The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Friday (April 23) renewed its call to the Chinese Communist government to release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who will soon turn 32 years old. He went into hiding at the age of 6 after being chosen by the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader in exile in Tibet, to be the 11th Panchen Lama.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal government agency charged with monitoring and evaluating the state of religious freedom in countries around the world, issued this call in a press release.
“It has been nearly 26 years since Gendun Chogyi Nyima was forcibly disappeared by the Chinese Communists, and he was only six years old at the time of his abduction. Gendun turned 32 years old on April 25 of this year, and his whereabouts and health status remain unknown. This lack of information is unacceptable,” USCIRF Commissioner Nadine Maenza said in a statement. “USCIRF reiterates its call to the Chinese government to allow an independent expert to visit and confirm the health of the 11th Panchen Lama and to release him immediately and unconditionally,”
Meinza has been calling for Gendun Choekyi Nyima to be included as part of the commission’s religious prisoners of conscience program.
“It is despicable that the Chinese Communist Party continues to interfere with the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama,” added Nury Turkel, a Uyghur human rights lawyer and commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “The absurdity and cruelty of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Tibetan groups should alert the international community, which should unite in calling for the release of the Panchen Lama.”
The 10th Panchen Lama, a key spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, died in 1989, and on May 14, 1994, the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s highest spiritual leader in exile, declared 6-year-old Gendun Chogyi Nyima the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. on May 17, Gendun Chogyi Nyima and his family were taken away by the Chinese Communist authorities and have not been seen in public since.
The Chinese government later arrested the head of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation search team, Chakya Rinpoche, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), who was in contact with the Dalai Lama, and established a new Panchen Lama.
Chinese Communist Party Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on May 19, 2020, that after completing compulsory school-age education, Gendun Chogyi Nyima passed an examination to enter university and has now graduated and has a stable job. He also said that neither Gendun Chogyi Nyima nor his family wanted to be disturbed from their “normal life at the moment.
In July 2020, the Trump administration imposed targeted sanctions on four senior Chinese officials under the Global Magnitsky Act, including Chen Quanguo, who is currently a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo and Secretary of the Xinjiang Party Committee and served as Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region until 2016.
In December 2020, the United States enacted the Tibet Policy and Support Act, which established official U.S. policy affirming the right of Tibetan Buddhist groups to choose and religious leaders, including the Dalai Lama. The law imposes sanctions on Chinese officials who interfere with the selection of the Dalai Lama’s successor. In addition, it requires the Secretary of State to seek the establishment of a consulate in Lhasa.
The Panchen Lama is the number two spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama.
The Panchen Lama, appointed by the Communist authorities themselves, has made several public appearances under tight control. But many Tibetans do not accept him.
The Tibetan government-in-exile parliament said in 2020 that the reincarnated spiritual child of the Panchen Lama, identified by the Dalai Lama, continues to be the only religious leader who legally holds the title.
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