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The 'Panchen Lama', often translierated as 'Pänchen Lama', is the second-highest-ranking lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (the sect which controlled Tibet from the 16th century until the Communist takeover). The successive Panchen lamas form a ''tulku'' reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning "great scholar", is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit ''paṇḍita'' (scholar) and the Tibetan ''chenpo'' (great).
Who is the true present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy: the People's Republic of China asserts it is Qoigyijabu, while the Tibetan Government in Exile maintain it is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was arrested at the age of six years by the Chinese in 1995. He then became the world's youngest political prisoner.

Contents

Relation to the Dalai Lama lineage

11th Panchen Lama

List of Panchen Lamas

See also

References

External links

Relation to the Dalai Lama lineage

The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa. In the case of the Panchen Lama, the religious procedures traditionally involve a final selection process by the Dalai Lama. This has been the tradition since the Fifth Dalai lama, Ngawang Lobsang, recognized his teacher as the Panchen (Great Scholar) Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery (Bkra-shis Lhung-po) in Shigatse (Gzhis-ka rtse). With this appointment, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen's three previous incarnations were posthumously recognised as Panchen Lamas. The Fifth Dalai Lama also recognized Panchen Lobsang Yeshe (Blo-bzang Ye-shes) as the Fifth Panchen Lama. The Seventh Dalai Lama recognized the Sixth Panchen Lama, who in turn recognized the Eighth Dalai Lama. Similarly, the Eighth Dalai Lama recognised the Seventh Panchen Lama. [1]
Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, was an important political figure in Tibet following the 14th Dalai Lama's escape to India in 1959. He was enthroned on June 11, 1949 in Amdo (Qinghai) under the auspice of Chinese officials after the KMT administration approved the selection of the reincarnation of the 9th Panchen Lama.^[1] However, during the Cultural Revolution in 1968 he was imprisoned; in 1977, he was released but held under house arrest in Beijing until 1982. In 1983, he married a Chinese woman and had a daughter, highly controversial behavior for a Gelug lama. In 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama died suddenly in Shigatse, Tibet at the age of 51, shortly after giving a speech critical of the Chinese occupation. His daughter, now a young woman, is Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, better known as "Renji." Although some organizations have criticized the 10th Panchen Lama as a Chinese puppet (or worse), most scholars (and the 14th Dalai Lama) believe that he did the best that he could to help his people in an impossible situation.

11th Panchen Lama

Following the unexpected death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989, the search for his reincarnation quickly became mired in political controversy. Chadrel Rinpoche, the head of the search committee, was able to secretly communicate with the Dalai Lama. However, after the Dalai Lama announced Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the new Panchen Lama, Chinese authorities arrested Chadrel Rinpoche, who was replaced with Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen. Sengchen had been a political opponent of the previous Panchen Lama, as had the Dalai Lama himself. The new search committee decided to ignore the Dalai Lama's announcement and choose the Panchen Lama from a list of finalists, which did not include Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, by drawing lots from the Golden Urn. Gyancain Norbu was announced as the search committee's choice on November 11, 1995.
The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima are unknown. The Government of Tibet in Exile claims that he and his family continue to be political prisoners, and has termed him the "youngest political prisoner in the world". The Chinese government claims that he is attending school and leading a normal life somewhere in China, and that his whereabouts are kept undisclosed to protect him.^[2]

