbu (rgyal mtshan nor bu, b. 1990) was drawn from the golden urn and officially named Chokyi Gyelpo (chos kyi rgyal po). The next month, on December 8, he was enthroned as the Eleventh Paṇchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery.
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Publication of this biography was made possible through support of National Endowment for the Humanities.
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