Panchen Lama

The Panchen Lama (Tibetan: པན་ཆེན་བླ་མ་; Chinese: 班禪喇嘛) is the second highest ranking lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (the sect which controlled Tibet from the 16th century until the Communist takeover). The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning "great scholar", is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit paṇḍita (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great).

Who is the true present (11th) incarnation of the Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy: the People's Republic of China asserts it is Qoigyijabu, while the Tibetan Government in Exile maintains it is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, whom they allege to be missing since 1995.

Relation to the Dalai Lama lineage

The Panchen Lama bears part of the responsibility for finding the incarnation of the Dalai Lama and vice versa. Furthermore, the search for the late Panchen Lama's reincarnation, or any reincarnation, is a religious matter. In the case of the Panchen Lama, the religious procedures traditionally involve a final selection process by the Dalai Lama. This has been the tradition since the Fifth Dalai lama, Ngawang Lobsang, recognized his teacher as the Panchen (Great Scholar) Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery (Bkra-shis Lhung-po) in Shigatse (Gzhis-ka rtse). With this appointment, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen's three previous incarnations were posthumously recognised as Panchen Lamas. The Fifth Dalai Lama also recognized Panchen Lobsang Yeshe (Blo-bzang Ye-shes) as the Fifth Panchen Lama. The Seventh Dalai Lama recognized the Sixth Panchen Lama, who in turn recognized the Eighth Dalai Lama. Similarly, the Eighth Dalai Lama recognised the Seventh Panchen Lama. ^*

Choekyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, was an important political figure in Tibet following the 14th Dalai Lama's escape to India in 1959. However, in 1968 he was imprisoned; in 1977, he was released but held under house arrest in Beijing until 1982. In 1983, he married a Chinese woman and had a daughter, a highly controversial behavior for a Gelug lama. In 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama died suddenly in Shigatse, Tibet at the age of 51, shortly after giving a speech critical of the Chinese occupation. His daughter, now a young woman, is Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, better known as "Renji". Although some organizations have criticized the 10th Panchen Lama as a Chinese puppet (or worse), most scholars (and the 14th Dalai Lama) believe that he did the best that he could to help his people in an impossible situation.

The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (Brtan-'dzin Rgya-mtsho), named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma) as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama on May 14, 1995 but the government of the People's Republic of China quickly named another child, Gyancain Norbu (Rgyal-mtshan Nor-bu). The former child was taken into "protective custody" by the PRC authorities and his whereabouts remain unknown.

List of Panchen Lamas

	name	life span	Tibetan/Wylie	PRC transcription	other English spellings	-	1.	Khedrup Je	1385–1438¹	མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ་་ Mkhas-grub Rje,་ མྷས་གྲུབ་དགེལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང་ Mkhas-grub Dge-legs Dpal-bzang-po	Kaichub Gêlêg Baisangbo	Khädrup Je, Khedrup Gelek Pelsang, Kedrup Geleg Pelzang, Khedup Gelek Palsang, Khedrup Gelek Pal Sangpo	-	2.	Sönam Choklang	1438–1505¹	བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོག་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་་ Bsod-nams Phyogs-glang,་ བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་ Bsod-nams Phyogs-kyi Glang-po	Soinam Qoilang, Soinam Qoigyi Langbo	Sonam Choglang, Soenam Choklang	-	3.	Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup	1505–1568¹	དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་དྲུཔ་་ Dben-sa-pa Blo-bzang Don-grub	Wênsaba Lobsang Toinchub	Gyalwa Ensapa, Ensapa Lozang Döndrup, Ensapa Losang Dhodrub	-	4.	Lobsang Chökyi Gyalsten	1570–1662	བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་ Blo-bzang Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan	Lobsang Qoigyi Gyaicain	Losang Chökyi Gyältsän, Lozang Chökyi Gyeltsen, Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lobsang Choegyal, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen	-	5.	Lobsang Yeshe	1663–1737	བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་་ Blo-bzang Ye-shes	Lobsang Yêxê	Lobsang Yeshi, Losang Yeshe	-	6.	Lobsang Palden Yeshe	1738–1780	བློ་བཟང་གྤལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས་་ Blo-bzang Gpal-ldan Ye-shes	Lobsang Baidain Yêxê	Palden Yeshe, Palden Yeshi	-	7.	Palden Tenpai Nyima	1782–1853	གྤལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་་ Gpal-ldan Bstan-pa'i Nyi-ma	Dainbai Nyima	Tänpä Nyima, Tenpé Nyima, Tempai Nyima, Tenpey Nyima	-	8.	Tenpai Wangchuk	1855?–1882	བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་་ Bstan-pa'i Dbang-phyug	Dainbai Wangqug	Tänpä Wangchug, Tenpé Wangchuk, Tempai Wangchuk, Tenpey Wangchuk	-	9.	Thubten Chökyi Nyima	1883–1937	ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ Thub-bstan Chos-kyi Nyi-ma	Tubdain Qoigyi Nyima	Choekyi Nyima, Thubtän Chökyi Nyima	-	10.	Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen	1938–1989²	བློབཟང་ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་་ Blo-bzang Phrin-las Lhun-grub Chos-kyi Rgyal-mtshan	Lobsang Chinlai Lhünchub Qoigyi Gyaicain	Choekyi Gyaltsen, Chökyi Gyeltsen, Choekyi Gyaltse, Trinley Choekyi Gyaltsen, Lozang Trinlä Lhündrup Chökyi Gyältsän	-	11.	Gedhun Choekyi Nyima / Qoigyijabu²	1989– / 1990–	དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་་ Dge-'dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma / ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་་ Chos-kyi Rgyal-po	Gêdün Qoigyi Nyima / Qoigyijabu	Gendün Chökyi Nyima, Gendhun Choekyi Nyima / Choekyi Gyalpo, Chökyi Gyälbo, Gyaincain Norbu, Gyaltsen Norbu

Remarks:

¹ The title Panchen Lama was conferred posthumously on the first two Panchen Lamas.

² The present incarnation of the Panchen Lama is disputed. The Dalai Lama recognises Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Chinese government recognises Gyaicain Norbu as the incarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama. Exile Tibetan sources allege that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was kidnapped by the Chinese government.

External links

An article from "China Tibetology" Nr. 3, published in English, with the title "An example for posterity: Celebrating the Seventh Anniversary of the search for and confirmation of the Eleventh Panchen"; it explains in detail the Chinese government's position on the search of reincarnations of the Panchen Lama:

Tibetan Buddhism | Gelug | Panchen Lamas | Tulkus

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Panchen Lama

Relation to the Dalai Lama lineage

List of Panchen Lamas

See also

External links