China's 'youngest' political prisoner turns 18
Apr 25, 2007 - 1:42:21 PM
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In 1995, in a bid to quench the demands for the boy-leader's release, China named a young boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the Panchen Lama.
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By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
[RxPG] Kathmandu, April 25 - As China's 'youngest' political prisoner comes of age Wednesday, Beijing has begun tightening its control over Tibet to erase the influence of Tibetans' exiled leader the Dalai Lama, says a report by the International Campaign for Tibet -.
Tibetans demanding the freedom of the former Buddhist kingdom from Chinese rule and their supporters worldwide began a series of protests Wednesday to mark the 18th birthday of Gendun Cheokyi Nyima, regarded by them as the Panchen Lama, the second-most revered leader of the diaspora after their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.
Nyima vanished from public sight 12 years ago, a year after he was named the new Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama.
'The Panchen Lama's plight has come to symbolise the crisis facing the survival of Tibet's religious culture,' said the ICT, a group asking for the protection of Tibetans' rights and end of Chinese control.
Coinciding with Nyima's 18th birthday, ICT has published a report that documents a trend of tightening control over religious practice and scholarship in Tibet today.
Using information from official documents obtained from Tibet and interviews with reincarnate lamas, monks and nuns from Tibet, the report documents a stepping up of the patriotic education campaign in religious institutions as a means of strengthening China's influence in religious institutions.
It also records a renewed determination by Chinese authorities to crack down on the influence of the Dalai Lama, especially by appropriating the authority necessary for the transmission of teachings and the identification of reincarnate lamas.
The Panchen Lama holds special importance for Tibetans since he endorses and educates the successor of the Dalai Lama as the new Dalai Lama.
China, which annexed Tibet in 1949 and since then began a series of measures to curb the influence of the Dalai Lama, took the young Panchen Lama under its control after his nomination.
The young boy, believed to be under house arrest with his parents in an undisclosed place near Beijing, has not been seen again.
In 1995, in a bid to quench the demands for the boy-leader's release, China named a young boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, as the Panchen Lama.
However, the Chinese nomination has been spurned by Tibetans and their supporters who have kept up petitioning the UN and other rights organisations for the release of Nyima.
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