29-year-long China-disappeared Panchen Lama’s 35th birthday marked with call for his urgent release

TibetanReview.net, Apr26’24) —Despite remaining disappeared after being abducted by the Chinese government since 1995 at six years of age, Tibetans continue to be hopeful for the condition and well-being of the 11^th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, Tibet’s second most prominent religious figure after the Dalai Lama. Marking his 35^th birthday on Apr 25, they reiterated their call for his immediate release and urged international support for their effort.

Commemorating the grand occasion on the courtyard of the Tsuglakhang, the main Buddhist temple in town, Sikyong (executive head) Mr Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration of the exile Tibetans at Dharamshala said the most pressing concern was whether the Panchen Rinpoche was still alive .

Both he and the Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, bemoaned the fact that China had not responded clearly, or has only given facile responses, to questions on the whereabouts of the Panchen Rinpoche raised by the United Nations and the international community.

Penpa Tsering appealed to “all free democratic governments to take effective measures to secure the immediate release of Panchen Rinpoche”. He also called on “the human rights organizations and supporters of the Tibetan cause to take all possible steps to appeal to their governments.”

Penpa Tsering also urges Gyaltsen Norbu, the replacement 11^th Panchen Lama installed by the Chinese government, not to become “a political tool of the Chinese government’s sinister motives.”

In his speech, Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel also reiterated “our call to the Chinese Communist Party government that it must be fully transparent in clearing all doubts regarding the true situation of the Kunzig Panchen Rinpoche and the members of his family.”

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Participating in the official Tibetan commemoration of the occasion were prominent members of the Estonian parliament as well as Buddhist leaders from the Himalayan belt. Holding a press conference, the delegation from Estonia called on the Chinese authorities to immediately allow an independent fact-finding commission to get access to the Panchen Lama and to give him basic human rights.

The delegation consisted of Juku Kalle Raid, member of the Estonian Parliament and of Estonia’s Foreign Affairs Commission; Jenn Polluaas, Member of Estonian Parliament and its Former Speaker; Tarmo Tamm, Member of Estonian Parliament, and Andres Herkel, Former Estonian MP and Journalist.

Raid, also the Chair of the Estonian Parliamentary Support Group for Tibet, was the chief guest. He vowed his commitment to amplify voices across European countries with increased conviction and impact to seek European nations’ acknowledgment of the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination.

Buddhist leaders from across the Himalayas also held a joint press conference, addressed by Kyabje Zeekyab Tulku Jetsun Tenzin Thupten Rabgyal, Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in south India whose Tibetan origin in Shigatse City is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas; Kyabje Lochen Rinpoche of Kyi Monastery in Spiti, HP; Tsechokling Tulku Tenzing Gelek, former secretary of the Ecclesiastical Affairs Department, Gov’t of Sikkim; and Rigzin Dorjay, Acting President of the Ladakh Buddhist Association.

The representatives from the four monasteries, the association from the Himalayas and the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas issued a joint appeal, addressed to foreign governments, the United Nations, and the international community, urging them to seek a personal meeting with the Panchen Lama to ascertain his current situation. The latter were urged to give concrete recognition to the fact that the 11^th Panchen Lama has remained a victim of enforced disappearance for 29 years and deprived of all his basic human rights. They called for the release also of Chatrel Rinpoche, the head of the committee to search for the 11th Panchen Lama, who also disappeared after serving a jail sentence as China apparently suspected him of having conveyed his findings to the Dalai Lama.

The Himalayan leaders also urged support for the resolution of the Sino-Tibetan dispute on the basis of the latter’s middle way approach of seeking genuine autonomy for their historical homeland.

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It has also been reported that the Chair, Els Van Hoof, and Deputy Chair, Samuel Cogolati, of the External Affairs Committee of the Federal Parliament of Belgium issued a joint statement for the occasion.

The statement condemned China’s 29-year-long enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama and called for his immediate release along with his family, teacher and other political prisoners.

They also called on China to respect the Tibetan people’s right to freedom of religion and the right to choose the reincarnation of their religious leaders, including that of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, without its interference.

Meanwhile, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits China over Apr 24-26, Tibet groups have urged him to rase the 11^th Panchen Lama issue in his meetings with the top leaders there.