List of Panchen Lamas

	name	life span	Tibetan/Wylie	PRC transcription	other English spellings
1.	Khedrup Je	1385–1438¹	མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ་་ ''Mkhas-grub Rje'',་ མྷས་གྲུབ་དགེལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་ ''Mkhas-grub Dge-legs Dpal-bzang-po''	Kaichub Gêlêg Baisangbo	Khädrup Je, Khedrup Gelek Pelsang, Kedrup Geleg Pelzang, Khedup Gelek Palsang, Khedrup Gelek Pal Sangpo
2.	Sönam Choklang	1438–1505¹	བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོག་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་་ ''Bsod-nams Phyogs-glang'',་ བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་ ''Bsod-nams Phyogs-kyi Glang-po''	Soinam Qoilang, Soinam Qoigyi Langbo	Sonam Choglang, Soenam Choklang
3.	Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup	1505–1568¹	དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་དྲུཔ་་ ''Dben-sa-pa Blo-bzang Don-grub''	Wênsaba Lobsang Toinchub	Gyalwa Ensapa, Ensapa Lozang Döndrup, Ensapa Losang Dhodrub
4.	Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten	1570–1662	བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་ ''Blo-bzang Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan''	Lobsang Qoigyi Gyaicain	Losang Chökyi Gyältsän, Lozang Chökyi Gyeltsen, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lobsang Choegyal, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen
5.	Lobsang Yeshe	1663–1737	བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་་ ''Blo-bzang Ye-shes''	Lobsang Yêxê	Lobsang Yeshi, Losang Yeshe
6.	Lobsang Palden Yeshe	1738–1780	བློ་བཟང་གྤལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས་་ ''Blo-bzang Gpal-ldan Ye-shes''	Lobsang Baidain Yêxê	Palden Yeshe, Palden Yeshi
7.	Palden Tenpai Nyima	1782–1853	གྤལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་་ ''Gpal-ldan Bstan-pa'i Nyi-ma''	Dainbai Nyima	Tänpä Nyima, Tenpé Nyima, Tempai Nyima, Tenpey Nyima
8.	Tenpai Wangchuk	1855?–1882	བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་་ ''Bstan-pa'i Dbang-phyug''	Dainbai Wangqug	Tänpä Wangchug, Tenpé Wangchuk, Tempai Wangchuk, Tenpey Wangchuk
9.	Thubten Chökyi Nyima	1883–1937	ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ ''Thub-bstan Chos-kyi Nyi-ma''	Tubdain Qoigyi Nyima	Choekyi Nyima, Thubtän Chökyi Nyima
10.	Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen	1938–1989²	བློབཟང་ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་ ''Blo-bzang Phrin-las Lhun-grub Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan ''	Lobsang Chinlai Lhünchub Qoigyi Gyaicain	Choekyi Gyaltsen, Chökyi Gyeltsen, Choekyi Gyaltse, Trinley Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lozang Trinlä Lhündrup Chökyi Gyältsän
11.	Gedhun Choekyi Nyima / Qoigyijabu²	1989– / 1990–	དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ ''Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma'' / ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་་ ''Chos-kyi Rgyal-po''	Gêdün Qoigyi Nyima / Qoigyijabu	Gendün Chökyi Nyima, Gendhun Choekyi Nyima / Choekyi Gyalpo, Chökyi Gyälbo, Gyaincain Norbu, Gyaltsen Norbu

Remarks:
¹ The title Panchen Lama was conferred posthumously on the first two Panchen Lamas.
² The present incarnation of the Panchen Lama is disputed. The Dalai Lama recognises Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Chinese government recognises Gyaicain Norbu as the incarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama. Exile Tibetan sources allege that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was kidnapped by the Chinese government.

See also

★ History of Tibet

★ Reincarnation Application

References

1. http://www.tibet-society.org.uk/pbackground.html
2. Xizang-zhiye April 27, 2005

External links

★ Tibet Society UK - The Background To The Panchen Lama

★ BBC News article - "Tibet's missing spiritual guide"
An article from "China Tibetology" Nr. 3, published in English, with the title "An example for posterity: Celebrating the Seventh Anniversary of the search for and confirmation of the Eleventh Panchen"; it explains in detail the Chinese government's position on the search of reincarnations of the Panchen Lama:

★ Preface

★ The reincarnation of Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism and the administration over Living Buddhas exercised by central governments

★ The Grand Living Buddha Reincarnation System in the dGe-lugs-pa Sect and the Central Government Strengthening the Governing of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas

★ A Successful Example in Searching and Confirming the Eleventh Panchen Lama Set for the Reincarnation of Grand Living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism in a New Historical Condition