The past 14 years also saw an aggressive and swaggering China rejecting all calls and appeals for information on the condition of Gedun Choekyi Nyima, the boy recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama following the Tibetan tradition of identifying a reincarnation. In 1995 three days after Nyima's recognition, the 6-year-old boy along with his family went missing. Beijing later admitted that the boy was in "protective custody" without providing any corresponding evidence. Sustained inquiries from the international community led by none other than the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson failed to elicit any response from Beijing.
Official order bans Nyima's pictures in Tibet. But Tibetans still discuss in hushed tone the fate of Nyima while watching in stunned amusement the spectacle surrounding Norbu, also called "Jiang Zemin's Panchen" or "Gya (Chinese) Panchen" by the Tibetans. (Norbu is Tibetan) In Tibet, for instance, the ubiquitous music videos of Tibetan singers do not feature portraits of Beijing's Panchen; the defiance is obvious given the fact that most Tibetan singers commonly prefer showing pictures of their root lamas in videos. Instead they show the previous 10th Panchen's pictures.
With the Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Shigatse reduced to a venue for political gimmicks and the real Panchen still in Chinese custody, the Tibetan exiles have built a Tashi Lhunpo in exile located in Bylakkuppe Tibetan settlement in south India. In 2008 when Nyima turned 18 the abbot of the exile Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Khen Rinpoche Lobsang Tseten, told the India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD): "at this stage in his studies, the Panchen Lama should have completed or be near completion of the second of the five major subjects of Tibetan Buddhism known as Madhyamarg (the Middle Way), in addition to texts on the Perfection of Wisdom." With his "disappearance", the Panchen Lama cannot receive oral transmissions and other trainings crucial to the comprehensive development of this very important lineage system in Tibetan Buddhism.
The system of reincarnation is one of the core beliefs of Tibetan religious tradition. Tibetans believe that the reincarnated lamas as lineage holders are the key to the survival of Tibetan religion and belief systems; they have ensured the continuity of Tibetan Buddhism over thousands of years. Chinese imposition of its own Panchen Lama violates this core belief system. It also paves way for more politicized reincarnations including the Dalai Lama and endangers the essence of Tibetan religion not to mention the prolonged religious strife it could trigger in future. Without the real Panchen Lama in the Tibetan firmament, there has formed a void that slowly eats at the core of Tibetan faith and by extension their culture, value system, their distinctive existence as a people deserving of freedom to be who they are. The consequences are beyond religious.
Aware of the close link between religion and Tibetan identity, China has from the beginning targeted Tibetan Buddhism. In the 1950s, monasteries, temples and sacred scriptures and artifacts were destroyed; and monks and nuns were subjected to violent physical and ideological attacks. The Cultural Revolution snuffed out what remained of the destruction wrought by the so-called democratic reforms in 1950s. As far back in 1962, even before the Cultural Revolution hurricane, the previous 10th Panchen Lama, as vice-chairman of CPPCC expressed concerns over the fate of Tibetan Buddhism: "Those who have religious knowledge will slowly die out, religious affairs are stagnating, knowledge is not being passed on, there is worry about there being no training for new people, and so we see the elimination of Buddhism, which was flourishing in Tibet and which transmitted teachings and enlightenment. This is something which I and more the 90% of Tibetans cannot endure."
Today the spiritual heads of four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the indigenous Bon religion are in exile. They are not in "self-imposed" exile as Beijing would like us to believe. They were driven out of their land forced, to seek another space to freely revive their faith and culture. Lack of highly educated teachers and spiritual leaders is often cited as one of the main reasons why many Tibetan monks and nuns leave Tibet for exile. The continued devotion and loyalty to the Dalai Lama among Tibetans in and outside Tibet has spurred Beijing to introduce various measures cloaked in legal terms to undermine his authority and annihilate traditional mores of Tibetan Buddhism. Because the Dalai Lama is a powerful symbol of Tibetan religious and cultural identity, Beijing has since the 1990s officially sanctioned widespread denunciation campaigns against the Tibetan leader in and outside Tibet.
In Tibet, religion has been so highly politicized that even routine repair of monastic buildings needs official approval. The fair-sounding Democratic Management Committees (DMCs) established since 1950s in every big and small monastery and temple act as the ears and the eyes of the party. Members to DMCs are partly elected and partly appointed by Bureau of Religious Affairs. Beijing says DMC "receives guidance and support from relevant government departments in charge of religious affairs" [100 Questions on Tibet, Beijing Review, 1989]. In addition to living under surveillance, monks and nuns have to attend political indoctrination classes where they are taught by "work teams" to pledge their allegiance to the party and denounce the Dalai Lama. Special handbooks on "anti-splittism", "education on policy on religion", etc, are distributed at these "patriotic re-education" classes. Some classes last for weeks and some for months but nobody can complain over the disruption of normal religious activities and the psychological pressure borne by monks and nuns. Denouncing the Dalai Lama in speech and writing required in such brainwashing process represents for the deeply devout Tibetans the highest act of blasphemy. These "work teams" functions under "patriotic associations" which is supervised by State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) and the Communist Party's United Front Department. SARA is a department directly under the State Council, the top decision making body in PRC.
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