China should immediately free the Panchen Lama from custody and allow him to return to his monastery to assume his role as the second most well-known religious figure in Tibet, a Tibetan advocacy group said on the eve of his 30th birthday. On May 14, 1995, Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, recognized six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama and three days later, Chinese authorities took him and his family away, installing another boy in his place. He was for years considered the world’s youngest political prisoner. While the religious leader’s whereabouts remain unknown and he has not been seen in public since his disappearance, “it is believed he is still alive,” Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said in a statement marking his April 25 birthday. “As the Panchen Lama turns 30, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) calls on China to immediately free him and allow him to return to his monastery, Tashi Lhunpo, and assume his vital role as a religious leader,” the statement said, noting that enforced disappearance is defined as a crime by the United Nations. “China’s attitude toward the Panchen Lama clearly shows that its claim of respecting religious freedom in Tibet—a historically independent country that China has occupied and ruled with an iron fist for the past 60 years—is aimed solely at serving its political goal of controlling Tibetan Buddhism.” ICT called the case of the detained Panchen Lama an example of “China’s long game for securing control over Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet,” noting that the boy who was officially selected to replace him—Gyaltsen Norbu—now takes part in formal events and “serves as a proxy for the Chinese government.” Historically, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama have been involved in the recognition of each other’s incarnation, and ICT said that by empowering its selected Panchen Lama, China hopes to commandeer the eventual rebirth of the 83-year-old Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in India for the past 60 years
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