The Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second-most-important leader, not seen in 30 years

Australia Broadcast Center

24-07-2025

On a Sunday in May 1995, a six-year-old boy was publicly identified as the second-most-important person in Tibetan Buddhism.
Three days later, he was disappeared by China's communist authorities.
Thirty years on, the whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family are still unknown.
Gedhun went missing after the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, had named him as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama.
The 10th Panchen Lama, Chökyi Gyaltsen, had died six years earlier in 1989 — the year of Gedhun's birth.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities decried Gedhun's selection as invalid and illegal.
They chose their own Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, who many Tibetan Buddhists refuse to recognise and refer to as an impostor.
Gedhun's disappearance remains deeply felt, three decades later.
His role would have included identifying the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
Now, thanks to the current one, it is going to be more difficult for that process to be hijacked by the CCP.
Little is known about Gedhun.
He came from a remote district of central Tibet called Nagchu.
"He was born in an ordinary family, and all we have is one photo of him as a six-year-old boy," says Kyinzom Dhongdue, a Tibetan human rights activist and former member of the Tibetan government in exile.
That singular photo of Gedhun, and all images of the Dalai Lama, are prohibited in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
In the south of the TAR is the Tashi Lhunpo monastery, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama.
It was here that Gedhun would have been based had he not been swept away by Chinese authorities.
Before he had been identified as the Panchen Lama, there were already fears that the CCP would interfere with the traditional processes of selecting the spiritual leaders of Tibetan Buddhism.
And so, the search for the 11th Panchen Lama was conducted in great secrecy.
Due to this, the exact details of Gedhun's recognition are limited.
Some were revealed by the Dalai Lama in his recently published book.
He wrote that at the end of 1994, he was given "a carefully selected list of more than 20 candidates" from Jadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of Tashi Lhunpo.
"He and his search team considered one of these candidates, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, to be the true incarnation," the Dalai Lama wrote.
The Dalai Lama said his divinations and consultations with oracles had confirmed the search party's choice of Panchen Lama.
He said that information was originally passed on to Jadrel confidentially.
Eventually, it became clear he had no choice but to announce it publicly.
"In March 1995, the Chinese government insisted that three to five names be placed in a golden urn for selection by lot, rather than approve the correct reincarnation," the Dalai Lama wrote.
"This put me in an impossible position … I came to the conclusion that I needed to share with the Tibetan Buddhists around the world the result of my own divinations on the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
"Unfortunately, the fallout was terrible — Jadrel Rinpoche was imprisoned for six years, and Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was subjected to serious harassment, including the arrest of more than 30 monks."
Three days later, Gedhun disappeared, believed to be the youngest political prisoner in the world.
The Dalai Lama has described his whereabouts as "perhaps … one of the best-kept secrets in the history of the Chinese Communist Party".
"I have been told by some Chinese, one of them in fact quite a knowledgeable person, that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has been living under a form of house arrest within the compound of a military base somewhere in mainland China," he said.
According to the Dalai Lama, the location and wellbeing of Jadrel was also unknown.
In May 1996, a year after Gedhun's disappearance, Thomas Hammarberg from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child asked for information about Gedhun's location and status.
Then-ambassador of China to the UN, Wu Jianmin, told the committee Beijing had granted a request from the boy's parents for government protection, and he was "living with his parents in good conditions".
Mr Wu claimed the Dalai Lama had violated tradition by appointing the boy from overseas, and separatists were seeking to kidnap him, leading his parents to fear for his safety.
Then, in May 2020, just days after the 25th anniversary of his disappearance, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Gedhun had "received free compulsory education when he was a child, passed the college entrance examination, and now has a job".
The spokesperson said the then-31-year-old and his family were living "normal lives" and wished not to be disturbed.
Tibet's government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), issued a blistering statement at the time calling the response "half-hearted and nonchalant" and urged the international community to pressure Beijing for details of his whereabouts.
Australia Tibet Council executive office Zoe Bedford said there was no way to be confident that Gedhun was alive until his wellbeing had been verified by an independent organisation.
After Gedhun and his family disappeared, Beijing prioritised a different method to pick a new Panchen Lama, using a golden urn to pick a name in a lottery of sorts.
The Chinese-chosen and endorsed Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, whose parents were members of the CCP, according to the Dalai Lama, is seen as a purely political figure by many Tibetan Buddhists.
Gyaltsen Norbu met Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month, vowing to continue "the sinicisation of religion", commit to Mr Xi's teachings, and support the CCP leadership, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
"He is a Tibetan, but he is a puppet for the Chinese government," Kyinzom Dhongdue said.
"He is not accepted by the people, and that will be the fate if China does install a fake Dalai Lama."
It was with this in mind that earlier this month, the Dalai Lama made his determination that only his office, the Gaden Phodrang Trust, had authority to choose his successor.
Not Gyaltsen Norbu, nor the CCP via their golden urn.
Beijing rejected it on the same day.
"The reincarnation of the great living Buddhas such as the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama must be identified by drawing lots from the golden urn and approved by the central government," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.
"The sinicisation of religion is not a restriction on religion; the survival and development of any religion needs to adapt to the country's social environment and cultural traditions."
Many Tibetan Buddhists believe it is now critical to pressure the Chinese government to release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family.
"China has been preparing for this, to interfere in the Dalai Lama's reincarnation," Kyinzom Dhongdue said.
"It's important for the Australian government to publicly affirm that Tibetan Buddhists, and Tibetan Buddhists alone, have the right to determine their own religious freedom and religious leaders.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Canberra accused the Dalai Lama of being a political figure advocating for Tibet's independence.
"His purpose is to split China and engage in political hype," they said in a statement.
They said Gedhun was not the Panchen Lama — just an ordinary Chinese citizen.
"He and his family do not want their normal life to be disturbed by others," the statement said.
"China firmly opposes certain countries and forces' interference in China's internal affairs under the pretext of 'religious freedom'."